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Original poster

part time teachers HELP with parents evenings on days OFF

407 replies

GordianKnot · 11/03/2010 20:07

ok so i do three days
parents eve always on day off
dont mind dointg EXAM classes at all, but in KS3 is complusory subject so its tough titty really.
so i said " are you goign to pay me or not expect me in"

teh solution they propose is that my LOVELY HoD reads out what i write down

dont know what do do

OP posts:
Bumperlicious · 11/03/2010 20:59

Not a teacher but work part time and if I have to do something on my day off (e.g. training) I get it as flexi time, but that is one of the few joys of working for the civil service

So, if you do 7 parents evening a year, at, what? 3 hours a time? 21 hours, that's nearly 3 days in overtime! However presumably if you worked on those days you would have to do them anyway, so amount of time isn't really an issue, unless you think you should do a proportion of the time, which may not be practicable, but is fair. We have the same issue with things like public holidays. So interests of fairness we get given a PH 'allowance' proportionate to our % hours worked. That means that if you work mondays (as I do) you have to make up the time with annual leave, but if you don't you can take that leave whenever you like. But it was great for me last year as I managed to go a whole leave year without Easter in it (april-march leave year) so got 2.5 days to play with.

Sorry, that was a very boring response, with barely any bearing on your question, but I am tired and a little delusional now...

Had 12 week scan to BTW and got a little wave from the baby , plus am a week further along than I though, thank fuck, hopefully the sickness will go sooner.

tethersend · 11/03/2010 21:02

duckyfuzz, you cannot be obliged to attend parent's evenings on days you are not contracted to work.

"If you want to consider teaching a profession, then teachers have to be professional. This means not nitpicking with their hours."

Err... teaching is a profession whether I want it to be considered as such or not . Why do you equate professionalism with being required to work unlimited hours above and beyond those you are contracted for?

EvilTwins · 11/03/2010 21:04

We don't get paid for holidays. Our pay is for the weeks we work, it's just spread out over 12 months. I'm currently part time, but am doing it as supply between now and Easter (loooong story) and my hourly rate is rather nice, thank you, because I won't get paid during holidays - just for the days I work. After Easter, I will be employed properly, at the same school, as a part time teacher. My "hourly" rate will then, in effect, go down, as it will be spread out evenly across the months.

Oh, and twinset - yawn.

iggi999 · 11/03/2010 21:05

No-one has an answer for how I can physically go to a parents evening if I am with my DC and their DF won't get home till it's almost over.

duckyfuzz · 11/03/2010 21:07

you can be, if that is what your school has written into your contract, which you have signed up for when you requested to go p/t - but the time must be given back elsewhere

Tinuviel · 11/03/2010 21:07

I work 2 days a week and would normally consider 2 parents' evenings out of 5 to be contracted hours. This year I did 3 as that was just the way it worked out with classes and only 1 was on my work day. What annoyed me was that on one of them I only had 3 sets of parents to see (for 1 or 2 you can 'phone instead) but only 2 turned up. Still at least they were the 2 I really wanted to see (which doesn't often happen!)

OTOH I am only expected to do 2 PD Days so if 3 of them fall on my work days, I get an extra day off!! I choose at the start of the year which 2 PD days to do and only turn up for those, unless something really interesting is offered and is on a normal work day, in which case I know I'm entitled to be paid but wouldn't necessarily as for it.

abbierhodes · 11/03/2010 21:08

Iggi, you arrange childcare. I teach fulltime, but have to arrange extra childcare for the evening if I have parents evenings. Like you, my childcare needs don't usually stretch this late. I don't see how it's different just because you've been home with your DC all day.

ninah · 11/03/2010 21:11

doesn't school have after school club iggi? I am have booked mine in and asked friend to collect (lone parent)

Tinuviel · 11/03/2010 21:11

I usually get DH to finish work early to cover me or ask -random- -strangers- relatives/friends to look after them.

Tinuviel · 11/03/2010 21:12

Why does crossing out never work for me? I meant to say that either DH/relatives/friends look after DCs when I am at parents' evenings.

PatTheHammer · 11/03/2010 21:14

LOL at Eviltwins......although I did rather think that teaching was salaried and therefore not subject to hourly pay? For example I get 0.6 of the full-time salary of someone on UPS1, not 0.6 of the 'hourly rate' as such. Maybe I have this all wrong, but thats why I teach Science and not accounting and finance!

