To have this pity party?

[2ducks2ducklings]

I work in the office of a primary school. At pretty much exactly the time I left for maternity leave in October 2017, the school converted to an Academy which mean totally new systems and procedures. I went back to work after 7 months maternity leave in July 2018. So my colleagues, and the temporary replacement for me during my leave ( but who is now a permanent member of staff) had 7 or 8 months to get used to these new systems and procedures. Obviously during this time my duties were divided up among the rest of the staff and one colleague had a role created for her to bring her up to my grade and pay scale as she was covering my role.
I went back to work in July and was told that my duties would remain with those who covered me as I would be getting a lot of different work from a different area. As I was still getting back into the swing of things, this seemed fine as it gave me time to get used to being back.
However, it's been a few months now and it is clear there is not enough work for all of us. All of my duties have been retained by the other staff and the work I was promised has not been forth coming.
I understand this does sound a bit strange but I hate not being busy. I honestly think is causing me to have anxiety as I no longer feel like I have a purpose or a role. I'm having to make it look as though I'm busy, which stresses me out.
I feel really fed up with it, so I suppose my AIBU is, AIBU to feel this way. Is this a bit unfair on the employers part? Or is this to be expected as I chose to have time off and they obviously have a business/school to run so arrangements had to be made?

You are not being unreasonable, the principle in law regarding maternity leave is that you return to the same job you left (not suggesting you should necessarily go down the legal route, I've no idea whether you would actually have a case!).

Your employers are in the wrong. I would be really angry in your shoes but unfortunately the best time to challenge would have been when you came back, I think it will be harder this far down the line.

Yanbu really. My info might be massively out of date as it's been a while, but when I was off, my employer couldn't change what I did at all if I took no more than 6 months off. Anything over and they could change it as long as I was on no less pay or terms. Eg they couldn't reduce annual leave entitlement etc.

My advice is to check your contract regarding maternity pay very carefully. If there's still not enough work to be shared around, I would be asking where all this extra work is. I wonder if it's being siphoned off by the others.

When I went on mat leave the ruling was they would keep a job for me on same hours days terms but this could be ANY job . Happy to be corrected and sorry you are feeling this way - it sounds awful.

Thanks for the replies, it helps that other think I'm not being entirely unreasonable. I'm going to have put my big girl pants on and have a word with my line manager I think. Otherwise I'm going to go stir crazy!

Oh there is nothing more soul destroying than having nothing to do at work IMO. I left a post after 4 weeks because there was literally nothing to do all day. I wanted to cry in boredom and frustration!