Primary Teachers

[yummypopcorn]

Anyone made the choice to send your child to the school where you teach?

I'm considering pros/cons/hours/friendships etc.

Any thoughts?? I currently teach 3 days but feel that if we did send our children to my school, once they were all there I may as well work full time.......not sure how I feel about that!!

Any advice?

Should also add we live 20/25 mins drive from school.

I teach at my daughters school. I started when she was in Y2 and she has just started Y5. Works like a dream esp since I am a single mum. Only had a problem with one teacher who said I was unprofessional re my DD but it turned out she actually had an issue with my entire parenting style and was "just trying to be helpful and point out where I was going wrong"! Gee thanks! As long as they are not in your class it's fine. I have even taught the children of several friends and as long as you use your common sense, then there are no issues.

Thanks for reply. How do you manage parents evenings, friends coming to tea, your hours in school, staff meetings etc??

Sorry loads of questions!

Is this a state school? If so, you may find that as you live some distance from the school your child won't get a place anyway.

The School Admissions Code says that admissions criteria must not give priority to children whose parents are current or former staff or governors (para 2.16j). This part of the Code is mandatory. The only possible exception is for new appointees:

2.18 In addition, the prohibition in 2.16(j) does not prevent an admission authority from offering a place or places to the children of a new appointee to a post at a school after the published offer dates for primary schools, or the national offer date in secondary schools, where there is a demonstrable skills shortage for the vacant post in question, even where this will be in excess of the published admission number, provided that all other relevant law is complied with (see paragraph 1.17). Alternatively, admission authorities may, in these circumstances, place the children of new appointees at the top of any waiting list for places at the school (see paragraphs 3.19 to 3.21).

I have chaired appeals where people who live miles from the primary school at which they work (and so are a long way down the admissions criteria) have not been able to get places there for their children.

Of course, if you work in an independent school, none of this applies.

Should say I'm assuming that your children aren't yet school age and so you'd be applying for places in YR. If they're older (and especially if they're in KS2 where infant class size rules don't apply) you may have a better change of getting a place or winning an appeal.

My mother taught at my primary school for a few years until I changed schools. I loved it - she was on site when I broke my leg. Very handy.

I had to call her MrsTaffeta though not Mummy, which took a bit of practice.

My so started with me when I was teaching Y1 and he went into Y3 (therefore had no admissions problems).

He went to out of school club in the evening and just waited with me in the morning.

I used to send my DH to parents' evenings but he complained and said that he didn't know what they were talkign about. So, I just had my parents' i/v at lunchtime and that worked really well.

I hardly saw ds - he never even acknowledged me.

The only (imagined) problem I saw was when he was in Y6 when I didn't really like telling his friends off just in case it had repurcussions. I explained this to my colleagues - they probably thought I was mad! - and they always stood in if I was put in this situation.

As children don't think teachers have a life, when you have them round to tea, they think you're a different person! We live about 15 minutes away from school, and we had lots of children over @ weekends - no problem.

There are several teachers' and TAs' children who have been at or are at school, and none have had any problems. I have one of each in my class at the moment!

'Twas fine, and I'd do it the same way again....

Interesting reading!

We have places for 30 (state school) but most years have a space or two so every chance we would get a place.....if we want to go down that route. I wonder though where DC2 would be on the admissions criteria Panelmember

It all depends on your school's admissions criteria. They should be on your LEA's website, but I imagine they're the usual ones of

1. Looked after children (don't actually have to apply - will be placed by the LEA)

1. Siblings

1. Social/medical need which the school is better placed than other schools to meet

1. Others ranked by distance from hoe to school.

Waiting lists are held in the same order as the admissions criteria.

So, if the school is over-subscribed and you live a long way from the school, you are unlikely to get a place and are likely to be some way down the waiting list. If though the school is undersubscribed (which you imply it is) then you may well get a place.

If you did not get a place, then at the KS2 stage you might manage to convince an appeal panel that the 'prejudice' to your child of not admitting is greater than the prejudice to the school in admitting and so your child should be admitted.

Once you have a child in the school, other children then get priority as siblings. Our LEA gives priority to older and younger siblings, but I have heard of LEAs/schools where only younger siblings can benefit from this priority.

That is one of my worries TeamEdward. Do you miss out on the mummy side of things in anyway?? Do you ever feel excluded?

Hmmm... the bitching on the playground....waiting outside in the freezing cold..... fighting for parking places....

Vs -
seeing all previews of school productions (and always getting a seat!), all class assemblies and sports days, earlier start (therefore miss school traffic and fights for parking places), a fulfilling job, all that extra money....

It would be a no-brainer for me!

...Don't really understand what you mean by 'mummy' things.

My mother taught me and my sister at secondary school, and my aunt taught my cousin at primary. No particular problems to report...

Mummy things - taking DS swimming or to cubs/scouts etc after school etc.....

