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38 Week Funding!


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I received on Friday our new yearly contract from Essex County Council, at the moment the 38 weeks run summer/autumn/winter term which is always a bit confusing! Anyway the weeks have always been 12 for summer 14 for autumn and 12 for spring, however according to the contract this has changed for the next academic year!! We have been informed that the summer term will be 13 weeks autumn 14 weeks and spring 11 weeks (bear with me I have spent a whole weekend trying to get my head round this!). So this means instead of finishing on Friday 13th July we will have to work an extra work until the 24th (same as the schools) if you worked it out from September it means 39 weeks instead of 38.

However as the contract runs from 1st April until 31st March it still comes in as 38 weeks, so my question is salaries! At the moment all staff have salary + holiday rolled up and divided by 12 (this is the way they wanted it and signed to say this) they are paid for 38 weeks work + additional holiday pay, so are they owed an extra week? Really hope this makes sense to someone as I am losing the will to live!!

 

Kris

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Also forgot to add as we were originaly finishing on the 13th July my deputy has booked her holiday!! She can't change it so will need to put relief staff in to cover but dont feel i can say to deputy she wont be paid as taking holiday in term time!!

 

Kris

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You always have to be careful in Essex. This seems to happen every few years.... think it's to do with when Easters falls. As you can tell we have been caught out before!! We now plan our terms dates WELL in advance!!

 

We finish this year around the same time as schools - a couple of days before if I remember correctly. (not able to find dates at the moment, but it is only a day or so earlier than school)

 

I haven't read the new contract yet, although have recieved the email.

 

xx

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remember that the summer term funds from the first of April.. which may not always be at the end of a term...

 

I always had a lot of confusion when claiming funding that time of year as holidays and breaks and term ends never coincided with first of April.. we were often claiming money for before the Easter break in our Summer term funding..when it was the end of the spring term...

 

we did it by working out the days worked form 1st April to 31st March rather than by terms ... you will still effectively only be paid for the 38 weeks so make sure you are not opening more than that thinking that you have to fit in all the weeks in a particular 'term' they may overlap!

 

i used to have a calender for the year and highlight the holidays in one colour, the dates funding started and ended in another and this allowed me to count the days open for each term.

 

It really is complicated the way they do it when it does not coincide with what is actually a term.. this happens everywhere and took me by surprise the first time they did it..

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Put so much better by :1bInge :oxD

 

I have always though it couldn't just be Essex........but I thought maybe they just do not explain it well.

 

It is annoying that the funding only goes until 31st March though. Many parents have 'easter birthdays' therefore not funded until the following Sept even though they are 3 when the summer term actually starts.

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For the first time though essex have actually specified dates for the terms, normally they would just put 12 weeks, 14 weeks etc but they have actually put the dates this time. I wouldn't mind but the 24th July is a Tuesday and the school we are based in finish on the Friday so have sent an email to essex and am waiting for a response!! Still don't know if staff should be getting an extra weeks money though!

 

Kris

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For the first time though essex have actually specified dates for the terms, normally they would just put 12 weeks, 14 weeks etc but they have actually put the dates this time. I wouldn't mind but the 24th July is a Tuesday and the school we are based in finish on the Friday so have sent an email to essex and am waiting for a response!! Still don't know if staff should be getting an extra weeks money though!

 

Kris

 

You're going to make me open that email now arn't you..............

 

I was detrermind to leave until the half-term break!!! :(:(:oxD

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Kris is this for this academic year or next as we are already a third of the way thru, fortunately i don't do the funding arrangements but sure the staff will have something to say, we try to fit in with local school , hence we have nearly 2 weeks off at end of may/June - oops !!!

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Well I've had a quick look, and the terms do seem long.

 

I've not done the maths (and am to busy drinking wine to get up and find a calender at the moment :oxD:( ) But are they maybe the dates between which we can open? We are currently due to finish the week before the 21st Dec (14th?) - so will have to do some looking into........ (I do like my pre-christmas holiday!!!)

 

xx

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Kris is this for this academic year or next as we are already a third of the way thru, fortunately i don't do the funding arrangements but sure the staff will have something to say, we try to fit in with local school , hence we have nearly 2 weeks off at end of may/June - oops !!!

 

 

funding is not done by academic year which is where the issue always arises... it is from 1st April to 31st March - which in itself does not full within term dates often a few days in a term ends up in a different funding period..

 

always a nightmare

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I do wish the funding could follow the academic year but I guess it's to do with end of year tax dates etc at the beginning of April, or at least that's what I've always thought :o

 

I'm not too concerned about the Summer and Spring Terms but the Autumn term for us if following the school dates is 15 weeks when we can only claim funding for 14. I personally would like to finish on the 14th December rather than the 21st!

 

Rachel

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I have emailed Essex and when they will reply I will let you all know what they have said, the Autumn term doesn't add up as it comes in at 15 weeks which means we will either have to come back a week later than the schools or finish a week earlier. For some reason the spring term is starting back a week later on the 7th which I think is why everything has moved. Have to say 3 weeks at Christmas is a pain would much rather 7 weeks in the summer!! :o

 

Kris

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must admit it looks like what we went through a while ago now.. we were lucky in that we could pick our term dates within the remit.. and so we were able to use school timetable stating we would close 5 days over the year at our discretion... they had no issue with that.

 

seems yours is becoming less flexible rather than more

 

been thinking about staff wage an extra week, could this even out the following year if this continues... you are only getting 38 weeks funding so it should work out correct somehow... seems very odd for it not to.

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We,re diff county but also have this prob with our school year being 39 wks. We also share children who claim funding with other county as on border, ours is still in hours per wk (but not for much longer apparently) and the other county is hours per term, you,d think as long as between you only 15hrs a wk is claimed that would be ok, but the other county can use hours over a longer period than us, in effect carrying hours to holidays so gets really confusing :/

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Have finally had a reply today!! Apparently It had to be either a 13 week Summer Term or a 15 week Autumn Term which is why the Summer Term has been extended, the Spring Term can only run for 11 weeks! It was a brief email with an apology that he had over 50 more emails to send!! So I am assuming that with the dates provided for the Autumn Term being 15 weeks we can choose to either come back a week later or have 3 weeks off at Christmas!? Feel another email coming on!! :o

 

Kris

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Have had a very quick reply with regards Autumn Term! Options are:

 

1. Come back 1 week later in September!

2. Finish 1 week earlier at Christmas (so 3 weeks off)

3. Offer parents 15 weeks with the option of paying for extra week!

 

Think this all needs a long discussion with staff, and I need to start thinking how I am going to cover Deputy's week off in July!!

 

Kris

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I think one of the problems here is our spring half term is a week later then normal (because of the jubilee) I'm not in Kent but our LEA dates have been issued and we have a 15 week Autumn term- so I have already decided to come back a week later in Sept. A 15 week term is ridiculously long especially in September when we have so many little ones. I cant remember the exact dates but over the year we are still doing the 38 weeks. Does it matter if you swap your weeks around? It wouldn't matter here if we did a week less in the Autumn as long as we were open over the year for the full amount of time . It is a bit of a pain having the funding paid over the financial year, but as we have always worked out staff salaries over this same period (this is when our financial year runs) so the 38 weeks apply then.

Sorry not sure if that makes much sense now but am too tired to re word!!

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