5 month Maternity Leave

[MissHoney85]

I'm a teacher and expecting my first child in mid January. My plan is to go on Maternity Leave after the Christmas holidays.

I had always thought I would take a nice long maternity leave and enjoy my baby, then hopefully return to work on a very part time basis for a couple of years.

However, the way the dates are working out it looks like I might end up going back to work when the baby is only about 5 months old. The reason being that, due to the terms of teachers' Mat Leave pay, I need to work for 13 weeks FTE after Mat Leave or I will have to pay back my enhanced maternity pay. So it kind of makes sense for me to go back for the last half term (basically June and July), then that together with the summer holidays will take me up to 13 weeks. I'm hoping that my school will give me a 2 day a week part time role from September, but haven't discussed this yet. (Probably too early for them to commit anyway.)

My DH can take shared parental leave, so baby will have a parent at home and won't have to go into childcare. The other complicating factor is that we are probably going to move house shortly before or after the birth, and so I will have a 1hr drive each way to get to and from work.

An alternative might be to take the start of the summer holidays as my return date and do the rest of the 13 weeks in the Autumn term, but it might be harder to get my contract changed to part from mid-way through the academic year.

Am I mad to consider this? 5 months seems to tiny to be away all day 5 days a week, especially with 2 hours of commuting...

Do you have to return to full time hours for 13 weeks?

I think it has to be the full time equivalent of 13 hours - so I could go part time but would have to stay there for longer. This is definitely a possibility, though 1) I'm not sure whether my school will agree to me going PT anyway and 2) I don't know how much of an issue the 2hr commute is going to be. (I drive about 40 minutes each way at the moment which is doable, but the new commute is going to be a motorway slog. I'm prone to getting sleepy when driving on motorways as it is, nevermind with a baby sharing my bed...)

Surely it just means that if you went back 2.5 days a week you'd need to stay for 26 weeks to not pay your additional maternity pay back? Are you planning on changing job? I have a few teacher friends who have Gina back part time after a year off and none has mentioned an issue with paying back pay.

Yes I could just stay for longer part time. Depends whether my school will actually offer me a PT position though, and how doable I find the commute.

Ah. I work in a school and I'm returning next month after maternity leave (TA). I used to be full-time (42hrs inc. MSA, and clubs), but I have halved my hours to 22.5, just doing afternoons.
I assumed so long as you go back for 13 weeks in whatever way, you don't have to pay anything back.

It's very hard for schools to refuse part time. There are only a few reasons they can give and there are a lot of part time teachers already.

Whatever you do, tell school you're taking the full year. It's easier to say you'll go back early than to try and extend your leave.

You can then make a decision once baby is here.

I'm not a teacher but have taken 5 months or less maternity leave with each of my children (3) as that's what our family finances allow. I have 1-1.5hr commute each way and work full time. In fact with dc3 I took 4 months and we also did shared parental leave (although Covid meant I have been WFH more so not commuting every day). I did find it a bit hard with DC1 especially but probably more from the negative comments of others- I think it's still a bit unusual in the uk to have a short maternity leave and go back to work full time. I work for a US company now where 12 weeks is standard and most seem to go back full time so perceptions are different! I never fell asleep on my commute or at work (despite dc2 being a terrible sleeper!) . It is possible but always go for what works best for you and your family.