HELP! I'm having such a crap day. Teachers advice needed too!

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

What a rubbish day. First thing this morning I send my boss (primary head teacher) an email to ask about the first day back which is an INSET day. It is on a day I don't work, Thursday and so asked him if he wanted me to attend and if so I would put a pay claim form in.

He sent the rudest email back saying that although I work Mon-Wednesday I needed to attend all INSET days and just 1 this year is on a day I work so the others I would have to go unpaid! I am too pissed off to email him back, but phoned my union who said he was way out of line and had to pay me or give me time off instead. The childcare costs would be £120 if nursery could even help me out!

Trouble is it?s the sort of school where you get an outstanding observation if you conform to these mad systems and a crap observation if you say anything out of his dislike! AIBU and should just keep my head down and hope family and friends can help out? I only have until Feb and I'm on maternity leave.

Oh and then just to tip me over the edge went to play at a friend?s house today and my toddler of 22 months refused to share and bit my friends son


He has never done it before I feel CRAP!

[vinblanc]

I think that if you are part-time, then you do lose out when there are important activities on your days off, or lose out on pay when you are required to come in on your days off.

In industry, if you are on a professional grade, then you need to work when you need to work. You may be able to negotiate time off in lieu but this may seem to be petty.

When you are a working mum, I think you do need to give and take more than other people. If your child were sick and you needed to take time off, you don't want your employer to make things difficult for you. Going in for an essential meeting on your day off is basically making a deposit into the kindness bank, which will be returned to you in due course.

[BubbaAndBump]

At risk of highjacking this thread, I have v. similar position to OP - just about to go back two days a week but am being expected (not asked) to come in and deliver INSET to staff. Cannot put DCs into nursery, GPs away, possibly able to leave DD1 with a friend. Am planning on taking DD2 (10mnths old) in just to prove a point . AIBU? (trying to pretend tethersend hasn't seen a trial run of my INSET!)

[notanumber]

Below is ATL's advice on this.

Can I be directed to attend all staff meetings and on INSET days?

Our view is that part-time teachers should attend a pro-rata share of staff meetings and INSET days and these should be allocated on days when the teacher is normally at school/college.

If you are required to attend for INSET on a day when you do not normally work then this may be lawful provided the employer can show objective justification.

For example, your school may say that attendance of all teaching staff at INSET
days is essential for personal and professional development and for the efficiency of the school. This is likely to satisfy the objective justification stipulation.

You may wish to argue that the INSET days should be prioritised, so that you attend the days most relevant to your work. Your employer will then have to show that your attendance at more than the pro-rata allocation (and possibly attendance at all days) is necessary to meet the particular objective, that the objective is legitimate and that requiring you to attend is an appropriate way of achieving that objective.

If you are required to attend for INSET on a day when you are not normally in school then you should either be paid or given Time Off In Lieu (TOIL). If you are required to attend but will not be paid or given TOIL then this can be less favourable treatment if your full-time colleagues are being paid.
The employer may argue that they do not have to pay you or give you TOIL as there is enough capacity in your directed time hours to accommodate the direction. If the employer makes this case you should ask them for a detailed written breakdown of your directed time. If you have concerns about the
breakdown please contact your local ATL branch.

If support staff are asked to attend meetings or INSET days outside of their
contracted weeks and hours they should be paid for those extra hours and/or days.

It is usually in the interest of support staff to be included in training days but if they are above and beyond their contractual requirement as much notice as possible should be provided. Confirmation that they will be paid should be provided well before the training takes place.

[notanumber]

I would also second Sassy's suggestion of visiting the TES Pay and Conditions forum

This subject has been covered exhaustively there, a quick search will give you tons of helpful advice.

[Sassyfrassy]

Thanks for putting up the link notanumber.

It's a really useful forum with lots of knowledgable people.

Your head sounds absolutely dreadful =( Are you going to try to find a different school for next year?

[TamTam29]

why with our unions is this still such a grey area??? I phoned mine last September with a similar issues.

According to my union you are only expected to work on the days that you are contracted for. Anytime you are required in to work outside your contracted days, you should be compensated for - either in money or time in lieu.

