Requesting term time only - any tips?

[tankerdale]

I'm contracted for 18hrs pw (0.5fte) in a public sector role. I started last autumn.

Lots of my team are women and a fair few have school age children.

My own kids are 9,6 and 2.

The role is demanding, I think I've settled in well and I think they value me. We're always a bit understaffed and it always feels like we're under pressure as a team in terms of volume of work.

It's obviously the first school summer hols ive had to cover since starting and I've just about managed it but it's a struggle.

I've discovered that 2 others in my team do term time only - one formally through HR and another more informally where she just builds up TOIL which she takes in holidays.

I would love to do term time only as juggling feels a struggle, the work is tough so I think school hols off would keep me sane and I could have precious time with my girls.

Any tips on how to present this to my manager? I'm a bit worried that the fact I'm managing this summer hols will count against me and demonstrate it's possible?
I will include that I'm happy to do any role within the team they feel is best suited to this working pattern (e.g. duty, long term casework etc).

Anything else I could add to help my case?
Annually they wouldn't lose out as id up my term time hours to compensate.
Not sure I can say much about how my work would be covered when I'm not there... I'm obviously only there half the time anyway.

I wonder if I'll basically have to imply I'll leave if it's not granted? If they said no and somewhere else would agree then I would go, but not sure that's very likely and I do feel fortunate to have got a part time contract with quite a lot of flexibility Day to day.

Any thoughts welcome on the best approach.

@tankerdale did you request term time working in the end? How did it go?

I did! I emailed my request giving a bit of justification and extra info but not loads, I think I emailed around July to give her notice of my intention to formally ask (didn’t want someone else to get in first but felt September would be a good time to ask once the summer pressured period was over).
Asked via email in September just informally not using proper form but offered to do that, she didn’t get back to me for ages but then just said yes! I didn’t have to justify it or argue much at all. Since Jan I’ve been doing 20 hours PW term time only and it has been great. I do think it was a strange management decision as the team is under so much pressure and they’ve now said no more term time only working, and I do feel bad for my colleagues and am sure it’s created a bit of bad feeling (not to my face...) but it’s really good for my family and my mental health actually. Good luck if you’re going to ask!