Teaching to civil service - losing the holidays

[Hellothereitisme]

I am a teacher and middle leader (I work 3 days a week, good salary) and have been offered a job in the civil service. I was so happy when I first found out as I find teaching so all consuming and exhausting and was sick of working in the evenings.

However, I have two young children (one in nursery and one in school) and I feel such guilt about losing the school holidays with them that I am now thinking about turning down the offer. If I take the job, it will mean myself and my partner get to have no time off together as we would have to split our annual leave to cover the holidays, which feels depressing. I've tried putting my eldest in a holiday club before but they were adamant they eidn't want to go back.

Is it a nightmare to cover the holidays? Am i mad to be taking a 16k paydrop to work more days and get less holidays?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Feeling very confused 😕

Forget about the holidays, why would you take a 16k pay decrease to work more days?

Obviously this will vary dept to dept but it was REALLY hard to get time off in holidays in one of my roles. Much easier in my current CS role but just a warning that you may not get all your leave in the weeks you need to cover childcare.

I am at the top of the teacher payscale and the new job is in a completely new sector, so involves a significant paydrop. But it probably has more options for promotion in the future.

Thanks @Greycheck that is useful to know!

Just to add, you will also be able to accumulate flexi leave if business needs allow which can help. You are right that there are plenty of opportunities to progress if you want to and all sorts of working patterns are in place if needed (again can vary by department/role) including the ever coveted term time only hours 😁

Did you post this Q on the Facebook page? I wrote an answer then never posted it. But I went the other way (civil service to teaching). My civil service holidays were far better quality as they weren’t recovery time: I was 100% present every day. I’ve found that as a teacher I’m often ill in the holidays - or just knackered and needing to sleep - so I’m not much of a parent.
My DC was a bit older (KS2 when I returned to work after being SAHM), and went to a mix of grandparents houses for a week here and there, cousins’ houses; siblings and I did child swaps so we’d share holidays with one another.
Me and DH probably shared the rest of care and I’d say we got 2 weeks family holiday each year. But it’s true that there’s no guarantee you’ll have holiday when you want it - lots of other parents also want to take leave.

Yes flexi does sound good, although with commuting and school/nursery drop offs and pick ups, I'm not sure how much I'd actually be able to accumulate. @Greycheck How many flexi days would you say you take in a year?

@ArghhWhatNext thanks for your post! It's true that holidays are often spent in recovery! Although because I only work 3 days, I don't find it too bad. What made you go from the civil service to teaching if you don't mind me asking? Do you regret the move? Part of my worry is financial too, I need to get a promotion in 18months/ 2 years to match my teacher salary but don't know if that will be possible in the Cs! I'd be going in as an seo but would need to get a G7 role.

I left the civil service because I got fed up but it is very family friendly. Most families juggle holidays with play schemes, condensed hours etc. Civil service is very flexible and you may be able to get unpaid leave. If teaching has burnt you out this is a good move. You may decide to go back to teaching in future.

I’ve never been a teacher but work in the NHS. So decent holiday 33 days plus bank holidays for full time.

I’d rather be in my position than be a teacher. That flat out working and all the evenings, then straight into the holidays and full time child caring. DH and I both work part time so only need to find 2 days a week in the holidays. Manage with a combination of some leave together, some leave separate, little bit of unpaid parental leave, little bit of grandparent and holiday club. He loves holiday club! And actually do take the odd day for me or me and DH as well. And I can flex a bit for kids medical appointments etc. I guess it depends a bit on your team - I’m lucky that my colleagues mostly don’t want to holiday in school holidays.

If you’re decent and in a dept with opportunities you should get G7. Not that hard these days tbh

@Elizo this is good to know! Why did you decide to leave if you don't mind me asking?

Its quite unlikely that you’ll be able to take all your leave in the school holidays, and surely you’ll want a family holiday at some point anyway, so you need to be open to the likelihood that you’ll have to use holiday clubs sometimes.

Do it…you can always return to teaching if it doesn’t work out.
if you don’t you will always wonder “what if”
Millions of parents juggle the holidays and find a way to make it work.

That's a big if without knowing what department etc! Lots of Departments are on the midst of recruitment freezes!

There are people in my dept who work a term time only contract. Obviously you'd need to be able to manage financially, but have you considered whether the role is one that could be suitable for term time only working?

@Hellothereitisme I moved because there were parts of the job that were really irritating me (including the lack on public funding in the department I was working in, expectation to travel to London for meetings - pre-COVID and difficult at the time due to location and family circs). Every job is different though. The team was lovely, everyone was supportive. I think I had a bit of a menopausal tantrum and decided I wanted to do more for society. Stupidly didn’t look round for a better job doing what I was doing.
However, I’m now leaving teaching. There are lots of things I love about it (children, colleagues, variety), but for me the stress of the negative aspects is too much to be worth it. For me (and this is partly a life-stage thing, and I suspect I’m a good 15-20 years older than you), I want to do a job that I can do during the day then not think about during the evening and night.
sorry, long witter about my life story. Essentially, it’s quite doable, especially if you and your DH work as a team and adjust your expectations. As your children get older, they may well become more open to holiday clubs. We also found some short term day-camps, eg a week camp with Ooera North, or a week of outdoor adventure- the CS flexi means you could be flexible about start/end times during the holidays as long as you worked enough hours.
However, everyone’s personal circumstances are different- I hope you work out what will work for you.

You can take parental leave. It's unpaid but will give you an extra few weeks.

I moved contracts and jobs to annual leave rather than term time. It isn’t as difficult as you think and I had a hunt around for what was available in terms of clubs and found that there was quite a bit of variety. I went down an approved list with my youngest and she picked and can’t wait to go back at Easter and summer. (The dealbreaker was swimming!) We’ve discovered local cooking clubs, art club, I’m also now doing childcare swaps with one of her friends, inset days for holidays, so you’ll find things. I also paid a friend’s daughter to entertain whilst I worked from home. It is definitely very doable and I don’t have much family support.

It’ll be hard to get back a 16k drop in pay in the civil service.l over time unless you’re promoted a lot (even then, the pay rises are not great). The best time to get your salary reviewed is when you change jobs.
I think you have to let the teacher holidays go a bit - few other jobs offer that. But I wouldn’t move for less holiday AND a huge drop in pay.
As an experienced teacher you have loads of transferrable skills. I would keep looking for a better job to move to,

I'm going to a against the grain and say you are mad.

16k less money and having to spend a fortune on child care for the next 12 years sending kids to places they don't want to go, and that's if you can find spaces for them.

Approx. 5 weeks hols per year, let's say (being optimistic) you can take four in school hols.

My dd is a high up teacher so I know how difficult it is.

You're just having a wobble. Teaching is all consuming. You'll have more headspace and find for your children in the new role. You wouldn't have applied if you didn't want it you can always go back to teaching

That's a huge salary drop to then add on childcare costs. Appreciate that your child didn't like holiday club that one time but unless there are viable alternatives (babysitting swap with friends, sports camps, etc) or there's a safety issue, they'll just have to go if you need to work right? We've done various combinations of things since having kids but they get a vote, not a decision. We found some brilliant options though - my daughter did dance camps, art camp, etc.

My husband and I have both always worked full time and have no family here so we just figure it out each time. Usually a mix - we each take a day off each week so have 3 to cover etc.

Life is a combination/balance of factors, sit down and write down the ones that affect you and see which are important to you and where you will be in say 5 years time and what else might change, have a fall back position...

Getting promotion in my dept is very difficult and near impossible to a G7 unless you're willing to move.

OP you're mad to give up 16k and school holidays with your DC. You only work 3 days a week, 39 weeks a year - stay put!