As many school pupils will be no doubt grumbling about returning to classes next week, education reporter John Lewis talks to secondary school teacher John Dodd and finds he has already been back in the classroom for most of January.
Teachers seem to be the envy of many hard-working kiwis.
A job where you get six or seven weeks off work over the summer holidays - what’s not to like, right?
Legally, teachers are entitled to that amount of time off. But in reality, most of them struggle to find the time to take it.
Logan Park High School head of music John Dodd says the job is just so busy.
Officially, the 2016 summer holidays started for teaching staff on December 16 (pupils finished a week earlier), and teachers are not expected to return to school until January 30.
But what many people may not appreciate, is that most teachers remain at school long after the pupils have finished for the year, so they can do all those odd jobs they never get time to do during the school term.
And then they are back on the job by mid-January, preparing for the year ahead.
Sadly, that catch-up work is very unglamorous and "very boring," Mr Dodd said.
"I spent the week after the last class, just cleaning up. It’s mostly tidying up resources - sorting out all the jazz band music and all the orchestra music. It all had to be tidied up, put in order and re-filed.
There’s also the school’s musical instruments which had to be cleaned up and stored away.
"And there’s lots of administrative stuff. It’s simple things like the fact that your inbox gets cluttered and has about 300 emails in it.
"It’s one of those things that get side-lined during term time and you say: ‘I haven’t got time to think about that at the moment.’
"And then it’s next week and then it’s the week after. They build up and you find yourself surrounded by mess."
Mr Dodd said it was difficult to keep on top of the jobs because many of the hours after school and school holidays during the year, were usually filled with assignment marking, keeping pupil assessment records up to date, running rehearsals for school ensembles, and taking school ensembles to music events and competitions.
A recent survey found New Zealand teachers work up to 60 hours per week.
"The terms are so busy for my job, that things just end up in piles — even with the best intentions."
Mr Dodd said the task was so time-consuming he had returned to work on January 5, after just three weeks holiday, to finish the job.
"It’s really, really boring stuff, but it has to be done. I actually quite enjoy it."
Now he is working on preparing classes for this year. "You have to keep up with any changes to the curriculum."
Mr Dodd said there was a new achievement standard for NCEA Level 3 music this year, called song writing.
He said he was looking forward to teaching the standard, but again, work needed to be done outside school hours to prepare the lessons.
"It’s just a matter of doing the paperwork to make sure we’ve got good student instructions."
Mr Dodd said if he wanted to, he could have finished on December 12 and returned yesterday, when Logan Park High School teachers were expected to be back on deck.
But like most teachers, he is passionate about teaching, and the extra work was all part and parcel of the job.
"I wouldn’t be feeling good about myself if I came back later, and I’d come back to a mess without much chance of actually getting on top of that."
He hoped the New Zealand public appreciated the work teachers did.
The job was not what it appeared to be from the outside, he said.
"I have to say, I come down here in early January and I don’t see many staff here. It’s pretty quiet here, apart from the odd bush fire going up the hill."
But that doesn’t mean that they’re not working, because teachers have different ways of getting their work done.
Mr Dodd said a lot of them worked from home, especially when it came to curriculum preparations.
If you ever thought teachers had it easy, take a closer look. It’s clear they don’t do their job for the great holidays.
