Anyone given up a job they love for a job in a school and regretted it?

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Currently I wfh - 4 hours a day. As long as I'm online a few hours during school time my boss is ok with me doing the other hours whenever I can. I love the work too, as the business is different to anything I've ever known.

It works well for our family as DH is a full time firedighter (4 on, 4 off shifts) and does on call too so can look after our toddler whilst being on call because I'm there working too (and can take time off if he gets a call). We have 3 children so in school hols we can do this too - my parents have the children for 4 hours on the days DH is in work.

Toddler is starting nursery 3 hours a day in September.

I've seen a job in a school that is 7 hours a day term time only, it's local (down the road from my son's school) and a 10 min drive from my house. It'd give us £5-600 extra a month which we could do with right now (we're stuggling since we're on a g&e fixed term rate which comes to an end this month and will double next month, going up even more in Oct)

Apart from the childcare issues (we may have to pay out some of the money for childcare but my parents have said they'd help out too) and me having to actually get up before 7 each day to be in work by 8am 😴, I'm torn over the flexibility aspect.

So, has anyone ever taken a school job and regretted it because you cannot take any time off during term time. In his job DH can't always get his main time off during school hols but would be able to stretch to 3.5 days if he takes time off call. Thinking too about emergencies/school trips/sports days/going to gigs (random I know but I follow a certain band and like to go to their gigs a lot).

Or any other downsides to working in a school?

I work as admin in a primary school and LOVE it! The holidays are SO GOOD, that’s when you book your dentist :) my slt are the most amazing bunch of women and will bend over backwards for us to get to our kids prizegivings or whatever is happening (unpaid or make up hours)
sometimes a bit of daff for drs and kids, but I’ve made it work.
I never do overtime, never think about work unless I’m there, have wicked holidays and will never lose my job.

You won't get much time off term time, if at all. I can get occasional special events or appointments but my role doesn't need covering (unlike a school reception or main admin role does). I wouldn't get time off for school trips, gigs or holidays.

I rely heavily on my husband to cover kids inset days, special events I can't get time off for and we only holiday in the school holidays. My husband is now the first number our child's school call because I can't answer my mobile easily at my job either. We are very lucky my son's school have a breakfast club starting at 7:30am, without it, I wouldn't get to my school on time.

I find the lack of flexibility a ballache sometimes (would be nice to be able to take the odd long weekend to visit friends across the country, for example) but for me it's far outweighed by having thirteen weeks' holiday a year. Even though it's expensive having to travel in school holidays, there are very few jobs where you'd be able to take six consecutive weeks off at all, so from the perspective of being able to do big trips it's great. However, it works for me because I'm single and don't have children - it doesn't sound like you'd be in a position to take long holidays anyway with your husband's job/cost of living, and I never need to take random days off for child-related reasons. I'm not sure it's a job I'd want if I had young children to be honest, especially if your current job already allows you to be at home during the holidays, which would otherwise be the major advantage of TTO.

In terms of things like nativities it depends on the school and your role - some are more willing than others to let support staff take occasional days off for things like that, although it's more likely they wouldn't and if they do it'll be unpaid. If there's something specific coming up that's particularly important to you then it's worth asking them about it at the interview.

and will never lose my job

Not so sure about that one with the White Paper and the academy agenda. Academy trusts having to merge to be of size, LA trusts forming, no maintained schools, lack of funding, sharing of staff between schools to save money …some really big changes starting.

I've worked in schools, got flexibility & paid overtime, never missed sports days as you have rolling personal days, same rules for teachers. I think a lot depends on the school

l left teaching last year after 26 years. I’ve never heard of a ‘personal day’ we had to beg for time off.

This isn’t my experience at all. Rolling personal days and overtime?!

Surely it depends on the role?

I’m part time support staff and I have a reasonable amount of flexibility, if it’s sports day or nativity I can switch my hours around to suit, as long as my work is done and I don’t take the mickey. The holidays and pension are worth such a lot too.

Schools are really struggling to fill support staff roles at the moment so if you’re open about needing some flexibility to fit in with your DHs shifts you might be pleasantly surprised.

Why are you treated so poorly ? It’s shocking .I’m a primary teacher in Dublin . Earn 80k euro a year . Can leave school every day at 2:30 . I do an extra hour a day of planning in September - that’s it really .

Have 3 extra personal leave days to take over the year if I do an easy online summer course .
We also have 5 Family days a year that we can take for medical appointments for kids . I can even get days to take parents to hospital appointments.
And even if you used those days up if something came up the principal and staff would bend over backwards to let you attend .
Love my job,,can’t believe how different the culture is over there .

I appreciate teacher is slightly different but all the staff in our school are treated the same .

