Part time worker dilemma

[thatmakesmehappy]

Background: I am a teacher, I work 2 days a week in a nice school. The communication in this school is awful however, and having been there a year and a half I miss out on lots of need to know info, purely because I don't work the days that they tell everyone (I have raised this issue several times before and nothing has changed).
I started working there as there was a big leadership change over, and as a result never really got a proper induction, and again am finding things out that I should have been told when I started a year and a half down the line. This was my first part time role after having my DC1, so don't really have another non full time role to compare it to.

Anyway, on to my AIBU. Last year I was asked to attend certain inset training days on my days off because they were important, which I agreed to, no problem. However, this year I haven't been asked to go to any. I was thinking 'great I've got away without having to do any'. However, in a chat with another colleague the other day I find out I should have attended the number of inset days, per number of days I work per week, even if they are not on my working days off my own back. Just attended ones that aren't even relevant to me, just to meet my quota. So now I have a problem. I've signed up to attend one after Easter, which gets one out of the way but the last one of the year is before half term in June. I go on holiday on the morning of that final inset day, which I don't plan on changing just to attend an irrelevant inset day.

AIBU to feel like this isn't my fault, although I'm fairly sure if they notice they will say it is. Also, any other part time teachers, is this usual practice, that you are expected to attend inset per number of days you work a week? Keen to hear your opinions.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that you should do pro-rata the number of inset days. To be fair, I'm amazed you booked a holiday leaving on a working day without checking first.

But it's not my working day, so why would I have checked?

I think that's fairly standard, sorry. Inset is directed time and you can't just assume you won't need to go. On the other hand, will anyone notice if you were "just chatting to a colleague" and haven't brought it to the attention of slt?

One way I got round it previously was to agree to come to all the whole school inset days in lieu of not going to any staff meetings which were always held on a day which I didn't work, then I didn't have to arrange childcare for just an hour a week.

Inset days are marked on our school calendar info on the website, is that not the case with your school? Seems like you could've assumed you had to do some and found out when they were, rather than thinking ha ha, no one's said anything, I can get away without doing any. Surely you know it's ongoing training and if you'd found out then you could've chosen the most relevant sessions? As it is, you're blaming them when you could've shown initiative and taken responsibility for your own development. Maybe they told you last year because you were new but (quite rightly) assumed after that that you were a grown up and could sort it yourself? I think especially knowing that they weren't great communicators, you have to own it, sorry.

Inset days are paid training, if you don't do this one will you have done the pro-rata'd amount you get paid for? I would assume 2, if you work 2 days out of 5.

Why would you assume you don't have to do any?

It wasn't that I'd assumed I didn't have to do any, it's that I was asked to attend relevant ones last year, and none of this years have been relevant to me or my subject (all numeracy and literacy based and I'm a specialist subject that doesn't relate).
If it's not on my working day, and nobody asked me to attend, why would I make the assumption that I was supposed to? This is my point.

I'm a bit shocked that a teacher finds INSET days irrelevant - it's part of your on going professional development and is required

Because teachers do inset days, that's why I'd have assumed it.

AIBU is the wrong place for this query you'll have to check your contract and with your Union. At my school my job share partner doesn't attend any INSET days as it's not her day to work. I attend all as it's my contracted day. Your Union will confirm for you and work with the school to get clarification of which ones you need to attend and how much you'll be paid. Regarding your holiday, again check with your Union we pay enough for it so use them they're usually really good. It really does depend on the school and also, from a CPD point of view, whether you'll find it useful. Ours are usually a half day of a new scheme of work and half day of PPA so worth going for me personally

Because you will be being paid to do 2. It's hardly rocket science.

And literacy and numeracy are critical across the curriculum, even more so in seemingly unrelated subjects because you need to know how to support it.

So clearly not all schools are the same as Ilovechocolate01 says that they only attend if it's their working days.
Thanks chocolate I will definitely check with my union as to what the policy is. I have checked my contract and it doesn't mention INSET days, just says about hours of directed time. I have attended 2 parents evenings this year, both on days I don't work, so I wonder if with these I might just meet the quota (not sure if these count or not) with the INSET that's after Easter.
Obviously from September I'll make sure I meet the quota.
So it's a relevant inset day for me to sit through an inset day on teaching literacy/numeracy for SATS exams (which is what the first 2 insets this year have been about), when I have nothing to do with SATS?

Insets are included in directed time on the whole, so you need to do 2/5. In the schools I have worked in you didn't necessarily need to be in the session if it absolutely wasn't relevant, but you were expected to be around the site working etc.

