Full time teaching

[MrsAbcdef]

I'm temporarily PT (0.8) and find it really really hard to balance school and home. I'm due to go back to FT in April. Please let me hear stories saying that it's possible to be FT and a mum. Seeking reassurance. Permanent PT jobs are hard to come by it seems!

[ChristmasZombie]

I teach full time in KS1 and I'm mum to two small girls. I had little choice in working FT- I applied to go back part time after my second lot of ML, but the boss turned me down. I couldn't walk away from my job, so I returned full time.
It can work, but it's not easy. Childcare is an issue. My DD(4) is at school with me, so that's easy enough. Little DD(1) is in nursery two days a week and with my mum three days. Without her support we wouldn't manage, as full time nursery would cost more than my salary each month.
Time management is the other big issue. I'm fortunate to work in a small independent school, so my day-to-day workload is less than in a state school, and I have a little more non-contact time than most. I've still had to take steps to reduce and manage my load, though. I don't take on any additional responsibilities (I was a subject coordinator before I had my youngest daughter, which was a much-prized role for me, but I resigned from the role because I couldn't give the necessary time. That hurt.), I won't run clubs (I know that'll go against me at appraisal time in February!). I host trainee teachers twice each year because they take on almost all of the teaching, planning and marking, freeing me up to get on top of other jobs. I'm very efficient during the day. I work over lunchtime every day, marking, photocopying, writing letters to parents etc.
It's very hard in the beginning. The guilt is crushing. You will spend most of your time feeling like a crap mum and a crap teacher. I'm just starting to get past that now, and accept that I'm a GOOD ENOUGH mum and a GOOD ENOUGH teacher.

[Scorbus]

I teach FT in KS2. I'm fortunate in that I live in catchment (no really!), my eldest attends the same school and our CM is one street away.

I've been teaching for 13 years now and have my time management sorted so I can fit everything in during the week and only do a bit of work at the weekend in the evenings. I stay late each evening either due to meetings or marking but that frees up my weekend days for my DC.

Finding my school was a god send as they understand I'm a parent as well as a teacher so work life balance is better than a lot of teachers have it.

[MrsAbcdef]

Thanks for replying. I really appreciate it. So having my DC at my own school could be a good thing?!

[Randytortoise]

I find being ft easier than pt. I was 2.5 days a week and found that I was out of the loop and had to cram so much work into a short amount of time that I was doing loads at home.on my days off rather than doing stuff with the dc.
I have great cm's and find there is less house work as we're not at home.
Also because we both work ft we fund we use the weekend for fun stuff and quality time.

[MrsAbcdef]

Thanks randy. My husband usually works weekends so we won't get a lot of time off together when I'm back full time. He has a weekday off for childcare then his other day off changes on a rota but it's almost never a Saturday but sometimes a Sunday.

[Needmorewine]

Following with interest as come Sept I'll be balancing FT teaching with DD starting school & husband who is generally out of the house 7am-8pm ! Nice to hear positive stories ! I'll be using the extra money for a cleaner & fun weekend activities for us all (in theory...)

[Cinderford]

MrsAbcdef, whilst having your own DCs at the school where you teach can be wonderful logisically, it can be a nightmare professionally. I teach in a small indy which has a large age range and a decent staff discount, and many of the staff send their own DCs there. However, we all feel that the pastoral care they receive is inferior to the 'proper', full-fee paying parents, whose complaints and issues are dealt with more diligently by the management.

I had an especially horrible (and utterly mishandled) incident a few years ago, when the head burst into my classroom on several occasions and demanded to speak to me about my DD. Eventually, I took time off with stress, and when I returned I explicitly stated that if he needed to speak to me as a parent then he should make an appointment in the same way as he would for any other parent. He struggled with this concept until I pointed out that he wouldn't get into his car, drive to a parent's place of work, and burst in demanding to see them, so he couldn't do that to me, either.

My DD hasn't got long to go at the school now, and I wish I'd thought more carefully about the whole teacher / parent trickiness before I sent her there. If you have a DH / DP to take on the 'parent' role it will be easier, but my XH is an @rsehole who refused to help in any way.

[ChopsticksandChilliCrab]

I worked full time until my youngest was 11. I can't pretend it was easy as I was an HOD, had no family within two hours and DH was away a great deal. If you have family around to help a bit I think it would be much more doable.

[ChopsticksandChilliCrab]

Then we moved abroad and I got a part time job with no responsibilities. Bliss.

[MrsAbcdef]

We have no family that can help but DH doesn't work away and does his share of childcare so DC would be in nursery 4 days rather than 5.

I teach in a small primary so I don't know if that makes a difference to having DC at my own school?