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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

May be offered a perm position at a teaching job from September but it’s a 55 mins drive each way

120 replies

Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:26

I’ve been the many schools and don’t easily like most places, not over the moon here either but I’ve come to know that there is no perfect place really.

I started as supply end of March and can continue as perm from September. Bit the distance is far, doable but I’m losing almost 19 hours a week travelling.

The point here is me and husband are planning to try for baby next Christmas and if it did happen I can get maternity pay and if I was very unwell I could have paid time off etc.

Then I would also be off for a year and could go back 3 days. Has anyone ever gone back 3 days to a school that was this far ? I think that is the hope that I will eventually go 3 days meaning I stay home 4 days and only travel 3 days.

OP posts:
Trovindia · 09/05/2025 23:28

YABU to think this is far. I used to commute four to five hours a day and know loads of people who still do that as standard. 55 minutes is fine.

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:29

As supply, you'll have little/minimal planning and marking. As contracted staff you can add on 25 hours a week minimum of planning / marking / meetings / data entry / duties.

Can you do that plus 2 hours commute a day? Wouldn't it be easier to rent a room for 4 nights a week near the school and just go home at weekends?

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:29

Trovindia · 09/05/2025 23:28

YABU to think this is far. I used to commute four to five hours a day and know loads of people who still do that as standard. 55 minutes is fine.

Not on top of a teaching job she can't. She'll be working until 9pm every night as it is, plus a whole day at the weekend.

Trovindia · 09/05/2025 23:31

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:29

Not on top of a teaching job she can't. She'll be working until 9pm every night as it is, plus a whole day at the weekend.

Show quote history

Ah yes, sorry, I forgot that teaching is the most difficult and onerous job on the planet on Mumsnet. None of my teacher friends find it so, but clearly they are superhuman.

BitterTits · 09/05/2025 23:32

I did this for years (slightly less distance). It's doable but draining. Could you move a little closer?

dottiedodah · 09/05/2025 23:33

Could you move nearer to the school maybe.i think with a baby and marking and setting work it could be too much.try for 6 months and see about a move once you settle in

Pomegranatecarnage · 09/05/2025 23:45

It sounds like you only want the job in order to get sick pay and paid maternity leave then to go part time. Teaching is a job you have to put your heart and soul into.

bridgetreilly · 09/05/2025 23:46

Personally, I wouldn’t.

Original poster
Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:46

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:29

As supply, you'll have little/minimal planning and marking. As contracted staff you can add on 25 hours a week minimum of planning / marking / meetings / data entry / duties.

Can you do that plus 2 hours commute a day? Wouldn't it be easier to rent a room for 4 nights a week near the school and just go home at weekends?

I’m long term at the moment, so I do everything- it’s EYFS and we have 2 trainings per well other days I’ve been leaving at 3:30. Partner class is also long term she leaves same times.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:49

Pomegranatecarnage · 09/05/2025 23:45

It sounds like you only want the job in order to get sick pay and paid maternity leave then to go part time. Teaching is a job you have to put your heart and soul into.

No as I mentioned I prefer to most schools I worked in. But yes that is an important part. My other option is to continue supply or long term supply and have no maternity pay - just government one. And work somewhere closer.

OP posts:
ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:49

After school clubs? Planning? When do you do everything? I'm a teacher and I'm in school from 7am to 6pm. I get home and work until 9 or 10pm and usually work all Sunday too.

It the teaching load was only 8.30 to 3.30 I don't think we'd have the teacher retention and recruitment crisis that we do now.

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:50

Trovindia · 09/05/2025 23:31

Ah yes, sorry, I forgot that teaching is the most difficult and onerous job on the planet on Mumsnet. None of my teacher friends find it so, but clearly they are superhuman.

Show quote history

As I said to the OP, if teaching was the walk in the park you're implying it is, there wouldn't be a teacher shortage.

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:51

Pomegranatecarnage · 09/05/2025 23:45

It sounds like you only want the job in order to get sick pay and paid maternity leave then to go part time. Teaching is a job you have to put your heart and soul into.

Plus, your employer doesn't have to agree to part-time if it doesn't work for the school. You can request it and they can deny it.

Original poster
Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:52

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:49

After school clubs? Planning? When do you do everything? I'm a teacher and I'm in school from 7am to 6pm. I get home and work until 9 or 10pm and usually work all Sunday too.

It the teaching load was only 8.30 to 3.30 I don't think we'd have the teacher retention and recruitment crisis that we do now.

