Teachers, when should I start maternity leave?

[Naschkatze]

(Potentially) relevant information:
First baby, 22 weeks pregnant. Due at the end of February.

I teach KS1 in a 'challenging' school, full time. No extra responsibilities as such. I have a minor subject leadership role but nothing too time consuming.

Commute is 30/35 minutes each way and I drive. (Does there come a point when driving is uncomfortable/worse, impossible?)

It sort of makes sense to start maternity leave officially the first day back after Feb half term so I get paid (fully) for that week off. That means though on my last day in school I will be 38 weeks pregnant.

So, what do you all think?!

I know various things could mean I have to stop work early but basing this on the fact that at the moment I feel generally well except exhausted tired and no problems in pregnancy so far.

I finished at 36 weeks. I tried to make it to 38 to be paid for the Xmas hols but I couldn't do it. It was absolutely the best decision for me. Those 5 weeks before dd was born were just bliss. Pretty much the happiest and most relaxed I've ever been in my life! I could nap and meet friends then nap again. I went on lovely long winter walks and spent afternoon by log fires in pubs; rather than marking mocks and putting on a school pants while weeping with exhaustion. It was absolutely worth sacrificing two weeks' pay for.

salted caramel I'm a secondary teacher and went off last Feb (baby born 24th Feb) I felt nervous for my exam classes and like I was abandoning them...until my own baby was born and I really didn't give them a second thought as there was a supply teacher in place and my own baby took WAY more importance in my life! I'm currently expecting again and due I May so will see them through the majority of the year this time!

Sunshinie in my experience the tiredness does get better. My first trimester was in the summer hols and I was SO glad I wasn't teaching. I don't think I could have done it, I was exhausted and nauseous from about 5 every evening until bed!
Now, although I am tired it's much more manageable. I hope it's the same for you in a few weeks time!

Terrified that does sound lovely!

I think I'm going to look more carefully at how long we can afford for me to be off afterwards and if I can have the year, then I'll start a bit earlier. If it's only 9 months I think I'd like to save it for with baby as much as possible. Such a difficult decision though.

I'm going to 39 weeks. I finished at 36 with dd and it was way too soon for me. This time I will have the Christmas holidays off, go back for the teacher days and 7 days of teaching and then finish. Unless I have to have a C-section in which case I'll go in for the teacher day and one or two days of teaching before finishing the day before. I'll have Christmas to get the house and everything ready so I'm just going to soldier on. For comparison, I'm a single department Drama teacher and head of Year 9. My replacement for my HOY position will start straight after Christmas with me 'supporting'. I'm hoping the boss appoints my subject replace not to start straight after Christmas too for 'hand over'.

DoctorDonna you definitely timed things well with September! I had thought it might take me until Christmas so I'd have one then but clearly Mother Nature had other ideas!

Littlegrey wow so impressed you got through an OFSTED that's amazing. Really sorry to hear you need surgery, wishing you well

Sonnet you're right. I'm sure I'll forget all about them once baby is here so I need to keep reminding myself that they're big enough to cope and not my actual babies even though they're fab I just worry about finding a replacement at all let alone a good one
from past experience when we tried to expand as I'm the only still the only subject specialist. Oh well if I come back in February that should be enough time to help the current year 12s before their year 13 exams

I'm due early June so will probably finish the week after half-term. This should mean my Y11s and 13a get everything they need apart from extra revision classes. My partner teachers and other y11 teachers should be able to offer some so they should be fine (she says confidently!).

I'm officially stopping at 34 weeks, so at the end of half term. My mat cover started after the summer holidays and I've been doing interventions and cover for the term. It meant that I had much less marking and planning to do (I usually teach UKS2), which has really helped.
I wouldn't make it to 38 or 39 weeks. I also wouldn't want to, to be quite honest. For the past ten years, I've been doing about 60 hours per week. This year, I'm allowing myself to take several steps back.

When are all you ladies due? I'm due 23rd March so only 18 weeks at the moment.

The guilt with exam classes is crazy but ultimately I think we are entitled to have a baby and SLT should be able to sort the rest out. That's why they get paid so much right?!!

I'm sure if we all had "normal" desk jobs we could keep going longer. But I know I'll not be able to keep up with all my TLR responsibilities let alone marking of coursework.

I was due 2 august with dd1. Secondary, so it helped that I had a small amount of gained time with yr11. Stayed till the end do term and officially went on mat leave on her due date. Helped that I had a straightforward pg though.

I'm secondary. I went at 29 weeks, which was two weeks into the year. But I had several reasons why that was a good choice for me. I have two already, one starting reception and one in year 1 - last year my eldest had an appalling transition into reception, so I really wanted to be around for the two eldest, especially knowing a baby was going to upset the status quo for them. It also meant I was off timetable from day one and so exam classes were reassigned. I teach a lot of exam classes, so it was important to me that they were settled. With DS2 I was admitted to hospital a lot from 28 weeks, fortunately that hasn't happened this time, but I didn't want the possibility of additional stress of being in hospital, needing to set cover, and worrying about my exam groups. And I had horrendous spd with him, so couldn't imagine surviving at work. I'm 34 weeks today. I've had a lovely 5 weeks with two eldest. I've had two brief hospital visits. And I would say this past week I've reached the point where school would have been awful for me, spd is starting to kick in. So I could have made it to half term, but it would've been a struggle and I would have missed some lessons.

Just do what's right for you. I know everyone wants to save time for afterwards, but if you need time before then you need it if you're managing well, then work to the end of a holiday. Through preference I would have gone until first day back after half term, so 35 weeks, but the problems of my last pregnancy and my two eldest made that a worry, and I don't regret the time I've had not teaching and marking with my children

I went on maternity leave this time last year at 36 weeks and a due date of 20th October. He was 6 days late and I loved the time I had relaxing and getting ready. My husband works from home so it was nice to have a few later mornings and longer lunch breaks, a few cheeky cinema trips, a massage - just getting ready.

It's worth thinking about how the holidays fit with going back. I got paid for Oct half term and went back for the last week of term in July. Finishing later would have made no difference to my pay at the end? I was paid a "full month" in July because I was back by the pay cut of in July even though I only worked 5 days? It's worth considering! You could do one day before the Christmas hols for example and get paid for those two weeks?!

20th November due date, not October!

Justwondering I'm wishing that the Feb half term fell when I was closer to 36 weeks rather than 38, that would be perfect! Good tip about considering holidays when I go back as well.

You can put the first day of a holiday as your return to work day. You get paid for the holiday but obviously don't work it.

^Yep! I did that with DS1.