Why teachers keep giving their summers away — and how to stop.
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you had an evening in summer that was genuinely, completely yours?
Not “mine, except I’ll just prep those displays.” Not “mine, except I should really sort next term’s planning.” Not “mine, except the reports aren’t quite done.”
Just… yours.
The myth of the “teacher summer”
Everyone outside of education thinks teachers have it made in summer. Six weeks off. Lucky things.
What they don’t see: the planning. The resource-building. The displays you’re laminating on a Tuesday in July because September feels dangerously close. The guilt that creeps in every time you sit on the sofa without something school-related in your hands.
I know, because I lived it for years.
Three years into teaching, I nearly walked away completely. Not because I didn’t love the job. But because the job had stopped leaving any room for me. The evenings. The weekends. The holidays that weren’t really holidays.
The feeling of never being done — of going to bed with an unfinished to-do list every single night — wasn’t a me problem. It’s a system problem. But knowing that doesn’t make the evenings come back.
Summer is the window. Don’t waste it.
Here’s the thing about summer: it’s the one stretch of the year where you can actually breathe long enough to make a change.
Not a “work harder” change. Not a “go on a productivity course” change.
A systems change.
The teachers I’ve spoken to who reclaimed their evenings didn’t do it by becoming more disciplined. They did it by eliminating the tasks that were eating their time without earning it.
Things like building word searches by hand. Grid by grid. Checking words fit. Reformatting. Reprinting. An hour of an evening gone — every time — for something a generator can do in under 30 seconds.
What reclaiming your evenings actually looks like
A colleague of mine — great teacher, been in it years, kids love him — had one of those days. Back-to-back lessons. A stack of marking. A Friday afternoon class coming back in from lunch in two minutes.
At 1:03pm he typed “Democracy” into a word search generator. His class topic for the term. Thirty seconds of thinking, tops.
By 1:05pm — right as the bell rang — three differentiated word searches were printed and on desks. His Year 5s spent the next 20 minutes searching for words like referendum, parliament, constituents — reaching for dictionaries to find out what they meant.
Vocabulary prep. Done. Marking finished. Done. Out the door at 3:30pm into a sunny Friday afternoon.
That’s not a hack. That’s just what the right tool does.
Start here: a free summer word search pack
I’ve put together a free pack of 30 summer-themed word searches for primary school teachers.
Just open, print, and keep your class busy while you tick something else off the list.
It’s a small thing. But small things compound.
One evening back this week. Another next week. By the end of term, you’re not the teacher running on empty. You’re the one who still has something left to give.
Your summer evenings are yours. You’ve earned them.
— Dave
P.S. If you’ve ever felt guilty for switching off in the holidays — that’s not a personality flaw. That’s what happens when a profession normalises giving everything and calling it dedication. You don’t owe the classroom your whole summer. Hit reply and tell me: what’s the one thing you want to actually do this summer?
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