See EYFS planning takes up less time and we are allowed to use previous planning. So ppa is used to catch up on all other bits. Setting up is dine between me and TA once kids have been dismissed. I do few bits at home. There’s no marking, observations that we do as we go along. I use my lunch time instead of relaxing also.

OP posts:
Original poster
Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:53

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:51

Plus, your employer doesn't have to agree to part-time if it doesn't work for the school. You can request it and they can deny it.

Show quote history

Yes, that is a point. Not sure what I would do then.

OP posts:
ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:55

Sk999 · 09/05/2025 23:52

See EYFS planning takes up less time and we are allowed to use previous planning. So ppa is used to catch up on all other bits. Setting up is dine between me and TA once kids have been dismissed. I do few bits at home. There’s no marking, observations that we do as we go along. I use my lunch time instead of relaxing also.

Show quote history

Go for it then. Lights are still on and teachers still in place in our local primary post 5.30pm, so I'm pretty sure that the job isn't just a 7 hour a day one, regardless of the KS you teach.

But you sound as if you've got it all worked out. I think it'll be a lot more than you think, but we've all got to find our own path.

BitterTits · 09/05/2025 23:57

Trovindia · 09/05/2025 23:28

YABU to think this is far. I used to commute four to five hours a day and know loads of people who still do that as standard. 55 minutes is fine.

Don't be ridiculous. 4-5 house a day may be what you did but it absolutely isn't the norm.

User46576 · 09/05/2025 23:59

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:55

Go for it then. Lights are still on and teachers still in place in our local primary post 5.30pm, so I'm pretty sure that the job isn't just a 7 hour a day one, regardless of the KS you teach.

But you sound as if you've got it all worked out. I think it'll be a lot more than you think, but we've all got to find our own path.

Show quote history

What teachers are working past 5:30? Certainly not any I know

Oftenaddled · 10/05/2025 00:01

Go for it. The maternity arrangements sound worth the commute, which is significant but not horrific.

And don't put your heart and soul into any job. You can be a good teacher without that.

ClawsandEffect · 10/05/2025 00:02

User46576 · 09/05/2025 23:59

What teachers are working past 5:30? Certainly not any I know

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Whereas in every school I've worked in (5 now), at least 50% of the staff are still there at 5.30. Those that leave earlier are usually parents, who just continue working at home.

You're deluded if you think teaching is a 9-4 job.

TowerOfWashing · 10/05/2025 00:06

I did it. I used to quite like my commute time as I had time to listen to Radio 4 and the news and have some headspace to myself. Used to plan my lessons in my head too!

The worst days were when I'd had no sleep if DC had been up in the night - it was a long blooming drive then.

Working 3 days is a different balance to the relentlessness of a 5 day teaching week. You're still exhausted but you are more of a master of your own destiny 4/7 days of the week. Well, kind of...

You also work differently when you go back from mat leave e.g. when I had full class set reports to do after having DD, I absolutely fired through them at every available minute in school because I knew I couldn't spend all evening at home doing them in front of the TV with a cup of tea.

Trovindia · 10/05/2025 10:09

ClawsandEffect · 09/05/2025 23:50

As I said to the OP, if teaching was the walk in the park you're implying it is, there wouldn't be a teacher shortage.

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I didn't say it was a walk in the park, but there are plenty of jobs that are just as hard, and an hour commute is totally normal.

Plus the OP herself is saying she finishes by 4pm! So she's home by 5 - I didn't even used to finish work at that time and most people don't.

Trovindia · 10/05/2025 10:11

BitterTits · 09/05/2025 23:57

Don't be ridiculous. 4-5 house a day may be what you did but it absolutely isn't the norm.

Show quote history

It is for loads of people. Most of the people who live in my town, for a start, hundreds are commuting into London daily which takes two hours door to door. And that happens in towns all around the south east. Plus around other big cities in the UK. It's not unusual at all.

luckylavender · 10/05/2025 10:17

@Trovindia - you must introduce me to your teacher friends. Mine are on their knees.

clopper · 10/05/2025 10:18

ClawsandEffect After school clubs? Planning? When do you do everything? I'm a teacher and I'm in school from 7am to 6pm. I get home and work until 9 or 10pm and usually work all Sunday too.

These are crazy hours. So glad I work in a reasonable school. No wonder so many teachers are leaving. I never work at weekends and work until 4.30 or 5 each day. All this detailed planning, assessment and micromanaging of teachers and classroom time, no wonder teachers want to leave and kids now hate school