I know for most schools in the US we have days off late December to early Jan with only some days we need to be in school.
Do JETs in Japan get time off then too? Or do we still have to go into school. Are we able to take time off and visit our families?
9 comments
It really depends on your placement.
Teachers in Japan do not get the time off that the kids get. They will be here for most of the winter “break” and throughout the summer. Most ALTs are expected to come in as well.
Some boards of education allow their ALTs to “work from home” and spend the holidays doing as they wish. Other people take nenkyuu.
It’s really something you won’t know until you’ve signed your contract.
As always ESID, but for our town, our BOE requires us to come to report to the office for work still even when students are not in session. We will be given a few days off around New Years; however, if we want any other days off during the winter break, we will need to use nenkyu.
Depends on the schools and contracting organisation (CO). Some people’s CO are their schools, others CO is the local board of education.
They’re required by law to give you 10 days plus public holidays. Some COs give just that, some give 20, some give you any time off that the schools have. So if you hear someone saying *”It’s great, if the schools aren’t on, I don’t go and I still get paid!”* That’s just for *them*, it might not be the case for you. It isn’t for me…
> Are we able to take time off and visit our families?
Your holiday days are yours to do whatever you want with. You might have to negotiate if it’s during school time, but if school’s not on you can do whatever. General expectation is that you to keep 1-2 days of leave just in case you have an emergency/sickness, but some carries over between years, so it’s not like those days get lost. (This attitude isn’t exclusive to JET, it’s just good practice)
If you have 10 days only, will you be able to return home and visit family? Maybe? Depends how savvy you can be with public holidays etc. The holiday amount isn’t fantastic any more, to be honest. I believe that they used to be more generous, and it’s tightened up over time.
In my city we have vacation from Dec 24th until Jan 4th. Then when we come back is a week of prep and then the next week opening ceremony and classes start.
In my placement, I have 20 days nenkyuu plus national holidays. School ends on 23rd Dec and begins 4th Jan, so by taking just 3 days leave I get quite a long break.
I used to teach primary school in the UK so am used to working throughout the term. I find desk warming during the holidays tougher, so took 2 weeks off last summer to travel within Japan. My work/life balance is a lot better generally, so I don’t mind having less holiday.
Depends on your BOE and your contract.
We only get 6 days off (Dec 29-Jan 3). The students are off for longer, so we were given a form where we indicated our plans for the winter holiday (work VS nenkyuu). I’m saving my nenkyuu, so I wrote that I’ll be coming into work.
I know a few ALTs in my prefecture who got approved to take 2-3 weeks to fly back home for the holidays, so it’s not impossible to do. Again, just depends on your BOE/schools.
However, at my old job, I only got 5 days off during the holiday season (it’s a 24/7/365 sorta employer, so weekends are also possible working days) and had to choose to work either Christmas or New Year. I was also not allowed to ask for any time off during the last half of December and the first half of January. So, overall, this is a huge improvement lol.
Back in my ever-distancing day as a JHS/ES ALT, school holidays or any day you had no reason to go to school meant whiling away the time in the ALT room in the BoE building. The BoE was very happy for us to use vacation days during school holidays so I ended up going home both Christmases.
You’re in school
Unfortunately it is different depending on the placement, for me I have the 23rd-Jan 4th off. If I didn’t use nenkyuu in the summer to visit home for 3 weeks, I could have had all of December off. Our students have a little more time in January, I go back before they do. Most people I know on JET are able to visit home either in the winter or summer, ignoring the past two years lol.