“I have to return to work before a holiday in order to be paid for it” - Busting the myths around starting and ending your leave around school holidays!

If I had a pound for every time I have heard this myth… I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog! It persist like some kind of folk lore amongst teachers – this idea that you must return to work for a day, a few days, a week… in order to be paid for the upcoming school holiday. Similarly we are frequently asked if it’s ok to start your leave on the first day of a term, or whether you might lose your pay for the holiday just passed if you don’t go back in for at least one day. This blog post will reassure you that you don’t need to do either. You can start your mat leave on the first day of term, and you can end your maternity/ shared parental leave at the start of a school holiday – and in both instances you must be fully paid for the school holiday.

Starting your leave on the first day of term (for those with a baby due shortly after the start of term)

If you’re fortunate enough for the timing to work out on this one it makes absolute sense to do it – all the perks of finishing up a bit early, but still retaining full pay over the holiday! (If your baby is due in the holidays check out our separate blog post on this topic here). By law you musty give your employer four weeks’ notice of your intended maternity leave start date (either a specific date or confirmation that you will work until the birth). The only limitations on when this date can be are that it must be no more than 11 weeks before the babies due date for births, or 14 days before the placement date for adoptions.

Prior to the date you have given you are on your normal terms and conditions, if any employer were to suggest they wouldn’t pay you for the summer holidays because you’re starting maternity leave on the first day of the autumn tern they are discriminating against you – they are treating you differently to the other staff in the school for those six weeks purely because in the future you will take maternity leave. That is illegal, they would be in breach of contract and you would receive your full pay. I have never seen a school actually try to do this – rather we see teachers worrying it might happen – but please be assured – this is not something that happens!

Returning from maternity/ SPL at the start of a school holiday

Again if the timing works out for you – this is an ideal way to have a few more weeks off with your little one, at full pay, before actually going back into the classroom. The laws around returning from maternity leave are as simple as those around starting it. If you have stayed on maternity leave throughout then you must give your employer 8 weeks’ notice of your return date – this can be any date of your choice, as long as it is within the year long maternity period. If you choose for this day to be day one of a school holiday and your employer refused to pay you because you hadn’t been in – same as above – they would be discriminating. Maternity is a protected characteristic under the equality act and you must be treated the same as your colleagues.

If you have chosen to take shared parental leave your SPL notices inform your employer of your return date, there is no additional return to work form. The final notice you submit, giving at leas 8 weeks notice before the start date of the block of leave, will inform them of your end date. You must ensure the leave is taken in whole weeks, as this is a requirement of SPL. For example, if your leave starts on a Monday you would need to end it on a Sunday. The only other requirements are that you don’t take more than 52 weeks of leave in total, and that you return before baby turn 1 (a separate article will follow on this topic which is often not well understood by HR departments!). These are the only constraints that the law on maternity leave and shared parental leave place on mothers/ partners/ adopters returning from leave. Your employer cannot put in place more onerous conditions- such as a shorter notice period, or return dates being required to be in term time.

Again, in practice it is very rare that we see a parent challenged on this by a school, we find the worrying is more on the parent’s part because of the refusal of this myth to die! HR on the most part are very aware of your rights around return and will accept start of the holiday returns and put you back on to full pay. In the last 8 years we have had to support parents to challenge the wrong implementation of this less than 10 times, out of over 18,000 SPL applications.

So – plan your leave how works best for you – if that means starting or ending around a school holiday to get as much full pay as possible – go for it! If you would like any support planning your leave our team of experts are happy to guide you through the process, looking at the best way to optimise your leave both financially and in terms of giving you the most time with your baby! Visit our support page to find out more.