The teachers pay & conditions act doesnt apply to part time teachers so the number of teaching days/non teaching days is irelevant to us part timers as we are paid pro-rota for a full school year. However your head is obliged to ensure all staff recieve appropriate training and so this is where the attending INSET pro-rata buisness comes in. And the (very clever) wording in our contracts means it is presumed we undertake/do certain things without them actually being writen down.

My union said that legally all I was obliged to do was to attend work on my contracted days - regardless of teaching/non-teaching but that if the head requested I did X number of INSETS then i had to try to attend them where reasonably posible. And that I should be paid/given time if they were not on one of my days.

However Head wouldnt accept this - said I had to do 2.5 days INSET and then would be paid for any i attended beyond this. Couldnt be bothered to argue anymore. I have a head very like yours and im not in his "clique" of yes men. I only lost out on 1/2 days pay but my job share lost out on 3 days pay as most INSETs were on my days.

Oh yeah the other thing my head does is blackmail staff into attending INSET "for own professional development". Which means he doesnt have to pay up as you chose to attend rather than him requesting you attend!

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

TamTam29 sounds like we work under the same head! Thanks for the links everyone.

The trouble is I know he isn't right but is it worth rocking the boat.......I'm not sure (goes off to stick pins in photo of her head)

[Hulababy]

Do remember though that is you give in on this one you do set the precedent for any future ones on your days off. This is why I did fel it was worth taking it further with my head. Once he had all the union paperwork, plus the name and contact details of the regional union rep my head dropped the matter and never asked again.

I simply said I had other committmments n my days not at work and I was simply not available.

[notanumber]

MaryPoppins , I understand what you're saying. If you're only sticking out til Feb half term, is it really worth the aggro?

Can you get anyone to look after your DCs that day?

If it were me, and I could go in without being out of pocket having to pay for extra childcare, then I'd just suck it up, knowing I'd be leaving soon.

But why should you pay for Inset (which is effectively what you'll be doing) if you have to send DCs to nursery?

Could you put the dilema in those terms (maybe to a sympathetic deputy head)?

And maybe as a compromise offer say, "I can't afford the £100 childcare to come in that day. If the school could cover that amount I'll happily come in, I won't want supply rate for the full day, just enough to cover my costs."

Good luck.

[TamTam29]

ring in sick

I am also hoping to find a new school for the end of this maternity leave...would be so gutted if I have to return there!

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

How was he with you afterwards Hulababy?

[Hulababy]

Fine actually. Think he just learnt that, although I was very quiet on the whole, I wouldn't be messed with. Helped as he knew DD was a lawyer

Seriously though, it caused no problem. Deep down I think he knew I worked very hard when I was there and outside of school re planning, and just hadn;t known the actual rules on PT staff attendance. Guess no one else had raised it prperly before.

I know you head sounds much much worse though, so it depends on how he will react and what you want the outcome to be.

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

Thanks lovely ladies. What a day and its not even September yet

[rimmer08]

this is a difficult one and i am a secondary teacher so dont know how helpful this will be so here goes. you must check your contract because as a part time member of staff you will be required to attend a certain percentage of inset days. in my school everyone is expected in for teacher training days even if they dont usually work on those days, without pay.as a union rep for my school i would therefore give the following advice to a member..

1. check contract
2. if contract doesnt stipulate hours in speak to the head face to face instead of sending an email asking what you will be doing on those days. i am unsure whether you will be eligable for pay for coming in as situation different in my school.
3. if contract suggests percentage of insets to be attended you need to weigh up whether you would rather attend this one day or lose a couple of after schools in the term.
4. you may want to think about picking and choosing battles as these sorts of things can be contentious. if you are working as a team with a group of teachers, how will they feel if you dont attend to contribute. if it was me i would go in, you might miss something important, ask about being paid for it but i think you would be best off asking for a day of in lieu- which you are more likely to get .

[violethill]

Hulababy: 'I was told by the union that I did not have to work for INSET or parent's evenings, etc. on my days off unless I chose to, and then I should be paid accordingly.

