rubbadubbas
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Returning part time after mat leave - advice please.When I started my mat leave I specified returning full-time on Dec 21st (to get holiday pay  ) but I am now considering working 4 days a week. Before I approach my HT can anyone offer advice? Any cons to working 4 days? Is there a deadline to talk to her about it? Perhaps I've left it too late.
Thanks for any advice you can give. 
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trinity0097
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You can ask, you may find that you have more luck in being flexible and suggest returning full time and go part-time from the summer term. Also don't forget although you have a right to ask for 4 days they don't have to say yes. We said yes to one teacher this year on the condition that we could appoint someone suitable to do the other hours.
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magpie nic
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Not sure about deadlines etc coz it is a long while now since I did it. I told my HT as soon as I told him I was pregnant that I wanted to come back part-time, but he only put it to the governors at the meeting before I was due to return. He did not want me to go back part-time but the governors argued that they did not have a good enough reason to turn me down. I was lucky coz I asked for 0.5 and agreed to go back non-class based so went back supporting children with literacy and numeracy. It meant they did not have to find someone to be my other half.
When PPA came in, I switched to covering that so there was never an issue with finding someone else to be my other half.
I would put your request in writing and talk to your HT about it as well. Make sure you list all the advantages to the school of having you work 4 days and suggest ways to overcome any problems they might come up with.
Good luck, working part-time does make such a difference. Don't do what I did though and see your day off as a day for catching up school stuff- defeats the purpose!
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rubbadubbas
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Thanks you two.
I know what you mean Nic about doing school work, but I also saw it as a way to NOT work on the weekend when OH is home!
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wicked witch
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I'm fairly sure that all employers have a duty to look at flexible working for parents of young children and must have a very good reason not to allow it.
Of course the get out clause for all heads is if they can't find someone else to cover the fifth day.
I think that you need to talk to your head as soon as possible as they haven't got much time to find someone.
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rubbadubbas
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I'm fairly certain it could be covered in-house. We have a teacher doing initiatives who could probably do it, or another who will be dropping a day when I return. I'm going to ring today to arrange an appointment with HT.
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smallholder
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I do my school work during one of the days when I am not at school -in this way I never work in the evenings or at weekends. I am careful to limit this though, as magpie suggests it is easy to fall into the trap of 'over working'!
Good luck with your request rubba.
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vegaslady
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Hi Rubbadubba,
I usually work three days a week as i have a 3yr old. I originally intended on working fulltime but once i became a mummy i knew i didn't want to! I asked to work 4 days and was told no as they couldn't find a teacher of my standard (yeah, yeah, said to soften the blow) to make up one day.
So i was offered 3 days instead which i took. I didn't try and argue against the decision as i actually decided 3 days would be ok for us financially cos that was my big worry. Not sure about deadlines - i believe it is 28 days notice.
Working parttime - jobsharing - is much harder than i ever thought and i have been doing it almost three years. I compare it to being a student, little decisions are your to make but bigger things have to be done together. And i am never in school on the days when anything happens! ie staff meeting etc. Also, i never work on my two days off, they are my 'mummy' days, it means i work more in the evenigns but i love my two days of just being mummy.
HTH a little, anything else to ask, please pm me!!
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rubbadubbas
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Oooh thanks for replies. I was wondering how it would affect my PPA time?
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vegaslady
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i get 10% of my three days - works out at 30 mins per day in our school so i get 1.5 hours and jobshare gets 1 hour.
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rubbadubbas
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The other thought I'd had was to ask if I could work 4.5 days but do the .5 day as ppa at home so that I had a full day at home (.5 ppa and .5 off).
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magpie nic
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I got half day a fortnight for PPA, whereas full timers got half day a week. HT asked me to work my 0.5 and be paid for an extra session for PPA, but I said no, did not want to have to do extra just to get PPA, and then they could have called me in to work if needed. I argued that no full timer was asked to have PPA on a saturday or sunday and it was same idea! The nursery teacher went part time and took her PPA as an extra session once a fortnight so she would not have to be pulled out of nursery.
