Any part time teachers out there?

[bluejellybean]

AIBU to expect to get paid for parents evenings on days I'm not working? I know I have to attend half of the years INSET's, if I do them all, should I recieve pay for these?

Parents evenings are an 'extra' for any teacher -ie they are not part of your normal working day. So I guess in this sense you should expect to do them as part of your job. Strictly speaking I guess you could expect to do them on a pro rata basis eg if you work half the week you would do half of the parents evenings over the year. However, teachers I know who are part time, then run into problems if they aren't available for parents - after all, you are still likely to be teaching across most year groups arent you, even if you are part time.

no its part of your job description to be there at parents evening.

I was thinking this too, I'm on .6 another teacher said that at her other school she got paid for coming in on inset. All our parents evenings are on days I'm working, but still going to be a nightmare organising childcare, an all the inset is on days I'm not it

We've had 2 years of job-share teachers at DS school, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that both teachers turned up for every parents meeting. Also for school trips and the school play. I would think it's worth working the extra time to get the face-to-face communication with the parents.

I'd have thought on INSET you should get paid .4 of a day extra. Because you really need to be there for the whole of the training, planning, development or whatever fun things they do on those days.

You should only do some of the parent's evenings. When there were 2 evenings I only did one and they all had to have appointments on the one night.
I usually ended up going to inset days and not getting paid because they tended to be Monday and I didn't do Mondays. It gave me the choice, if they were interesting I went and if they weren't I didn't!
You always end up doing a lot extra for part time.

I think you are being unreasonable as a teacher we get long holidays and in return we do over an above what is expected. I worked part time for 2 years and attended every parents evening, INSET and helped out on trips on my day off and never expected extra pay.

Thanks everyone. Parents evenings are I agree a must and being later on in the day, my husband will be home. INSET days, I have been told, should be paid if they are NOT on your working day. The NUT told me that, but I thought that as I was contracted to work 0.6 I had to attend 0.6 worth of INSET's a year, what ever the day. I can see this makes sense but if I had to pay an extra days childcare I would be £40 worse off. Its so hard, as I do feel that going part time you are seen as less committed to the cause? But all in all so glad i'm part time and can spend time with bubs! Just going to be poor forever!

You would really need to speak to your own school. The problem is that there are no clear guidlines for these issues. I work .6 and my school have been really good. I have never had to go in for inset if im not working, but i always go in for parents evening. Its give and take really and we all know that alot of the work we do is on goodwill. I definitly know though that you do not have to go in to school, if it is your designated day off. Get the school to put in your contract the days of the week you work, not just the percentage of time table.

I would have been prepared to do two parent's evenings but the Head told me that I only had to do one-I wasn't going to argue.

Did you recieve a gold star twinsetandpearls? If you could afford the extra childcare lucky you. I personally feel very protective of my days off as they are my baby's time, not schools time. He is far more important than a school trip.

That's a wise idea cascade - thank's. I don't blame you AbbeyA!

Has everyone found a job share straightforward? Any major issues I should be prepared for? Seems to be fine so far....

You just have to make sure that you can get on with your jobshare partner. You both end up doing more than you should!

No I did not recieve a gold star, why ask for an opinion and then get all sarky when you don;t get the one you want. My commitment was recognised though and when I wanted time off to see school plays, assemblies etc I got it. I did struggle to pay the extra nursery fees sometimes tbh but again that commitment paid off when I was promoted.

I taught in a school where the children did not have the luxury of parents who took them on trips, as my dd did , it did her no harm to miss me for the odd day so I could help children who had far less then her.

As a teacher you have more time with your baby than most working parents.

Nothing new then! I love teaching but my god does a baby make you realise you need a work life balance!

I agree it is hard to find a work life balance but we do have good pensions and long holidays. I have tried to solve this by getting dp to reduce his hours and work from home.

no i dont job share as im secondary, although i share some classes, which I dont personally like as all teachers do things differently and you can get a liitle bit of conflict from stroppy year 11, ie ms so and so lets me do that, and i dont feel personally responsible for my classes that i share.
What area do you teach. i teach secondary and I cant get my days put into my contract due to timetabling, if your primary this should be easier to negotiate. I would also ring your LEA HR, they could also be very useful as most schools will follow their direction.

I know what your saying twinsetandpeals but I really think you have to be so so so careful to protect your family time in teaching. No one should be seen as more worthy for promotion because they work without pay. Your commitment is great, good for you. I just think a work life balance is important, we all do extra, I will, but not at the expense of my baby's time.

Part time teachers are under no obligation (though your head may try and tell you otherwise) to attend INSET or parent's evenings on days they do not normally work. However you may attend them if you wish to and your school should offer to pay you for them.

Until July dh was working a 0.4. He worked for other schools/privately on the other days so could not necessarily go in on his days off. Where he was able to re-arrange he was always paid for them.

I think its all there somewhere in the burgundy book.

TBH, as a parent I would feel pretty pissed off if a teacher didnt attend a parent evening simply because they 'don't work that day'. I think pupils are already at a disadvantage sometimes with part time teachers, as it means split classes, so to be told that a part time teacher wasnt available on the designated evening would really hack me off!!

To be quite frank finfthe river, its tough luck. And I speak as a parent, not as a teacher. Dh was a peri so aprent;t eveings were not an issue.

Thanks cat64. I'm Primary and an AST so teach 2 1/2 days with 1/2 a day AST role.
Its been interesting to see how many friends who were deputy or assistant heads have HAD to return as class teachers as they couldn't hold onto the deputy role. It does seem harder for women in teaching. I've never heard of a part time deputy?

unfortunately its not in the burgundy book, thats why there is so much confusion. The NUT are apparently working on it, so there is less confusion for head teachers/teachers. I know that this year there has been some changes to the way they work out pay for part time teachers.