This is why schools are supposed to ensure meetings, parent's evenings, INSET etc are apread throughout the year occuring on different days of the week.'

I accept that this was the advice given to you by your Union, but where does it leave the pupils if a part time teacher doesn't attend their parents evening because it's not on one of 'their' days?

It could also be argued that not attending all meetings and INSET is going to indirectly disadvantage some pupils.

I know that in reality, it's possible to sometimes rearrange parent consultations, or do it over the phone, but as a general principle, this is one of the issues which makes P/T teaching potentially tricky. At my school, P/T staff have to attend all parents evenings, even if it means coming in on an evening of a 'day off'. After all, it's an extra for everyone - no one would normally be there til 9 at night. I understand the pro rata argument, but how does that sit with the fact that ultimately, no pupils should be disadvantaged by the fact that their teacher is P/T?

I'm not suggesting any simple solutions BTW! Just saying that as schools run F/T five days per week and the pupils are there the whole time, it's not actually a particularly easy job to do P/T. There are very few comparable jobs where clients/customers/patients etc would be there all week.

[DebiTheScot]

I'm shocked at the head's attitude. There's no way you should be under so much pressure all the time and be always feeling you can't do something in case you piss him off.

I work part time (3/5) and there's nothing in my contract about INSET days at all so I take that to mean that if I don't work that day I don't have to go. I was told once (by a colleague, not an official person) that we are meant to do the same proportion as days we work and for me it usually works out that the ones on days I work are about 3/5 of them so it's not an issue.

If I was asked to do one on a day I didn't work- or felt I should as it'd be useful- I would only do it if it was easy for my childminder to have them and if they paid at least the childminder fees. I did a course last year which involved days I didn't work and I got paid supply rate for those days.

[Clure]

I teach Monday to Wednesday and have been asked to attend the 2 staff development days on the Thursday and Friday. As our school has just been placed in special measures and the curriculum and staff are undergoing changes all staff have been asked if they would mind attending. I was asked by a polite email and was told "of course you will be paid for both days as they are not your normal working days"
I would agree that your head is out of order!

[piscesmoon]

When I was working part time I just went unpaid. It is a tricky one, the school didn't have the money to pay me, but you miss out a lot if you don't go. In the end we worked a system where I went if I thought it professionally beneficial to me, so sometimes I did part of a day. My last school was much better and able to pay me.When you are working part time you do way over what you should do anyway-this was just one more thing.However I do think I am too easy going and I also didn't have child care fees to pay.

[Hulababy]

violethill - I judged which parents I needed to see and arranged to see them. Others I sent a note home with comments, some I did my telephone. Some parent's evenings I did go in, others I was unable to due to not being available. I arranged to see parents on different days either before or after school. It was never a problem.

With regards meetings and INSET I attened those that occured on my working days but not those on my days off. I got feedback and handouts from any I missed, along with any minutes. My school worked it through a "cascading" of information. Again, it always worked perfectly fine.

The school already knew I put in over and above what was required, so they were not overly concerned by me not attending mettings on days I was not contracted to work.

[tethersend]

OP does take 0.5 of the annual leave: she doesn't get paid full time through the holidays!

Although if I could work out a way to swing that one....hmmm

[Littlefish]

Secondcoming - we are not paid for those three months.

[IOnlyReadtheDailyMailinCafes]

When I worked part time I went to every INSET day, parents evening. I think in terms of the law you have to attend a percentage of INSETS in relation to your contract and all parents evenings. I would have thought that an INSET the first day back would be rather essential. I never asked to be paif for INSETS, I got a salary and that was enough but you can be paid.

Teaching, especially part time teaching, does not make huge demands in terms of childcare. Other part time workers will have paid for childcare all over the summer holiday.

[Hulababy]

Officially teachers don't actually get paid for holidays. They are paid for xxx number of hours teaching. Their salary is then spread over 12 months.

However yes, they do recieve money over the holidays.

Also a .5 PT teacher recieves 0.5 of the salary regardless. They are on holiday for 0.5 of the teaching hours in a schoolbreak. The other 0.5 is their nrormal dayss off.

I know you are tongue in cheek, but sadly this is a sore topic on MN at times.