Part time - can my days be changed without my agreement?

[FromPenToPaper]

I'm a secondary school teacher in a "converter" academy, and I currently work part time 3 days a week. My Subject Leader/Line Manager has been working on the timetable for next academic year, and today has told me that the days that I work need to change. He is not giving me any choice in the matter. It's because of my subject specialism and the way the blocks are for the next academic year. This is exacerbated by my subject being understaffed.

Can the school do this? Just change my days without my agreement?

You need to get advice from your union noble as I sure that if you have trapped time like that, they have to pay you for it. In theory if they get you in for a part of a session (morning or afternoon) they have to pay you for the whole session. www.teachers.org.uk/files/nut-guidance-on-part-time-teachers-pay-2013-14.doc

Just to give you the other side. Dh is hod with 7 part time teachers. It is an absolute nightmare to timetable part timers. He tries to prioritise people with childcare issues and people who have to travel a long way, but he also has to make sure GCSE classes aren't split between 3 teachers/A level has appropriate teachers etc etc. It takes a lot of time and stress.

In secondary it seems much more likely than primary to have 'bits' of days. I am on .6 (.7 next year) which is spread across four days. One way to look at it is that you could 'work at work' rather than in the evenings at home. I try to do all my marking in my unpaid periods because of the two necessary evils planning lessons in the evening is preferable to me! It means that my evenings and weekends are more family focused than many other teachers so I get most of the part time benefits - admittedly my husband and teenage foster children can fend for themselves/be at work and school so I don't need to factor in childcare costs.

Pen, certainly ks5 teaching is jealously guarded at my school because it's a piece of piss to teach an A-level class. You can build up nice relationships with the kids and there are few behaviour issues.

Ks4 is trickier, and of course there is results pressure. I teach maths which everyone has to take so bottom sets can be awful, but my current top set are a delight, as have most of my sets 2-5 (of 9).

But Ks3 takes so much energy to teach. No motivation of external exams is an issue, the kids are younger and you don't have the same sort of interactions with them. They are less independent, and Y7 are so bloody needy. And Y9, with all the hormones swilling around, can be horrible.

A ks4/5 timetable is definitely cushy.

Well, as you may have worked out, I teach only KS4 and 5 at the mo. Through necessity due to my subject specialism. I would disagree that teaching KS5 is a "piece of piss". Yes there aren't behavioural issues like you get in KS3 but there are plenty of other challenges, plus at my school, extreme pressure on results.

KS4 students can also do a fine line in stroppy teenage behaviour, and some of them can struggle with the increasing pressures through Year 11.

And of course the pressure throughout the spring term towards May 15th coursework deadline can be extreme. One of the A levels I teach is 4/6ths coursework so the amount of marking is huge. I would definitely envy a KS3 teacher at that point!

I teach ks3,4 and 5! Ks3 lessons are much harder work. Ks5 lessons practically run themselves.

Marking is horrible, but in terms of draining energy, teaching ks3 is definitely harder. I look forward to my Ks4 and 5 lessons as a break!

presumably union can't help?

Maths doesn't have coursework though, which does make a difference. I hated it when we did coursework.

Ok, you work much harder than me, noblegiraffe. I shall stop whinging about my piece of piss, cushy job and shut up.

You need to get advice from your union noble as I sure that if you have trapped time like that, they have to pay you for it

The statutory guidance says schools should try to minimise unpaid trapped time, but not that it should be paid. My school puts PPA in trapped time so at least some of it is paid.

pen I didn't say it was a cushy job, teaching is hard work, just a cushy timetable. If it happened in my department people would raise eyebrows.

It might be different in other subjects, the coursework issue is a big one (but will mostly be going).

The timetable does pretty much represent your actual job though doesn't it, and what's the point of calling a timetable cushy if you think everyone works just as hard? And you did say teaching A level was a piece of piss.

It's clearly different in different subject, and as it happens the A level I teach with a large coursework component will become a BTEC or similar from Sept 2015 which also be majority coursework assessed. So no real change there.

It's not a bloody competition, and it isn't helpful to throw statements like "piece of piss" and "cushy" around. Why don't you work in a 6th form college if you think that?

You're mistaken, I don't think everyone works just as hard as each other. But that doesn't mean that they have an easy job, because teaching is hard in general.

Have you spoken to HR? To your union?

I have had days changed one year to the next, but it was with consultation - basically if I wanted a senior class I needed to change, but I could have just not had it iyswim. The days still suited me. When part-time. I have always worked full days, I've seen a number of posts on mumsnet from teachers doing bits of days here and there and I've never understood it.
What would happen if you worked another job in your days off, couldn't just swap them around too.

You have the right to negotiate your hours after maternity leave, but they are arranged for the convenience of the school. They could insist that you work full-time. They are telling you now so that you have the summer to re-arrange child-care. As someone who worked in a Primary school where part-time teachers outnumbered full-time staff, I can tell you full-time staff got pretty fed-up with timetables being arranged to suit teachers' child-care arrangements. Tread carefully.

Don't know why people are turning against each other here, obviously we all have our own ideas about subject areas roles which are harder than others! But in practice we have far more in common than not.

I don't see how it helps my original question to point out that in your opinion teaching KS4/5 is a piece of piss and a cushy timetable. I HAVE to teach most of the KS4/5 in my subject as I am the only subject specialist at the moment. Not much I can do about it, and I guess I should now worry about how much my colleagues hate me for it.

GoblinLittleOwl I have been full time for 10 years before coming back part time. We've always had part time teachers in my dept and wider faculty area. I have never for a second considered that things were being arranged for their convenience, or felt any resentment or hostility towards them. I would hope my colleagues feel the same way.

I don't think there is any point in arguing about who has the easiest time. It's just silly. (Not meaning to be a pain but it is really) The thing is what is reasonable. I don't think it is reasonable to ask people to come in for one hour though I do know somebody who did this and moaned about it for a whole year.

I also don't think split days are reasonable if the hours in between aren't counted at all. But changing your days is fairly reasonable and acceptable.

"it's a piece of piss to teach an A-level class"

Oh my. I am gobsmacked.

For the record, this is definitely not true.

I'm shortage subject (Chemistry) and had no choice but to take KS5 - two classes of each year. The pressure of these lessons and the amount of my non-teaching time they took up was one of the major reasons I decided to become a SAHM.

FromPenToPaper

To answer your original question, I am now a school governor and whenever request are made to go part time it is a given that the expectation will be that days can and will change.

Indeed our head may deliberately change a part timer's days after a few years with stable days simply so that the staff member does not get complacent and gets used to the notion that they will change.

However, I believe that timetablers do make every effort to avoid slip days. Your personal situation will be made difficult if you are the only KS5 teacher of the subject and are part time. It means that the whole of your departments time table will have to centre around you. A good timetable will do his/her best, but cannot guarantee full days for part timers.

You are lucky to have full days off. The fact that the days have changed is just something you need to suck up and accept I am afraid.

split days, not slip days

That's interesting WaffleWiffle, thanks. I know that it could be a lot worse and that I just have to accept it or leave.

I was talking about the actual lesson, not the preparation or marking. It's nice being in a classroom with A-level students, who have pretty much chosen to be there.

I have no idea what legal right is... But at least you've got adequate notice to inform nursery etc. right?!