Any teachers out there - need to ask about work life balance

I'm wondering the saqme thing OP. I've just started my mat leave and only teach pt anyway but always spent so much longer in school than I was timetabled/the equivalent of a ft teacher.

It's hard as you want to do your school work in school, but, I find if I stay in my room at breaks I get distracted by students/other staff popping in to chat or ask me things. Also, if I came in earlier than I was timetabled or later to get work done, FT staff didn't realise I was using my own unpaid time to madly get work done and didn't understand when I explained this really wasn't a good time to have an impromptu meeting about a students or whatever and to rearrange it when I was suppose to be in. I think I got taken advantage of quite alot in this respect.

Thing to remember is 'it will get done' (wish I could take my own advice so readily!). If you plan things a week or so in advance you will spend aot long than the day before. I do find it permenantly frustrating though as I love to get things done thoroughly and well and pride myself on some of my lessons that do take alot of time and planning. When I return from mat leave I know I will find it hard/impossible to cut corners as it's just not me - I want to do a proper job not a half hearted one.

It will get more manageable once you get into a routine.
Good luck.

(DS ill today, so am on MN marking English books at home. Great excuse to catch up!)

I've been part-time ever since DC were born and I've always maintained that it's still preferable to fulltime even if you do expand your hours to fit most some of the time you're meant to be at home. Because as a full-timer you have even more lessons to plan, reveiw, assess etc.. and you're then inevitably working 7 days a week with no time for any home/family stuff.

Anyway, assuming you have no choice in the matter, I would say you're going to have to cut some corners if you're going to stay sane. So, lunch in the staffroom chatting with colleagues is the first thing to go - if you used to be one of the lucky few who ever managed that in the first place. I have no time for chatting - every minute of the school day is spent with my head down. Become more effective - I used to spend unnecessary hours trawling the internet for ideas; now I just pick something and get it organised. I cut down on marking by getting them (in maths, KS2) to self-mark initially, with me then checking and commenting afterwards.
Get a cleaner/ironing lady and it's vital that you have your DP on board and pulling his weight around the house too. None of this "helping out" business. It's split pretty-much 50:50, which includes covering when they're ill. Work when they're in bed, or get your DP to take them out for set periods of time whe you zoom through your to-do list. Try and keep school work away from the main living areas if possible - otherwise it's easy to creep in.
Accept that you can't do it all. So many teachers are perfectionists - that way lies a breakdown, in my book.

I used to find that working part time there is a danger that your work can still take up the whole week, while you only get paid for part of it.

If I had afternoon lessons I used to find that it overshadowed the morning because I would be tense and thinking about the lessons if not actually preparing them. Another trap is to spend longer planning your lessons than you physically are able to if you are full time. I was working a 50% timetable but it actually took up 4 days.

So in the light of my failure to manage this, I would say make yourself a timetable of how much time you are prepared to give to planning etc and stick to it, Sooner said than done I should say.