Iggi- there is no answer except get DP to finish early which is what I have to do (obviously he makes up the hours elsewhere over and above this as we couldn't have both of us looking so 'unprofessional' could we)

mitochondria · 11/03/2010 21:14

Thing is, parents' evenings are in the evening. So full time teachers wouldn't be working then either.

I do think, though, that if it says in the contract you should be paid, then you should be paid.

Part time teachers have to be very protective of their "non-working" time, in my experience. MIL works part time (job share) but often seems to be in school on her days "off" for one reason or another.

iggi999 - the childcare dilemma you describe may equally well apply to a full-time teacher, surely?

PatTheHammer · 11/03/2010 21:17

Ninah- Mine are not at school as they are still tiny and most childcare finishes at 5.30ish and some won't book them in just for an hour or so every now and again. Plus there is that old chestnut that if you are booking extra childcare then you should be being paid....................oh, we have already said this!!!

specialsmasher · 11/03/2010 21:18

'I think the problem is that if you start insisting that you can't turn up for parent's evenings if you are part-time, you start to make quite a strong argument that teaching is unsuited to part time workers. Which isn't really in anyone's interest, is it?'

Good point

There is a culture in my school which doesn't involve people constantly pointing to rule books, thankfully.

islandofsodor · 11/03/2010 21:21

You can not be made to go in on a day when you are not normally working.

Dh used to be on a 0.6 contract and had another teaching job the rest of the week. INSET etc that fell on his day off he attended with a day off in lieu or pay IF it was convenient to his other commitments.

cornsilk · 11/03/2010 21:22

don't do it

pointylog · 11/03/2010 21:24

What are all the perks of teaching then?

Apart from the (unpaid) fab holidays.

ninah · 11/03/2010 21:25

Oh yes, I see Pat, in this case it would have to be a friends/family one off - I don't think I could have managed it when they were younger tbh as no local family. As it is I will be paying for childcare and not being paid .. but tbh I am so damned glad to be working in a job I actually enjoy I don't care
and I don't mean that in a cat's bottom kind of way!

ooosabeauta · 11/03/2010 21:26

Not wanting to aggrieve anybody... I suspect that wastwinsetandpearls is not a secondary teacher, and certainly not one in a tough school! I'm not sure about having great long holidays, as all of mine bar the summer were taken up in marking and planning, and even in the summer I spend the first and last week working. Sundays and many evenings are also spent working, as well as competitions on Saturdays which often take the whole day, which balances out the extra weeks in summer. These aren't great perks really!

I would also argue that we're not paid that well for a 'professional' job, which is why there are so many poorly qualified teachers in secondary schools. I am the only person from my group of friends at our college at university to work in the state sector - few academic students want to start working for less than £30K and few want to spend their days dealing with poor behaviour instead of academia.

PatTheHammer · 11/03/2010 21:26

Specialsmasher- and that is why people get away with doing whatever they like and staff just go along with it.

Don't think anyone has posted that they insisted they didnt go to parents evening. Most people said they went in didn't they?

The bottom line I think is that most people are not sure about what is legally required of them. The information is a bit vague and open to interpretation (that may or may not be abused) and in some cases this could lead to some people being taken advantage of their desire to be seem as an equal 'professional' to their full-time colleagues

Hulababy · 11/03/2010 21:27

I had this wehn I was still teachign. Infact, due to other issues as well, I spoke with the Union about it.

If a parent evening falls on your day off you do not have to attend.

If you do choose to go in then they should pay you for those hours and officially they should also pay travel and childcare costs apparently too.

The same applies for INSET on your days off and meetings.

The head can tell you what he or she likes, but the actual truth is you do not have to at all.

I had emails from my union which backed all this up which I gave copies to the head and SMT. They never hassled me again.

I went to some, others I didn't. It depended on my other committments at that time.

If I was not attending I offered parents a short handwritten comment, the opportunity to call me in school or to see me at an alternative time, but on my working days.

Was not a problem.

pointylog · 11/03/2010 21:28

ooos, she is a secondary teacher. Stop being so condescneding towards primary.

cornsilk · 11/03/2010 21:30
ooosabeauta · 11/03/2010 21:30

Getting back to the point, PT staff by the rules of mine and dh's schools have to come in for parents' evenings for all of their classes even not on a day they'd normally teach because it's part of directed time so part of their contract. Difficult but part of the job.

pointylog · 11/03/2010 21:32

corns. Not I, but I should change my name back. Was indeed a fecal-related joke.

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