I have just checked my union document and it says that I do not have to attend INSET unless it is on my working day. So I am not being unreasonable in that none of the inset days fall on my working days, and therefore I do not HAVE to attend them!
Yes INSET is important if it's relevant, and I do my own subject related CPD, but none of that happens through school as it doesn't benefit anyone apart from me and my job share (who is currently on sick leave).

'Can I be directed to attend all staff meetings and INSET days?
Full-time teachers can be required to work under the direction of the headteacher for up to 1,265 hours per year. As a part-time teacher you can only be directed to work for a percentage of these 1,265 hours. All of your directed time must fall on days when you are normally contracted to work.
Your headteacher should provide you with a breakdown of how your directed time will be used throughout the year. Your directed time may include elements for:
• teaching
• planning, preparation and assessment time
• non-contact time
• registration
• assemblies
• breaks (except lunchtime, which is excluded from directed time)
• INSET training days or sessions
• staff meetings
• parents’ evenings.'

Ok, well, what were you looking for here? Have there been inset days on your working days that you could have attended? If not, then they don't have a leg to stand on tbh.

Which union do you belong to, OP?

No, none of the inset days have fallen on my working days, which is what I wrote in my OP, and none of the rest for this year are on my working days either.
I am with ATL.

I didn't have to do inset days if they fell on my non-working days. We had staff meetings (directed time) until 4.30pm most mondays. The part timers who didn't work mondays didn't have to attend these nor make up the time elsewhere. As a Monday worker, I found this very unfair!

And if you work an inset day on your non working day you should be paid extra for it. Because you would still go in the 2 days you normally work, so you're working and extra day that week and should be paid for it. FT teachers still get paid when it's inset.

Accordingly to the STPCD, teachers cannot be asked to work in the days they are not normally employed. So for a full time teacher, you cannot be expected to work Saturdays, Sunday or any school holiday. For a part time teacher whose normal working week is Tuesday to Thursday, they cannot be asked to work on Monday or Friday. That is regardless of when training days are planned. It is up to the SLT to ensure they are able to attend the appropriate number of training days by booking those days on their normal work days.
If a P/T teacher agrees to work a day they do not normally work, they must be paid for that day or receive TOIL. They cannot be made to work them and cannot be disciplined for refusing to do so.

Thanks Beanbag7 I'm fairly sure I didn't get paid extra for the inset days I did last year...will have to check that! Glad I know where I stand now. I never thought to check my union documents. I'd checked my contract, and there was nothing specific.

With regard to the lack of communication, it is your responsibility to find out information from meetings etc that you have missed on your non working days. There should be a system whereby minutes from staff meetings are sent out to all staff,

I agree that you can't be made to attend on a day you don't work. However you do need to prove that you've done 2/5 of the directed time that a full time colleague would do that year.

If there are meetings that you attend every week you might find you'll do enough by the end of the year or two parents evenings may be enough if they are 3 hrs each (to make up for the one inset hrs you need to cover).

Officially it's the overall picture of directed time you need to look at rather single elements.

Soontobe, there are no minutes of staff meetings and there is no distribution of what is discussed. The only way I find out is by asking other staff members after it happens. I have raised this several times, and my line manager agreed to send an email out at the beginning of the week with important info, she did it for 2 weeks and then didn't do it again, even after being prompted. We have a board in the staff room that says important happenings for that week but literally has Monday to Friday on it and if you don't work until Wednesday, like me, you don't see anything until then. The only other way of getting info is the school calendar, but that doesn't tell you much. I have asked for a list of themes for inset days but have been told that the inset day plans aren't formulated until 2 weeks prior to said training, which doesn't help me much with regards to making myself available and childcare.
It's all well and good people saying be an adult and find out, but there's only so many times you hit a brick wall, or are told 'yes we will sort something out' and not getting anywhere that you stop trying. Other staff say the same and even those who have been there 10 years plus say 'it's always been like that, you get used to it'. Before anyone says it, yes I could get a new job but realistically jobs in my specialist subject are few and far between. I'm looking, but there's nothing local, especially in the current school finance crisis.

June2008 I've just worked it out, as accurately as I can. I think I will be 20 hours short of the maximum directed time. From what I understand of the Union document, I can be directed anywhere up to 506 hours as a 0.2 employee, but these have to agreed in advance and all on my working days (correct me if that's wrong). So if they now decide that they want to put an evening inset or training on my working day, then I have to attend and can therefore count it as part of my directed time. Anything else has to be mutually agreed between my senior leadership and me.