giving notice to employer

that i'm leaving

i have worked in the same job for 11 years and am leaving at the end of august to go to full time education

i plan to take my 3 weeks holidays exactly 3 weeks before the course starts.

now, one or two people seem to have heard about my possible leaving the job and am wondering should i give notice sooner rather than later in case my boss hears it

legally how much notice should i give, a month? if i am leaving on the 24th august should i say it at the end of july?

What are the terms of your contract? A month is pretty typical, just check this. However, you have been with this company for 11 years, and presumably you wish to leave on good terms. If you were to give a months notice and then head off on 3 weeks hols, you're really only giving them a week. Not very much time for them to get themselves sorted. It might be an idea to give them a month before you're due to go on holiday, they will still pay you holidays if you have worked up the entitlement to the leave. My advice is don't burn your bridges with them, play fair with them, and they'll be much more likely to be fair back.

there is no contract really

but i would be inclined to take your advice and give them a month BEFORE i take my holidays

Unless there is a contract saying otherwise, you are only legally obliged to provide one week's notice no matter how long you worked there, no matter if you get paid weekly or monthly.

Having said that, I think it would be fairly bad form to give just one week's notice particularly since you know so far in advance. You don't want to leave a job on bad terms even if you hated the place (not saying you do) as you could be relying on your employer for a reference or maybe you will even go back there to work again in the future

If you were the employer what would you like your employee to do?
What disadvantage is there in giving maximum notice?

What course are you going to do?

According to citizensinformation.ie, the amount of notice you are entitled to by law will depend on how long you have been working for your employer.

Minimum Notice unless otherwise stated in your contract is

Duration of Employment 13 weeks to 2 years = 1 weeks notice
Duration of Employment 2 years to 5 years = 2 weeks notice
Duration of Employment 5 years to 10 years = 4 weeks notice
Duration of Employment 10 years to 15 years = 6 weeks notice
Duration of Employment 15 years or more = 8 weeks notice

Yes - The above post can be seen on the dept of enterprise faq here so it looks like you need to give 6 weeks notice.