AIBU to ignore GCSE results queries during holidays before maternity leave?

You are not on mat leave. You are able to start your mat leave later than you would have otherwise due to fortunate timing and school holidays.
therefore you should reply to the email. That is expected - I’m a teacher and have had four or five emails to reply to today. No big deal.
you can’t have it both ways!!!

"there is generally an agreement with HOD who will be available for results day"

In this case the hod is the one requesting a phone call during holidays when it is incumbent on her to know the terms and conditions under which her staff are employed/ contracted.

Staff at schools ignoring workplace rules and agreements wh n they should know better because it is convenient for them is one of the reasons why work life balance can be so poor in education. Unless the teacher has a TLR it should wait until sept and in this case the hod should do what's she's paid for and make the decision herself.

I am a teacher and I would have just helped to make sure the student was sorted tbh.

I think that if you were to contact your union about this, the rep would remind you that STPCD says that you can be contacted during the 'holidays'.

After all if you weren't about to start your Mat Leave, you would be likely to be in school congratulating/ supporting your students or preparing for the start of the term. Breaks from school are NOT all holidays for teachers, as many of us keep trying to make the general public understand.
If you are too ill to speak on the phone/email you really should trigger the start of your Mat Leave.

I'm a HOD. It's my job to check the grade boundaries, data and request remarks - that's what I get paid a TLR for. No idea why your HOD is trying to involve you, or why families don't seem to understand who they're meant to be contacting. There's literally nothing a class teacher can do in this situation unless it's a case of mit circs.

Your colleagues aren't great with boundaries.

If you are not supposed to be working - put your out of office on Teams to direct people to the relevant person.
there is generally an agreement with HOD who will be available for results day. Many students want to ask for guidance particularly where it affects college places.

Even if you weren't on maternity leave/ or at least approaching it they should not contact you at all. Holidays are not directed time ( unless as you made clear you are SLT l dept head or similar).

Someone senior should make the decision s on this( as they will have to when you are maternity anyway.)

Not sure what the negative impact on her unborn child would be if OP answered a call / spent 30min reviewing a student’s results.

« Who would be a teacher » … in many professions people wouldn’t mind having a quick work call when the business was closed for two months.
OP has chosen not to start her maternity leave, so not sure why being close to her due date has to do with anything.

She doesn't need to be on mat leave. Baby isn't here and school is closed.

OP it woukd be irresponsible to start doing anything for the kdis which you will potentially drop at any seocdn with no warning or hand over cos you've gone into labour, and thus starting maternity leave.

Imagine tell the kids you'll process something, then you go into labour tonight, spend a few days in hospital, have the baby etc. and they're just left in limbo.

Much better delegating this stuff over to someone else and slightly concerning your school haven't worked out for themselves how unfair it would be on the kids.

Whether or not you should work depends what your contract says, I don’t know the rules for teachers in summer. But don’t use ‘I would be on maternity leave’ if you bring it up. You’re not, so that’s that. Argue that it’s not in your contract and not your responsibility, if that is the case.

I think if you taught the student and you know the course, have access to their results in each paper, you may be the best person to judge whether a remark is a good idea or not, hence why they are asking you.

i’m not contracted to work during the holidays but have answered a couple of queries regarding potential remarks. I’m not obliged to, but happy to do so and to be honest it doesn’t take long to do and there is nobody else in my school who can
make the judgement on my subject. I’ve had 3 students this year enquire, of which one I recommended a remark. They do cost £50 per paper so it is a decision that needs to be carefully made, plus technically they can go down a grade as well as up.

it’s not like you have to do the paperwork - that’s the job of the exam secretary.

What date did you give as the start of your mat leave. If it’s the start of term YABU. If you gave it for the middle of the holiday when you would have been 37 weeks YANBU.

If youre not on Mat Leave then of course you should reply. If youre not well enough then go off sick and trigger ML. You cant have it both ways! Presumably you've not been working since schools broke up which is already a very luxurious lead into Mat leave.

Absolutely no need for you to be involved. Don't check any more emails or teams.

🙄

I've got no idea what is expected of teachers around GCSEs results day, but your insistence that if it wasn't the holidays you'd be on maternity leave is annoying. You're not on maternity so you should do whatever you're expected to do. If that's nothing, great.

YANBU

Put your own child first

Who would be a teacher 🤷🏻‍♀️

What would have happened before TEAMS/emails existed? Presumably there was a system to organise re-marks? Did children get to speak to their own teachers then- whatever happens, surely schools should get organised long before exams and communicate with families to let them know about this, and it should be discussed with their own staff so everyone knows exactly who is doing what, with contingencies built in for Mr S being ill or Mrs B having a family emergency.

If you're so adamant you shouldn't have to do work.... Why are you doing work?

Have you started maternity leave yet? If so yanbu whereas if you haven’t yet then you should reply

If you are formally on mat leave, you are NBU.

If you are not on mat leave, you are a PITA BU.

Teachers have no need to be involved in the process for reviews of marking

YANBU - I don't understand what they think you should be doing!

A lot of school SLT will check marks against grade boundaries on the Wednesday & any which are close will be discussed with the students when they come to collect.

No need for you to do anything. If they have sloppy processes that's nothing to do with you.

YANBU. I went above and beyond right up to my mat leave start date, thinking it will serve me well to leave with a good impression. None of it mattered a year later, no one gave a fuck. Everyone just cares about what's in front of them and how to make their own job easier.

Have you commenced your maternity leave? If so, then you’re on maternity leave and should say you’re not available for work, but if you’re not on maternity leave because as a teacher you are able to take advantage of the school summer closure to in practice avoid triggering your maternity leave until later then I would agree with the previous poster that YABU as you can’t have it both ways. Of course it would feel very unpalatable so close to your due date and after being unwell so you could say that you don’t feel well enough although your employer has the right to trigger your maternity leave if you are classed as off sick from work at this stage of your pregnancy.

Why are you even checking Teams if you're not working/not meant to be contactable on results day?