To think my HOD is being a bit of a jobsworth?

[anniebolen]

Hello,
I'll start with some context, I am a teacher, currently I work 2.5 days a week through a job share, my co-teacher and I get on really well and have been working together for years. We both have 2 children each and our children are the same ages (both have 4 and 1/almost 1 year olds). This year we are both coming back from maternity leave. My co-teacher works Monday, Wednesday morning and Friday, I do Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon and Friday.
This year we both have children starting school, her DD will start on the same Monday as we go back to work and my DS will start the Tuesday. Now obviously this means that if we both work our normal days we will miss our children's first day of school. We decided to jointly ask our head of department if he would mind us swapping the first 2 lessons each day so we can go to our children's first day of school. We have seen our timetable, we don't have Y7 in either slot and as we teach all our classes together it won't make any real difference. The HOD started last year while we were both on maternity leave, however our previous HOD was happy for us to sort between ourselves any swaps, the only time we utilised this was when our children's respective nursery Christmas plays fell on the opposite days.
I have asked why he has said no and he made it clear he doesn't want to mess with the timetable while everyone is settling.
AIBU to think he is being a bit of a jobsworth? Should I challenge him again or accept that I'll miss DS's first day of school and that is part of the parcel of being a teacher?

I’m a secondary teacher. I’m allowed the morning to take my DC to his first day of school. I would have requested the first week of term off as parental leave if it had been a problem. However, at my school, SLT know a little bit of flexibility like this goes a long way in getting staff’s goodwill.

And, yes, this means that two of my classes will have a ‘sub’ for possibly their first lesson with me. Whilst not ideal, my child’s first day of primary school is more important to me than your child’s first day at secondary school. Sorry! I’d accept the situation for my children if the shoe was on the other foot too. Teachers are also parents who don’t want to miss all of their DC’s school milestones (and we miss a LOT!)

I'm amazed this is the HOD's decision, surely it should be the HT?

Why on earth don't you do proper work with your yr8 class on the first day? Where I work, and where I have always worked, we do proper lessons from day one!

Oh it sounds like you’re the best teacher ever at the best school ever and I bet there’s none of those pesky job shares or reasonable flexible work situations going on!

Good grief. That's something of an over reaction! 😂touched a nerve?!
We have to teach proper lessons from day 1 of term. Oh, yes I am a brilliant teacher in a brilliant school 😂😂

I think your HOD is unreasonable. I'd let job sharers swap, in fact I've done so in the past.
I'd expect proper lessons from day one, though, whoever took them.

He's an idiot. A little bit of flexibility goes a long way. The fact is you both sorted the solution, so all he had to do was agree to it.

Oh I’m so sorry, it was the irrelevant comment and the lead with ‘why on earth don’t you do proper work.’ I thought you were trying to be super condescending but I can see from the tone of your reply that you definitely didn’t mean to be and I’m completely wrong as I’m sure people often are.

I agree. Goodwill is worth a lot.

I"m as academic as they come, I loved school and loved learning but I always needed a couple of days to warm back up after the summer. A warm up lesson or two makes far more sense

@DefyingGravitas ???
I never said "why on earth don't you do proper work?" !! How on earth did you read that?
I have no idea what's going on here.
I am a teacher. I know how hard people work.

Here you go.

No. They have to have proper structured learning from the first day back.
I'm sure you're very successful, but the sooner children get back into learning, the better.
Anyway. Not the point of the thread, just surprised. If I was the line manager, I'd ok the swap.

The children should do proper work, of course they should.
I'm sure those teachers do, bur claiming it's not really an important start doesn't help their argument.

I don't know what the OP would be planning, but my definition of warm up work would be getting to know the children, helping them gel as a class, introductions to the subject, making classroom rules and expectations clear. All very useful stuff.

I'm just wondering if the HoD responded negatively to the idea of lose "warm up/getting to know you" which may have indicated a certain casual approach, which may not be the case.
They could easily have swapped, I would allow it, but if the school is following the enacted curriculum, he will want to be assured that proper lesson planning is in place.
That is all.

I think this is a good point actually.

In the first post the OP sounded totally reasonable but if she presented it to the HoD like she did in later posts, implying they weren't going to hit the ground running, maybe that's why he pushed back.

I'm inclined to agree, @muggart . You know how prescriptive learning is nowadays, with targets and outcomes.

exactly
i’m with the HOD
two members of staff in a job share
both their first day back in after a year y
and first day back for the school

and they want to ease in to their first class and change already

Saw this today and thought of this thread www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51yzv95wg9o

"Women in their 30s are, numerically, the biggest single group leaving teaching, according to new analysis seen exclusively by the BBC.
More than 9,000 of them left teaching in England 2022-23, compared with just over 3,400 men of a similar age.
In a report called Missing Mothers, researchers urge more family-friendly policies to halt the exodus."

Yeah, I think this is a bit rubbish. He probably doesn’t want to be seen as lax at quite an early point in the role but it really doesn’t sound like there would be a detrimental impact from you swapping so it’s a bit daft.

Your mistake was asking for permission - I’d have just gone ahead with it and then asked for forgiveness of anyone actually noticed!

I think they’re being incredibly unreasonable. Are they fairly new to the role? I’m not a teacher but a bit of flexibility and understanding goes a long way in most jobs to keeping up morale and goodwill amongst staff.

Would your HOD notice if you just went ahead and did this? I don’t think I’d be brave enough after having my request turned down but if they’re not very present it could work. Or be sick, but you’d probably need more than one day to pull that one off without looking as suspicious…..

He's being such a iobsworth!!