Part time contract and staff meetings

[Teacher2024]

Hello, I’m hoping some others may have experience of this or know the answers.
I am due to return from maternity leave on a part time contract (3 days) as a teacher and have asked for clarification on whether I need to attend development days and staff meetings on my days off (these are on a Monday which is one of my days off). I have yet to have a response but wondered if there are any rules on this that I can come back with if I am asked to attend an hour staff meeting on my days off or if I do need to attend development days, how many is acceptable. I haven’t been able to find anything in the staff handbook and yet to receive my contract.

I am, I’ve always felt you have to be in this profession and they deserve every penny.

I think this is it! You have to say no, not just for yourself but for your other part time colleagues.

My day off is a Friday I will not be attending any meetings on a Friday end of.

I think this is my issue. The development days are mostly on Mondays which are my non working days. This wouldn’t be a problem if they were my working days as I wouldn’t be having to do any extra.

Thank you, this is amazing

@DorothyStorm

I have a backbone 🙄 20 years at the same school and I have paid leave when I need it as an unpaid carer for my two disabled children for the wide range of appointments we have. Plus a tailored contract to reflect this. So guess what I do 1 day of inset (usually) on a day off per year. Because I value the school, they value me and we work together. I wasn’t saying OP should do this- just my own experience.

No to staff meetings that are held on days you do not work. Pro rata for inset, or they make arrangements for payment or TOIL.

I would personally try to attend all INSET as if they are well run they will be helpful and often time is included for discussion / class organisation with colleagues, but make sure the payment/TOIL arrangement is agreed and in writing first.

To clarify, my referring to the bank holiday is to say that it counts as a day less of directed time for full time or Monday staff, but did not count towards any days fewer for me.

This is potentially outing as I’ve shared this with friends, but this is the other part of an email I sent to my SLT after my first year of having been told I needed to attend 3/5 insets rather than 3/5 of time. I gave them two extra days of work unpaid because they expected it.

‘As a 0.6 teacher, I work 3/5 of the 195 days (including non-teaching/inset), which would be 117 days of directed time. I went through my work days for each term and came to the following:
Term 1 = 24 days
Term 2 = 20 days
Term 3 = 18 days
Term 4 = 18 days
Term 5 = 15 days
Term 6 = 21 days
Taking the Monday 2nd September inset as an extra day of work, this adds up to my full set of 117 days. I will be glad to attend insets for the year, as I think I'm obliged to attend three for professional development - but can I confirm that the remaining two will be paid as additional time, please?’

The Exec Head was most narky about this being legal and mathematically correct (“I’ve been told you are right, I hope this is the answer you wanted.”) but I was fed up of being taken for everything! You have to protect yourself or certain kinds of leadership will use you up.

Exactly, it is 3 out of 5 on your normal working days.

I believe they are. It is % of all working days.

I think you could say 'exactly' here if the contract is a specified 3 days contract, rather than a 0.6 contract.

I work 0.6fte Tuesday-Thursday and whenever I've been asked to come in for a Monday INSET day (very rarely), I always get paid extra or get given TOIL. I'm also allowed to say no if I can't, as it's not part of my directed time.

Next year all our staff meetings will be on Mondays, so I will have to miss them but read up on any emails sent out instead.

I've spent a length of time with good old fashioned pen, paper, calendar, term dates and INSETs.

My contract is a percentage rather than specific, stated days.

I've calculated how many days I should be teaching and how many days for INSET based on my percentage. Then I've sat down and actually counted the individual days based on the usual days I work.

As it turns out, for next academic year, 4 out of the 5 INSETs are on days I usually work. Even including those days in my count, I'll actually be working 1 day less than I should be, apparently.

E.g. assuming a 0.6 contract, I should be working 117 days, but actually I will be doing 116. So I don't think I can really get away with asking to attend only 3 of the 5 INSET days!

You have specific working days in your contract. You cannot be directed in a non-working day. Just as full time staff cannot be directed to work a sunday.

That's not always true actually. When I was first offered my current job, it said 0.6 fte only. I then asked them to specifically include my working days (Tuesday-Thursday), as otherwise they could have changed those days without my prior agreement!

If full time staff aren't directed to work on a Sunday then a 0.6FTE worker won't be either, because then that wouldn't be equivalent/FTE.

My contract is a 0.6fte. The days can change with written notice and mutual agreement (which is specified in my contract). It's not a M/Tu/W contract, e.g. it could be a W/Th/Fr, or 3 mornings and 3 afternoons etc, so many permutations - depends on the needs of the school which may change year on year. Perhaps temporary or fixed term contracts differ, mine is permanent. Contracts with specific days just don't exist in my locale, although they do in other areas I understand.