to ask what job you do if you only work school hours

[chocnwine]

Hello! Mumsnet Jobs team here. We've noticed this thread is fairly old now, and some of the information is out of date. We've put together this article of advice, tips and tricks to finding a job that will allow you to work within school hours. We hope it's helpful!

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....posting here for more traffic.

Looking for work.. one of my DC is severely autistic and we therefore cannot access childcare. So I can only work school hours. No evenings and weekends either (no family to support either) .

There doesn't seem to be a lot available. Or maybe I am looking in the wrong place.

so if you have a school hours job - what do you do? I need some inspiration.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I work for a housing non-profit. In Canada so maybe not relevant but I find non-profits tend to be more flexible and understanding about childcare. I am, however, VERY flexible with them as well, work from home for free sometimes and travel if need be. Cuts both ways.

[RhinestoneCowgirl]

I work in admin for a local charity. Currently 15hrs per week worked over 4 days, but there is talk of upping my hours.

It's not term time only tho, so in holidays I have arranged to work 2 long days and put the DC in holiday club (no family nearby).

It's not particularly well paid, but average for voluntary sector.

[maddy68]

Hmmm difficult, even people working in a school don't generally Wprk school hours, except for maybe lunch time supervisors could you set up some kind of ebay shop which you could run from home? You could perhaps make jewellery or something?

[MrsDavidBowie]

Charity here too.
I don't work school holidays orJuly/dec.
But am often out of house at 7.15.

[TheFirstOfHerName]

Finance Manager for a company that does 95% of its business in schools.

[chocnwine]

I am thinking 16-20h/week. Should be possible in school hours and did this for a few years but was made redundent.

[rocketjam]

The obvious would be to work in a school. Or children services with part time positions. Or start your own business, find a manufacturer and sell goods on eBay. A friend of mine used to sell backpacks on eBay. And another one was selling children party items. Distribute leaflets.

[TenMinutesEarly]

Look at your local colleges/universities. Term time are like gold dust, have you though about teaching assistant?

[DidoTheDodo]

When my children were school age I worked 25 hrs a week for a charity, 5 hours a day. However, holidays were more difficult and got through with a combination of mine and DH's annual leave, and doing a child-swap with our neighbours.

Pay and prospects were poor though.

[Twotinygirls]

Local government. It's dull as hell but fits In perfectly with school. Also flexi - time is a god send.

[Groovee]

I'm called an Early Years Practitioner which I trained as a Nursery Nurse for. I work in school nursery.

[tittifilarious]

I'd look at places which need lunchtime cover say from 11-2, so banks or shops may be a good place to start. Next used to do 10-2 shifts but I'm sure I read something about them being phased out. My friend works 9.30am to 2.30pm on the phones for Santander.

Schools/unis/colleges are becoming more business like and are offering things at evenings or through the holidays now so they're not always the safe bet they were for school hours.

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

I work in retail (IKEA to be specific) but I've worked here a long time so get a bit more flexibility with my hours than a new starter would. I use up my leave during school holidays so I work as little as possible, and DH covers by working from home. The only people I know who genuinely work school hours, work in schools or are freelancers/self-employed or are CMs.

[honeysucklejasmine]

My colleague started work as a TA in her sons school when he started, due to his ASD. She made sure to never work directly with him though.

[Vajazzler]

I'm a sen at In a school and a friend of mine does 10-2 in McDonalds

[DownByTheRiverside]

What skills do you have?
OH was a SAHP, but he worked from home in his field. There aren't many jobs around that are school-hours friendly that don't have a hundred+ applicants.

[BackforGood]

Might be worth checking with your FIS (Family Information Service - if you Google it, you can choose the area you live in) as there are some after school clubs specifically for dc with SEN/D, and also some CMs who like to specialise in working with dc with SEN/D. Few and far between, I know, but worth a try.
Was having a conversation with a colleague recently about this, as our LA are threatening to stop automatic school transport to special schools, and they'd heard that some of the schools were looking into setting up their own Out of School Provision to enable parents to drop off and collect around work hours. Don't know if that's happening in other parts of the COuntry, or just our Authority that has hundreds of billions of £ to cut from it's budget??

[ArsenicyOldFace]

I had the exact same problem.

It is not going to help you to out myself by telling you what I do, but I am self employed and have retrained twice. I am doing yet another postgrad qualification now so that I can expand my work a bit once DC are older.

I know a LOT of self employed freelancers who have DC with ASCs.

[GinAndSonic]

My mum works as a cook in a school kitchen. Within school hours and term time only. Im going to apply for a school kitchen job next time one is advertised.

[chocnwine]

I have a degree, worked in teaching (adults, though many many moons ago), but worked for the last 10 years in office based jobs (cust service and account management type roles),speak a few languages. Employable at the first glance but struggle due working hours restrictions. I want a job, not a career.

[ArsenicyOldFace]

TEFL? Virtual PA?

Are you near any Universities?

[SocialMediaAddict]

I'm a private PA for an incredibly wealthy family who are extremely family orientated. I've had August off (and will have the rest of the school holidays off throughout the year). I'm very lucky.

[ArsenicyOldFace]

speak a few languages

How about getting qualified as a translator? I appreciate it involves a specialist qualification which involves time and expense, but then the money is good and the work is flexible, if you take freelance projects.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I work half time, from home - I don't necessarily do my 4 hours in school time now but I did when DD was younger. I write software - obviously that's a niche, but nowadays telecommuting really is doable.

Good luck in your search.

[Tournesol]

I am a freelance writer and editor. With your background have you considered working freelance as an editor for school textbooks? Worth checking out all the academic publishers (Cambridge uni press, oxford uni press, Taylor and Francis etc).

You can do courses through the society of editors and proofreaders to get skills up to scratch.