Pregnant teacher- when to tell head?

[Noodles14]

Hi all. So I am now 5w3d and am so very excited! Being a teacher though the timing regarding telling my head teacher my news isn't great. I am head of year 6 and and am expecting to be year 6 again come September. My question is, when do you think I should tell? If I left it until 12 weeks, that would be the end of June which makes me feel uneasy- they would have wanted to have sorted out year groups by then but if I tell them earlier I'm afraid they may stop me going on our PGL trip (4 night residential) which is at the beginning of June. I'm the group leader of the PGL trip and really want to go but I just have this feeling my head might be funny about me going as I'm pregnant and say I can't go!
Any advice, tips or experiences of any of this? Thanks x

I told my school at 7 weeks because I was similar timings to you and felt like I didn't want to mess up their year group plans for the following year. They were very supportive when I first told them and said I would be an extra adult in a year group for the Autumn term which I was very keen on. Then year group allocation came out and I was in a year group with 2 non qualified teachers and was basically responsible for training them up! I was a NQT +1 at this point. It proved to be a horribly stressful term during which I felt I received no support. Was made to feel guilty that I couldn't attend a twilight training session as I had an antenatal class and was told I would be having an observation on my last day before maternity.

Luckily from reading previous posts I seem to be in the minority from the way I was treated and most schools seem to be supportive during pregnancy. But I did all I could to accommodate the SLT and I never felt that was reciprocated or appreciated. Don't even get me started on how they treated me when I approached them regarding my return to work!

Ultimately I would say do what you feel comfortable with as you know your SLT the best.

I'm also a Y6 teacher+ head of year 5&6. I'm now only 7 weeks and I decided to tell my head teacher last week as I knew that staffing for next year was starting to be discussed and didn't want to wait till mid June and then cause a huge shake-up! Also we have some children with behavioural issues and I wanted to safeguard myself! That and I thought it best to let SLT know before the SATs just in case morning sickness strikes. I feel so much better for telling. And this weekend I've had really bad fatigue for the first time so I'm glad they know in case I'm not at full capacity this week.

I really hope morning sickness doesn't kick in this week during SATs...that would be the worse timing ever! May need to keep a secret stash of biscuits in my drawer I think I'll tell them before half term as I know they'll be having year group organisation chats sooner rather than later.

I told my school at the time as late as possible, as the contractual situation was unclear (it was a decent school with decent SLT, but rubbish HR). I also saw an employment lawyer to be absolutely sure how to best to manage things as I didn't want to not be able to finish my training, come back to a vastly changed job or be got rid of. I have seen too many other women have bad experiences. It worked out well but I didn't give them much chance for it not to!

OP, it is not your responsibility to worry about how they will replace you, whether things will have to be changed, etc. However, it is probably a good idea to tell your line manager before the PGL for safety/possible tiredness reasons (assuming there is a line manager between you and the Head).