Offered dream job but 5 months pregnant- worried.

[Agapimeni]

Hi, i have just been offered my dream job at a state school and should start in january. The headteacher called me after the interview to make the offer and said they would be in touch next week so i go and sign paper work. I am almost 20 weeks pregnant and dont know whether they realised that. I think they may just have thought i was fat! Certainly nobody would have had the right to ask me during the interview process! But now i am really really stressed at the idea of telling them that i will go on maternity leave from late february till provably early june/july. I feel really bad regarding my future students as well as they will get to know me and then i' ll be off for several months and then come back... So my questions are: can the school withdraw the offer once they find out? Should i wait till i signed the contract before telling them about pregnancy? Thanks.

[LindaMcCartneySausage]

Congratulations on the offer. Something very similar happened to me, also in an education environment. I would have been 32 wks when they wanted me to start, also at the beginning of January.

In short, no, they can't withdraw the offer when they find out about your pregnancy. To do so would be discriminatory and you would have the perfect right to put in a claim for discrimination.

I worried about doing 5 weeks work and then disappearing bit will be disruptive for staff and students. In my case we agreed a deferred start date - the establishment in question felt the disruption of starting then disappearing off on maternity leave would be too much and I agreed. I had another DC and trying to find full time childcare for the few weeks was impossible. Can you suggest deferring until, say, September and the start of a new school year? You'd be fresh and they could get cover for longer. Might be win/win?

[Agapimeni]

Thanks, that's reassuring. I have also been thinking of offering to start later, like june or september. May i ask how they reacted when you told them about pregnancy? Where they in any way unpleasant to you? I think what i am most scared of is the reaction of the headteacher and head of department really...

[LindaMcCartneySausage]

They were very positive when i told them - to my enormous surprise. The HR person told me to take the max time i thought i needed with my baby. i was talking of coming back after 6 months, but in the end we agreed on 9 months as it worked better for term dates etc. and it gave me longer at home.

Of course, it did cause my employers an issue, but it was less of an issue to defer me to a time when it was less disruptive because they could offer someone a fixed term contract until I came back from maternity leave.