Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher’s Field Guide. It’s time to enjoy a well-deserved break and soak up some life-changing content!

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This week, we’re thinking about why teachers find holidays so hard and what we can do to enjoy our breaks better!

Let’s jump in…

Teachers Don’t Do Holidays Very Well

It’s nearly the half-term break in the UK, and chances are you’ve been smashing it out of the park since January.

You’ve got through the dark starts and dreary finishes, the cold and the wet…

You’ve dug deep in the depths of winter, and now it’s time for a well-deserved break.

One whole week.

But, if you’re like me (and lots of the teachers that I speak to every day), you might not make the most of that holiday you’re pinning your hopes on.

Why not?

Maybe it takes you so long to ‘switch off’ that you only just start to relax before it’s time to get back in the classroom?

Perhaps your default is to see your holiday as a chance to get all those resources made, all that marking done, and to write your reports in relative peace.

Or, just as likely, all the things you haven’t done in the last six weeks because you’ve been so busy - like the hoovering - get saved up for the holiday, meaning you never really stop. You just swap one kind of work for another.

I always felt pretty lost when the holidays came, as though without the rhythm of the school day, I couldn’t really get going… and then it was too late.

If that sounds like you, then fear not.

I promise that if you follow our 3 top tips for maximising half-term happiness, you’ll have a holiday worth remembering!

Let’s get to it…

3 Top Tips To Maximise Your Half-Term Happiness

I’ve always been jealous of people from any walk of life who could walk away from their work and enjoy a holiday.

It was never something I was good at.

I could never leave myself in the classroom, never switch off.

And when I did eventually leave my job behind and focus on my holiday, I didn’t know how to relax. I didn’t know how to fill the free time I’d been looking forward to.

So, these are the three most important strategies I developed for myself.

They’ve allowed me to rest, relax and recharge without feeling guilty.

If you’re the kind of person who feels disappointed for working through a holiday or guilty for not working at all, these are for you…

1. Plan As Much Of Your Holiday In Advance As You Can

Now, although it sounds like it might suck all the fun out of your vacation, planning things in advance quickly became a critical part of my holiday toolkit.

And although I didn’t plan every hour of every day, I did end up adopting the following approach:

Divide each day into three sections (usually morning, afternoon, and evening). If something happening on a particular day doesn’t fit into these categories, then don’t worry, but it’s usually achievable.

Then, working at least a week in advance, make sure that at least two out of three blocks are planned for each day.

Why?

On the one hand, this gives you some structure, some purpose and some security. I always found that although I liked being on holiday away from the school bell, I could get quite glum and feel as though I wasn’t achieving anything if I didn’t have a structure to work with.

That meant I felt as though my days were wasted, and I would get quite cross with myself when I thought about how precious those holiday days actually were.

Secondly, it calmed my anxiety. I knew that if I gave myself time to get my work-related jobs done in a few of those blocks, I’d be in a good place when the time came to go back to school. That stopped me from carrying the worry of whether I was going to get everything done through the holiday.

In turn, that meant my head was lighter and more able to enjoy those holiday days for what they actually were.

Planning ahead is also important to me because it helps me get into holiday mode in the weeks leading up to the break. That means the holiday didn’t feel so abrupt when it started, and my emotions stayed a lot more level.

Last of all, planning ahead allowed me to see the holiday as a success. I know that holidays aren’t really about success or measuring your productivity, but I found that I functioned better, was happier and generally did more when I felt like I’d achieved some goals.

Even if those goals were things like gardening or sitting on a beach for the afternoon.

I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, and that was enough.

2. Leave Your Work At Work (Mostly)

I’m a teacher who lives in the real world, and I know that holidays also mean a chance to catch up on some outstanding work.

I don’t mind that. It comes with the territory, sometimes.

But when I was a younger teacher I had no idea about prioritising. I would gather up every job that needed doing and bring it home in the holidays, much to the frustration of my family.

The bulging school bags and cardboard boxes in the hall signalled another holiday where I was too busy to be with my loved ones on a meaningful level.

The frustrating thing is that I rarely got all those jobs done. More often than not, I got some of them done but left lots of bags and folders untouched.

All those piles of books and resources did was make me feel anxious, guilty and frustrated as they waited for me to deal with them. And that made me resentful about spending my time on them.

The worst feeling in the world was loading those untouched bags back into the car at the end of the holiday and taking them back into school. What a waste of energy on so many levels.

So, I still bring work home, but I seriously limit what I bring.

It’s essentials only.

It’s the things I just can’t ignore.

It’s the things I know I will absolutely get done.

One bag. And one bag only.

3. Affirm Your Right To Relaxation

The last tip for maximising half-term happiness (or making the most of any holiday) is to create a daily affirmation to repeat to yourself.

It’s one that reiterates your goals for your holiday and gives you permission to relax.

That might sound crazy, but I genuinely found that I would start my holidays so stressed with work that I needed to tell myself that it was alright to stop.

And that it was alright to take the time I deserved.

By repeating a mantra every day, not only are you reminding yourself that you can and should make the most of your holiday, but you’re building some mindfulness and resilience into your daily practice too.

Here’s the affirmation I use every day when I’m on holiday. It calms, inspires and reassures me…

Of course, you can develop your own affirmations according to your needs. Just remember that an affirmation needs to ground you with positivity and project an ideal future.

There’s So Much To Listen To…

Now it’s the holidays, you’ve got the time to do all those things you’ve been putting off, right?

And, top of the list is catching up on your favourite podcasts…

Here are three of the teaching podcasts that we love the best, and are excited to share with you.

Obviously, we like to think ours is the best!

Have A Wonderful Holiday - You Deserve It!

After so many weeks of making such a difference in the lives of everyone in your school community, you deserve a truly lovely break.

Whether that’s a week of travelling, lie-ins or brain work, what you do isn’t as vital as how it makes you feel.

And you’re in charge of that.

As a reminder, here’s our top holiday tips:

In next week’s issue, we’ll be doing a deep dive into how teachers can reward themselves and their communities - after all, we all need a sticker!

Until then, remember, you’re more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You’re you. And that’s all you need to be.