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Original poster

part time contract teaching job - would you accept this?

17 replies

mydreams · 29/03/2015 18:37

I have been offered a part time contract ( 0.75 a new job), but it does not specify how many days/ hours - just says part - time. Is it normal? i asked to add clause in the contract to do the job over 4 days but they do not wish to include such clause - they says it would depend on the timetable, but will try to fit it into 4 days. If I go to school 5 days a week it will feel full time job on a 0.75 salary....

OP posts:
funchum8am · 29/03/2015 19:06

I have just accepted a 4 days job and wouldn't accept 0.8 over 5 days because of childcare costs.

However I accept I will work on other days, but with 0.8 of a teaching timetable I am hoping this will mean not having to work every night and weekend on top of 5 days at school!

If you love the school it might be worth accepting it if the time off is in chunk ie 2 afternoons but I would definitely not agree to bring there for 5 full days.

The timetabler should be able to make it work - I used to timetable my own faculty and the first step was to block out the days off of any part timers. Then I would tell them if they would have to miss out on A level teaching but they accepted it if it was the price if being part time. They probably can do it so if you say it's a deal breaker you may get your 4 days but be prepared to find out they do not want to compromise, or have other reasons for not agreeing (eg fear of setting a precedent that others already coming in all 5 days may demand is followed for them too.)

Good luck, it's a tough one!

funchum8am · 29/03/2015 19:08

When I say I accept I will work on other days, I mean working at home on my day off, in the evenings and weekends (just like full time staff have to Hmm). I won't go in on my day off as the point is to spend it with my DCs. Sorry if that was unclear.

rollonthesummer · 29/03/2015 21:40

No, I wouldn't accept this. They'll take the piss and you'll have no comeback.

DontGotoRoehampton · 29/03/2015 22:14

If more people would dig their heels in over this would be better for everybody. I have said I will do 0.6 over 3 days, not prepared to come in on other days - otherwise the job is (even more blatantly) fulltime on PT salary...

DriftingOff · 29/03/2015 22:23

Do NOT accept this, they are taking the piss, and you will effectively have to be in work full time for 0.75 salary. It would immediately send alarm bells ringing for me that it's a poorly managed school - and I'd avoid it like the plague.

Flowergirlmum · 29/03/2015 22:35

At my school anything over 0.6 doesn't come with a guaranteed day off. Rubbish really

Yahooatemyaccount · 30/03/2015 00:20

Returned to teaching after a long break to be a SAHM, decided to do 1 day a week part time to get back into it. Whilst not teaching I ran a playgroup and I've always volunteered in my children's school and have 5 relatives who are still in teaching so was not going back into things naively or blind. In my first term there was not one week that I wasn't asked to go in unpaid (it would be "good for me" after a career break) on days I wasn't contracted to work and with all the hours I spent working at home my husband remarked that I was actually working for less than the minimum wage. I have now resigned. I taught for nearly 18 years before I had children, I was a Key Stage Co-Ordinator and SENCO so not unused to ridiculous hours, but this really was taking the mickey. Since leaving I found out that the job had been vacant 3 times in the last year, nobody stuck it for more than a term! Wanted to dig my heels in, Don'tGo, and did not want to accept it, DriftingOff, but the culture in the place was such that saying "no" to anything just wasn't done and you felt like Oliver Twist asking for more. Looking for work outside teaching now. Hats off to all of you for sticking at it, the BS and paperwork was nuts when I left, but now it's beyond a joke.

BackforGood · 30/03/2015 00:29

This is one area where Primary is better than secondary.
I've always had fixed days, but my friend in secondary just accepts it as 'the way it is' that she can sometimes end up in school on 5 days of the week, when she's only paid for two Shock

Have you asked your union ? I'd have thought they would be the best source of knowledge of what you can / can't do.
However, it will depend on if you are more desperate for the job, or they are in more desperate need of your specialist skills at the end of the day.

Haggisfish · 31/03/2015 07:53

School have no obligation to provide unpaid time in useful chunks. It's not taking the piss, just the way it is. Most schools will try and accommodate staff requests, but this one have been very open and honest about how it would work for you. There's also a clause somewhere about how they can decrease or increase the percentage you teach without changing your contract. I'll try and find it.

Discounted · 31/03/2015 08:00

I don't know anyone working p-t in secondary who has fixed hours or a guaranteed day off. As PP said, the main benefit is being able to get everything done in the working week, rather than having to work evenings and weekends too.

CusheyButterfield · 31/03/2015 08:13

My school does, Discounted. I do feel lucky, when I talk to others, but I've been working the same 3 days on a 0.6 contract for the last 3 years. Those staff on 0.8 tend to have a different day off every year, but they get a full day off. It's as it should be, surely?

RinkyDinkyDoo · 31/03/2015 08:21

I was on 0.6 (stated that on my contract) for 7 years at a primary doing 3 days a week, days did not change. Then they decided that last September I was to do my 0.6 by doing 5 mornings a week, I checked with Union and as it states just 0.6 they could make me do that time in any way they wished. I finished at Christmas and am now doing supply, it really was awful and didn't work for myself, I was in school all week and it felt like full time without the pay and didn't work for our family.

cece · 31/03/2015 08:29

I have discovered recently (Head tried to cut my hours) that having a fixed hours contract is beneficial - as opposed to a variable hours contract.

AuntieDee · 31/03/2015 09:18

No wonder teachers are leaving in droves!

DontGotoRoehampton · 31/03/2015 11:29

One of the reasons I enjoy supply teaching is that I do the days I want. As it happens I do 5, because I am enjoying it, but my original intention was to do 3. But I do 5 and get paid for 5 as opposed to doing 5+++ and being paid for 3 Grin. I do secondary and constantly turn down primary as there is massive amounts of primary supply - unsurprisingly - available. I have no experience in primary, (not even observing on my rubbish ITT course) but even so, they are so desperate when I did primary I was always repeatedly asked back. Not because I am a great teacher, but because there is such an enormous demand.

noblegiraffe · 31/03/2015 11:36

I do 0.6 and don't get a day off, even over a fortnightly timetable. The school would not be able to guarantee a day off before the timetable had been written and there may well be a riot if a part timer walzed into my department and got a day off when other staff haven't got one.

DontGotoRoehampton · 31/03/2015 11:40

good point about the precedent noblegiraffe. I can see why some part-timers at a secondary school near me who hate the school and are desperate to leave effectively can't because they do have those guaranteed days and would be unlikely to get them elsewhere Sad

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