I agree with the majority of posters here re pro rata and it being hard work, however I have been working in school office jobs for the last 12 years and still love it.

Generally where I live (London) there are hundreds of applications for every role as we all want the school holidays off! I would apply for it and see how it goes, you have nothing to lose.

PS. I have never had any issues with appointments or childcare as its a school environment and most of us working there have our own children, understand and help out.

Good Luck

Yes you do end up doing random things that are not in your job description but for me that is part of the fun. I'm not a MMS but was for a while the other day as we were short staffed. I have a child in a production in a few weeks and have negotiated overtime to take time off during school hours. To be honest it heavily depends how reasonable your SLT will be

I’m support staff and have been for 7 years at the school my kids go/went to.
means I could pretty much slope off for half an hour for various things (special assemblies, sports day, plays etc). Our heads have always been pretty kind to be honest in regards to things like days off for weddings/funerals, and other staff are often ‘out’ for short periods of time while they go and watch their own dc at other schools in their plays and assemblies. I’ve asked for 3 specific days over the last 7 years and been granted them.
Im leaving at the end of term for a hybrid role with a generous holiday allowance and 3 times my current salary. It’s more hours and obviously less holidays than I’m used to but I work so much unpaid overtime it’s unreal and I’ll never again have to go on a residential and be on call 24/7 for 5 days while only being paid for 6 hours of those days 🙄 it’s bloody criminal what we just absorb because it’s expected of us.
i can’t believe that I’ll actually just be allowed to have a day off when I want just ‘because’!

I work in a school. It's right that the figure quoted is pro rata so is deducted both for unpaid holidays (6 weeks of them are paid though) and the fact it's not a full time week. For comparison the advertised salary is 17-19k of which I'm probably on the middle of the scale atm and I take home about £950pm after deductions for pension and NI. I'm contracted at 25h per week. It depends on the individual school as I can take days for sports days, unwell dc etc we have an allowance for special family leave for that and a separate allowance for things like funerals. We can also build up TOIL for working overtime and take time off using that and some colleagues have recently just taken unpaid leave for a holiday although I couldn't afford that personally so haven't done. Initially I didn't have to pay any childcare but relied on a certain amount of independence from dc who were both school age so made it a bit easier. Hours of both DC's school and my work were both tweaked due to covid and don't seem to be going back to normal so I now have to pay breakfast club for dd2.

This is a point. I'm in Scotland not England. Perhaps my experience below isn't relevant due to that. Seems we have far better working conditions

You are so lucky you can build up TOIL - such a good idea!

Then you are paid 39 weeks plus 4 weeks holiday so that reduces the tota

We get 6 weeks (5 plus bank holidays). I was shocked to see an advert for a local (very pricey) private school who only offered 4 weeks paid holiday. I didn't realise that was standard elsewhere in local authority schools.

It really depends on the school to be honest. I've not had an issue getting occasional time off to attend things for my son (induction morning, nativity, hospital appointments) , but I never take the piss with it and I would say that I average 1-2 half days per year Some schools have an absolute blanket ban. It's up to the head really, and what level of absence they're typically dealing with.

I work in a school and it works well for my family as I can care for the DC during school holidays, BUT...it's really inflexible, so I miss award assemblies, sports days etc for my children, and if one is sick then I have to take time off work (DH works away during the week). I've investigated WFH for that reason, but having school holidays off is a priority so I'll stay where I am for now.

I did and hated it. This was pre-DS so I didn't have him to consider, but it was so rubbish being so restricted by school hours and school holidays. Little things I'd usually do like, take DP's birthday off or my friend's birthday to go for lunch, were impossible as they fell in term time.

Now I do have DS, I appreciate the flexibility I have to be able to book a day off when he's in nursery to have some alone time.

It sounds like your current employer is really flexible and it works for family life.

@clary thank you for your reply. The salary does state £xk x 84% so have based it on the 84%.
I'm not on minimum wage but not much above and this job pays more than others that I've seen in my area for the same sort of thing. (It is a little above 21k x 84%)

@MumofSpud see my reply above this one

@JimmyMcNultyIsMine @Threetulips see my reply above.
It was a lot more than 19k at 84% of it.
More than any other jobs in my area for the same sort of thing

@FoodieToo that sounds amazing compared to the other replies on here.

My salary is between 25 and 29 based I’m higher end - I take home Just short of £18

So watch what they are saying!!

No, I wish I’d moved the other way though out of term time only working.

I’m waiting for retirement so that I can go to Ascot, Chelsea Flower Show, Glastonbury.
It will be amazing to be able to go to concerts on a night other than Saturday, have cheaper holidays, visit countries when they are celebrating an event, attend family mid week weddings and birthdays.