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Night Garden
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The time frame is correct. As for PPA it will depend in your head. If your whole school is allowed to be off site for PPA then it should be ok. If not HT may say no.
As for working part time, like trinity said they can so no, as you didn't state it in your letter of return. You need to work out if other teachers at your school are part time and when they went part time to help back your case up.
Good Luck.
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rubbadubbas
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Thanks, one of the other teachers who returned from maternity leave came back for 4 days a week so I'm hoping that will help my case. We have too many staff at the mo and there's the threat of redundancies so I'm hoping this might appeal to our HT as much as me if it saves her a bit of money!
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Night Garden
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Good Luck. You will need to know if the other teacher asked for this in her letter or like you decided later on this is what she wanted to do. As you have too many teachers it might work in your favour.
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redredrobin
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I would go and talk to HT first (as soon as poss). Working 4 days a week is great, although for you I suppose you'll be really busy on your day off so will have lots of work to do in the evenings still. I found 4 days better than 3 as it felt very much like it was my class rather than shared so I made all the big decisions. I also loved 2 days a week though!
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rubbadubbas
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That's why I decided 4 days RRR - I think if I was only doing 3 days I wouldn't feel like their class teacher.
Unable to speak to HT til the week after next. Hope it isn't too late. Thanks for everyone's advice.
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rubbadubbas
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RRR - out of interest what lessons did the other teacher take on when you were working 4 days? If it was Literacy and maths did they follow your plan or do discreet lessons?
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magpie nic
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I covered a class one day a week when our DHT got suspended, and we could only get supply for 4 days a week. She taught all the literacy and numeracy in her 4 days, and I did a whole morning of science, then RE, SEAL and Spanish on the afternoon. Worked well. Then we switched to 2.5 days each and both taught literacy + numeracy every day.
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rubbadubbas
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Won't be able to do that as we set for lit and maths so it would also disrupt another class. I was wondering whether it would be feasible to set discreet work (e.g. spellings, shape work?) so the other teacher can plan their own work with less input from me. If it's going to work I don't want to have to plan for work I'm not teaching!
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smileylady
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Hiya Rubba, you have plenty of time to let the headteacher know as the letter is usually an intention of your plans to return before having the baby. You can send in adapted plans and changes in working requests up to a month before you are due back.
I was part time for a couple of years doing 4 days. I tailored what I left around the other teachers strengths. It worked really well. Good luck!
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wicked witch
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My ppa is every Tues morning so that is lit and maths. I plan for the whole week as otherwise the lessons wouldn't necessarily fit. I try to make it something fairly straightforward like word and sentence work but I wouldn't feel happy about not planning it. Others in school tend to do the same. It's the problem when you deliver work over a week or fortnight but I can't see an effective way round it.
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trinity0097
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Why can't you have the literacy/Maths on the afternoon on your PPA morning day, that way you still get to teach it, and someone else can plan something else for the PPA time. No-one said that the literacy/numeracy hours have to be in the morning! We have effective core subjects lessons in the afternoons, probably once a week per year group for Maths and perhaps once or twice for English as they get 6 hrs a week English.
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musicmaker
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I am currently job sharing working 3 days a week. I planned the literacy last half term for the whole week and my teaching partner planned the numeracy. This half term we have swapped over. She teaches the RE and Science which she plans and I do the Art/DT, History/Geography, PSHE, Music, French, ICT which I plan and we both teach PE. It has worked well so far and we get on well and do things in a very similar way which I think helps.
Good Luck with the 4 days
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wicked witch
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Trinity, you haven't seen our timetable. There is absolutely no flexibilty at all, it drives me mad. The afternoon of my ppa is games and can't be changed because that would affect loads of other year groups. Maths and Lit has to be done at certain times because of the support staff involved.
To be honest I don't really mind, I just plan for the week and it doesn't really bother me.
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vegaslady
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we plan as a phase group and when it is our turn we plan for all 5 days of the week regardless of teaching part time. i teach 3 days and partner two so i plan 3 weeks out of 5 and she plans 2. maybe you could work like that, so one week in five you wouldn't have to plan!
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