AIBU to ignore GCSE results queries during holidays before maternity leave?

[LilyGreenJade]

Currently 38+5 pregnant. Teacher and so fortunately finished for the summer as normal in July. Had it not been the summer holidays, I would have taken maternity leave at 37 weeks anyway. DH and I have also been ill for a few days this week with a fairly bad stomach bug.

GCSE results’ day yesterday. Only Heads of Department and senior staff expected to be in school/contactable on the day, which I am not. This is stated in contract.

Received an informal Teams’ message from Head of Department yesterday saying they needed to speak with me regarding a particular student (a simple case of organising a remark which only HoD can do anyway) and could I let them know when I was free to talk. I felt really annoyed that firstly I was being contacted during the holidays, secondly that they are fully aware I am close to my due date/would have been on maternity leave otherwise, and thirdly that there is nothing I can do to help. HoD has form for passing on work which is their’s to do. I ignored their message. I then also had several students sending me messages on Teams late last night regarding remarks. I very briefly replied to them saying to speak to the HoD.

I emailed the HoD and Deputy Head Academic this morning explaining that although I had seen the overall results, I was not really in a position to begin analysing paper breakdowns, discussing remarks, and contacting students/parents. I said I was happy for any remarks to be processed. As of tonight, I have had no reply.

YABU - results are important and you should be involved as their teacher.
YANBU - You should not be contacted during school holidays as per your contract, and especially given the proximity to your due date and that you would have been on maternity leave anyway if not for the holidays.

Pass them on and enjoy mat leave.

You can be directed for 195 days. You've done those for last year and next year doesn't start until at least September 1st.

So you can be asked. You might choose to reply. But you cannot be obliged.

I've been looking at emails and review requests today because it suits me to do so. If anyone demanded it of me, I would be ignoring my email until directed time.

YANBU, so long as this is outside your directed time (which should be the case) - this would be true regardless of the impending maternity leave. There are staff in schools who are paid on leadership scale for a reason.
Turn your work messages off in the holidays in future!

Hardly ‘gaming the system’. Lots of mothers who are able to take annual leave will take some before they formally start their maternity leave.

However I don’t think OP is approaching this in the correct way by saying ‘should be on mat leave’. The issue isn’t to do with pregnancy, it’s to do with the fact that she can’t do what the HOD can with regards to remarks.

This!

What date does your mat leave start? Sounds like it hasn't yet in which case YABU not to show an interest in your pupils.

No but she’s on holiday leave until her Mat leave starts… do you work on your annual leave

I’m glad you aren’t my teacher. I always thought teachers’ cared and were interested in pupil’s futures. You don’t sound vaguely interested whatsoever. Admittedly, I have no understanding of how useful your support could be but you sound very disinterested in your job and the children.

I think YAB a bit U, you aren’t on maternity leave and it’s a request to talk about 1 student. You might not be head of department but GCSE results happening yesterday wasn’t a surprise and you are a teacher at the end of the day.

Emotional blackmail, always a good response.

This is the right way to go about things.
X

For the sake of a few messages out of the whole of the holidays regarding something which is pretty important to your students I think YABU. But if there’s nothing then you can do then YANBU to message back directing everyone to the head of department and not do what they’re asking yourself

The class teacher is rarely the best person to judge whether a review is appropriate. The person with the most experience of examining in that year is.

I can’t understand why they messaged to ask you a question- why not asks in the message and then you could or couldn’t reply and that job would be done or wouldn’t be done and they could manage it.

They don’t need to discuss a remark with a class teacher

If it's not in your contract that you are to be contactable when results come through then just ignore the messages.

If it''s someone else's responsibility ( HoD) then let them step up.

Your response is absolutely fine.

"Currently 38+5 pregnant. Teacher and so fortunately finished for the summer as normal in July. Had it not been the summer holidays, I would have taken maternity leave at 37 weeks anyway. DH and I have also been ill for a few days this week with a fairly bad stomach bug."

Would you usually be around to help students? Would it be paid or unpaid? I mean

• if you would usually be helping students in the light of the results at this time, TOTALLY UNPAID BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET PAID IN HOLIDAYS, then your being pregnant and ill means you don't need to do that!
• If you would normally be being paid to do it, but aren't this year because you have already started mat leave - then you don't need to do it either!
• If you would normally be doing it paid and are still being paid to work because you chose not to start your mat leave in the summer holidays, then you do it as normal because you being about to start mat leave doesn't change what you should be doing right now, and it doing it were that much of a problem you should have chosen to start mat leave earlier!

Presumably you’re taking advantage of the summer holidays to delay your mat leave until the last possible minute.

Therefore, as you are not yet on maternity leave, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to take a call or answer an email if you’ve been teaching a GCSE class. You can’t have it both ways.

Which subject do you teach?
I guess a lot depends on the subject.
But one day you will have a 16 year old in the same position and you really want that teacher to be kind.
As far as contacting you in the holidays, I am a support staff member. I was told to check my emails because there was a big school announcement. I can see loads of emails from parents, which I have decided to ignore. Because we get money deducted off our salary for holidays.
My daughter is an ECT and has been covering a Maternity post. She went in to be with her students on results day and was disappointed no one from her faculty was there. She is going in next week as she has secured a permanent job and wants to get the room ready.
And she hasn’t been paid since June …

Your comments about Mat Leave are unreasonable. If you want Mat Leave protections then you start your mat leave. If you want the benefits of starting it later then you take tye downsides that come with that.

Exactly

Fuck them, if something happened to you or your baby I guarantee your HoD and probably your students and their parents wouldn’t give a flying fuck.

HOD’s, SLT and exams office are literally paid to deal with post-results queries from students and remark queries. You are not. Your HOD shouldn’t be contacting anyone in their department to do extra work outside their contractual hours. You are not legally or contractually obliged at all to answer emails or work during the summer holidays as the holidays are outside your contractual working paid hours.

This is a school admin problem - not your fault or the students. There should be a clear framework in place on who students need to contact for queries and this needs to be communicated to students and parents effectively pre results release. Your HOD and SLT should be taking care of all of this.

My HOD is excellent. She wrote on the WhatsApp group that she’s taken care of any urgent remark queries from students (like the ones that may affect college places) and that non-urgent ones can be looked over by us on our return in September (such as students who got an 8 but were one mark of a 9).

Pretty unlikely that the HoD just wouldn’t care at all if something happened to OP or her baby. Asking to have a quick talk doesn’t mean they don’t give a shit what happens to someone.

Maternity Leave isn't relevant in this case because you're not on maternity leave. It's up to teachers how much they get involved with results - entirely your decision, HoD should be capable of making decisions themselves; that's what they're paid for.

Frequently if something comes up. Just like most people I know.

Are you being paid? Has your official mat leave started?