Teachers and maternity leave

[TinkRose]

Hello! I thought I’d see if any teachers have been/are in a similar situation to me. My EDD is sometime in the first week of August. My school will break up for summer on July 18th, when I’ll be around 37 weeks. My aim is to work right up until this point, but obviously, I know plans may go awry!
If I was to work up until this point, would I then be able to start maternity leave on whatever day the baby arrives in August? I want to maximise paid time off to hopefully have the full school year! Any tips would be much appreciated. I’d ask HR but they are impossible to get in touch with!

The latest you can begin your Mat Leave is your due date so once you have this confirmed on your MATB1 form you can submit Mat Forms to begin Mat leave that week and it's triggered if baby comes early.

I had DD2 by planned C section and started my mat leave officially the day before I had her, however I had really finished at the end of term for the summer. Love a summer baby for a teacher!

Ahh I didn’t realise it had to start on your due date even if baby came late - thanks!

A slight perk to the job!

You can return to work on the first Monday of the summer holidays.

A lot of teachers find the use of shared parental leave works later on in the leave period. In effect stopping MAT and going onto SHPL over easter etc

Dif rely Lao look up shared parental leave and get advice if your school is difficult about it. Effectively enables you to get holiday pay

Hi. Firstly, congratulations! Very exciting times ahead. I personally found maternity leave entitlements for teachers to be very confusing as HR were not forthcoming. Just a few things I picked up that may help you so you get maximum time plus money you’re entitled to:

You can do it the traditional way where you have 39 weeks. You get your statutory at the same time and your employer pay drops down over that time. I chose to spread my pay out equally across 9 months as I found it easier to work my finances out that way. You can do this and HR should give you a breakdown of what to expect every month.

You can also do shared parental leave where you say you are returning during periods of school closure so you get paid for the holidays and then going back off again when the school opens. It is really confusing to explain but this link helps https://www.teachersspl.co.uk/how-it-works

Another thing that lots of schools and academies do not tell you is that you are still entitled to annual leave. I think it is 28 days if you’re full-time. You could therefore technically say your maternity ends in early/mid June but you’re taking your annual leave. This would take you up to the 6 weeks holiday and means you’d get a full months pay. You would return on the first day after the 6 weeks holiday.