3 Things we’ve Learnt from Teachers about The Summer Holidays
Believe it or not, we’ve found an opinion shared by 100% of teachers, says Laura McInerney, they all love their holidays…
1 | Teachers really love their holidays
Excitement for the summer holidays is real. When asked if they were looking forward to the break, not a single teacher disagreed!
But what do educators actually do in this time of supposed rest and relaxation?
If social media has led you to believe that everyone is sunning themselves in exotic locations or snoozing all day long, you may be surprised to learn there’s a lot of chores involved in holidaying.
Last year we found that within the first two weeks of summer more than half of teachers had a haircut, a quarter visited the doctor, and a massive 72% cleaned out a room or cupboard!
But, don’t fear, teachers do also pass their time with more fun activities, such as talking to each other.
An impressive 44% of secondary classroom teachers said they contacted colleagues for non-work reasons over the holidays which shows that teachers are often friends with each other away from work.
2 | For (some) teachers, Christmas comes early!
In the end-of-year wind-down teachers deserve to be rewarded for all their hard work.
However, primary educators definitely win when it comes to presents – over half, 58%, said they ‘received lots of individual gifts from children’. Meanwhile, 41 % of secondary teachers didn’t receive any at all.
And which gifts do teachers most want to be given? A popular answer was a thank you card made by the pupil (35%) – how sweet!
The authoritative answer, however, was alcohol – with 39% of teachers looking for a glass (or two) of gifted bubbly.
Speaking of which, when it comes to end-of-year celebration events, outstanding schools tend to be best at organising them, whereas those rated RI and inadequate are much less likely to bother.
However, no need to worry – it seems the staff in those schools take it upon themselves to organise something anyway. Such troupers!
3 | A break means a break…
Despite the hassle and cost, over a third of teachers have booked a holiday abroad already, and another 14% expect to do so.
The rest are staying in the UK, with one in five teachers planning to stay at home all summer. Teachers with senior leadership responsibilities seem to be feeling the squeeze the most – with them much less likely than headteachers to be going overseas.
Of course, staying at home does have its perks. It’s also cheap, and teachers haven’t seen much of a pay rise for almost a decade now; no wonder many choose to recuperate from the school year from the comfort of their homes.
Either way, teachers are practically guaranteed a short period of unlaboured bliss over the summer, with only 15% of teachers answering school-related emails on a given day – and that figure is heavily skewed by headteachers (among whom about 40% answered emails every day, even in the holidays!)
For more snappy insights like this, and to be part of the panel, please join in via the free Teacher Tapp app – available to download for iOS and Android. You will learn something new every day.
Laura McInerney is an education journalist and co-founder of Teacher Tapp. Download the app for free via the App Store on Apple and Android. Follow her on Twitter at @miss_mcinerney.
