Operations: Holidays vs School Term

At SITE we have two standard modes of operation that our year revolves around.

These two modes are school term, and school holidays.

We have 4 cycles per year as there are 4 10-week school terms, 3 2-week school holidays, and summer holidays, which for our purposes are the same as the other school holidays except for 6 weeks long.

During the school term

You can expect your shift planning to be relatively similar week to week. We do our best to give you consistent days off every week and have your weekends together. Exceptions for this will be if we have one-off events that we need help staffing or our of ordinary groups coming in.

SITE’s opening hours are shorter during the school term than the holidays during the week which makes for a slightly more relaxed schedule and makes it easier to take time off for everyone except the head coach. During the school term, everything revolves around the after-school lessons.

During the school holidays

Your days off may change. We still do our best to ensure that your days off are together but do not expect to work the same days. If you have external commitments, make sure to tell your manager well in advance of the holidays so they can do their best to work around them.

The holidays have quite a bit of volatility in the pace and flow of days, mostly weather dependent. On rainy days, you should expect to be asked to stay longer than your rostered shift. During sunny quiet days, you may be sent home early from your shift. We ask for as much flexibility as possible during the holidays. Historically, people work bigger weeks during the holidays with staff that normally work 35 hrs a week ending up doing well over 40hrs. During the holidays we have our holiday programme but there is a lack of consistency in our guests and numbers as the rest of the sessions are drop-ins.