I guess I could stay part time?? I think when all my children are at school I may as well be full time though if I was at the same school.

I do wonder about my LO not being at school in their community though. We do live quite a distance away. Summer hols/friendship issues??

My ds had friends from down the road (who went to a different school) and friends who came over from school in hols and at w/es. Surely cubs etc start later in the evening? We used to get to judo very easily at 6:00 - usually twice a week. If you're swimming, you could probably juggle that somehow (Sat morning?)

(It's probably more difficult with more than one child)

I think job shares can be quite stressful because of time constraints (getting planned activities done / marking by a certain day, etc) and you can't be as flexible. However, if you've got a younger child as well, it may be your best bet.

I teach at the school my DD1 attends - she attended the nursery there, didn't get a place for Reception (we live 600m away) so started Reception elsewhere until a place became available (due to fraudulent behaviour elsewhere in the borough!). She restarted at 'my' school after a term in Reception.

The school is local to our home which is lovely but as DD2 is only a baby I have to pay for childcare for her so have the same person look after both of them. This means that I only do the school run (stroll actually) on my day off as I teach 4 days a week. My DH is also a teacher but further afield and he also teaches 4 days. We both like teaching 4 days and don't feel we'll ever return to 5 days until the DDs have left home. Our days off (with DD2) are when DD1 has friends home for tea but she often goes to friends' houses on our working days. Being at the same school seems okay so far - I'm never likely to teach her except in an emergency, vertical phonics groups have been arranged so that I teach a group that is below the level she's already reached and my DH is the one who attends parents' evenings. I will never get to see her class in sharing assembly as it coincides with my class having their swimming lesson off-site and I can't help out on school trips with her class because I'm teaching elsewhere. She calls me Mummy at school when talking to me, other staff or her friends. If she's talking to older children she'll call me by my school name. Her friends call me by my real name but as I don't teach them it's fine - I spent years teaching at a school where we were all called by first names so I'm quite happy with that.

Childcare disasters can be hard to manage (which is where working 4 days helps as it's one less day to cover!) but because I'm on-site I don't have to worry about DD1 being collected as I can send an older child for her or someone will return her to me at the end of the day. I think the day off is important both for me and her - there's a day every week when I'm her Mummy and not Mrs SE13, I take her to and from school, chat to others in the playground and go to the park/wherever after school because my role is to be her Mummy,not someone else's teacher. It works for us, at the moment!

We had a lot of colleagues send their children to the last school I worked at - it was actually pretty nice to see their faith in the people they worked with.

After school they tended to flit around in their parents classrooms (some would put DVDs on their interactive boards for them to watch etc) or go around helping our fantastic caretaker - used to be hilarious watching him go round emptying bins with a line of small people with pencils shoved behind their ears in tow. For inset days and what-not they tended to play in a classroom or out on the playground - but we had a very very tolerant headteacher (and I know not all are like that).

One of the teacher's kids who'd gone onto secondary even came back on an evening to run an after-school dance club (with an adult keeping a watching brief on it) for the kids at school - and this lass was only in year 9 herself, she'd just chosen to do it!

Hubby's mum is a teacher who never actually went full-time anywhere - at one point she got called into his school to do a spot of last minute supply cover, they didn't know about it - until they rolled into their lesson to find her behind the desk. Both kids are more aggrieved by the fact it was the one day they hadn't done their homework and they were soundly busted on it!

I still take my DD to brownies, swimming, Judo during the week. It means I can't always stay later these days but I just do my work later on into the evening. I always have my DD parent's evening at lunchtime and generally the teacher is very gratful to have one less to do after school!
After "cared for" children, the children of teachers are often the next in priority for places.......

I don't think its a good idea.Helicopter mum!! School iseir chance to establish themselves away from the family.You would be preventing them doing this and know too much about their schoollife.I had a friend whose Dad taught at the same school and I remeber everyone groaning in the whole school assembly when she got picked for something.
What will happen if you have a complaint against the school.Will you be happy bringing a complaint against the HT who is also your line manager

Over40, the admissions code forbids children of employees being given priority! I don't think it makes someone a helicopter parent if they teach at the school their child attends; most of us that do are pretty good at keeping our distance.

It will definitely depend upon the size of the school though. Perhaps teaching at a local school and having your child attend that one is slightly different from having to drive your child to 'your' school each day, that might prevent a child from having a life outside school.

I wouldn't be happy having my young child hang around in my classroom every single day and so pay for childcare like any other working parent whose child can't wait in their workplace. As for complaints, I have had one complaint in relation to something at school and my DH wrote to the person concerned - it wasn't the Head and, in any case, the Head doesn't directly line-manage every teacher.

Over40 - If there really are schools giving priority to teachers' children (except in the very limited circumstances I quoted above) then they are likely to get a severe reprimand from the adjudicator!