0.6 over 5 days?

[HariboFrenzy]

I am due to return to work after maternity leave soon and whilst 0.6 has been agreed I've been told it is likely that this will be over 5 days. I'm not sure what to think really, I just assumed I would be in class as a job share. Childcare will be more difficult to arrange for a start.

Does anyone do this? Are there any pro's? I can only really see cons atm...

Could it be mornings only? Are you orimary or secondary?

I am in secondary and when my 0.6 request was approved, I was offered it over 5 days. I said so and set out in a letter to governors why not: 5 journeys a week, more childcare costs, no actual day off away from the job.

They swiftly rejigged the timetable to offer me three full days. The days did swap around a bit over the years but I did stick to three full days. There are some compromises to be made in going part time but I think it is unreasonable to ask you to come in on five days.

Thanks for replies. It is primary and would be mornings only but in reality that will be until 1pm so I would only be missing lunch and one lesson.

They tried to do this to my mum in Secondary (going part time near retirement, rather than maternity) - she also said no - for the same reasons as leccy, and also like leccy they managed to re-jig

By the time you've marked, resourced etc you'll be lucky to leave till 2 I reckon... Will you get a portion of your time for ppa? X

I work 0.6 over 5 days. I originally requested three full days. I previously worked in KS2 but have returned after Maternity Leave to teach Nursery (big change! But a combination of the previous Nursery teacher leaving, and the Nursery being mornings only meant it was the sensible option!)
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I work mornings- I drop DD at Nursery at 7.30 and get to my school 7.45. I have to collect DD by 12.45 so it's a good excuse to leave by 12.30 at the very latest.
Thursdays I work all day including staff meeting after school. I have my usual Nursery children in the morning then cover one session of Reception in the afternoon then have my PPA last lesson. Staff meeting is usually until around 5.30 then I stay until 6.30. My parents look after DD on this day so no rush to get home.
Friday I work in the morning, but again my parents have DD so not the same pressure to leave to collect her by a certain time so I usually spend a bit of time getting sorted for the following week- until maybe 1.30 or so defending what I have on.

The pros... well, its good to be up and dressed and ready to go every day, because I know that if I had a full day off then DD and I would probably be hanging around in PJs until after lunch ha! Also, because DD is at Nursery in the morning on Mon, Tues and Weds I don't feel that I always have to be rushing around going to groups and activities in the afternoon as she's had that at nursery so if we just cuddle up on the sofa I don't feel guilty- if we had the full day I would probably be thinking right, we'd better get out and do X.
I only live three miles from school so don't have the petrol problem.
It works well for me having Nursery as the children are only there in the morning, so it's not like I need to "share" with anyone. However if you're further up and would be doing mornings, could it be that you will teach all the maths and English and someone else will teach foundation subjects in the afternoon? If so, that could be a pro- that you can concentrate on those two core subjects and not having to worry about faffing around with fitting in everything else? And also if you work three full days you would always be having to hand your maths and English over to someone else, this way you have full ownership over those lessons across the full week.

These are my worries to be honest. Saying no doesn't seem to be an option though- I was initially told that school did not want any part timers

amysmum12345 But remember that full time staff don't leave at 3.15pm- they do their resourcing, marking etc after the children have left. So someone who works mornings (until say 12.30) staying to finish jobs off until 2pm is the same as a full time person staying until around 4.45 or so. When I was full time I regularly stayed until 5.30 or 6pm.

Thanks junior. I agree with the up for the day thing. It just doesn't seem like such a reduction in hours having to be there every day. It is looking likely that it would be literacy and numeracy every morning, which again has pros and cons. At least I would be keeping up with core subjects but then would be out of the loop in terms of whole class teaching (I suspect I would have a set, rather than a full class).

Also junior is it more expensive to have lo in nursery for mornings?

Yes, a half day at nursery is more than half of a full day, IYSWIM but she does get a healthy hot lunch- fish pie, lasagne, toad in the hole etc which is really good so I just give her scrambled eggs or something for tea on those days, plus gets breakfast and snacks. At first she was napping there, but now she's 18mo, I pick her up at 12.30 and she hasn't napped then she falls asleep in the car on the way home so I can transfer her to cot and (usually!) have an hour or so to watch Netflix do some school work or laundry etc or transfer her to reclined pushchair and get food shopping in.
I'm very lucky to have my parents have her on Thurs and Fri- it means I don't feel I'm have to rush to collect her on my long day as they give her tea, start bath time etc. However they do sometimes go away and things and I have booked extra sessions at nursery or had DH take annual leave to cover.

A word of warning, below is from the STCPD:
Subject to paragraphs 53.6 and 53.11, a part-time teacher may be required to carry out duties, other than teaching pupils, outside school sessions on any day on which the teacher is normally required to be available for work (whether the teacher is normally required to be available for work for the whole of that day or for only part of that day).
Some headteachers translate that to mean they can make teachers who work part of a day, come in for meetings and everything else, in the afternoon when they don't normally work - so effectively you end up virtually working full-time anyway.
Even though in another paragraph it says:
Subject to paragraph 53.10., no teacher employed part-time may be required to be available for work on any day of the week or part of any day of the week on which the teacher is not normally required to be available for work under their contract of employment (whether it is for the purposes of teaching pupils and performing other duties or for the sole purpose of performing other duties).
The two statements almost contradict each other, and different Headteachers interpret it in very different ways. I got caught up with this, and it wasn't a happy ending. My headteacher also didn't like part-timers. Personally, I would not agree to it - I think you are being shafted (as I was).

Oh and I actually get more pay than I thought I would. I had a TLR when I worked full time which I gave up to go part time plus the reduction in hours so had calculated it. But you end up in a lower tax bracket plus less student loan repayments and so on so it was around £150 more per month than I'd calculated (not a fortune but every penny counts!)

I do 0.6 over 5 in secondary and I don't even get to do just mornings, my timetable's all over the place on a fortnightly timetable, so I'm in two full days and bits of the other days. Saying no isn't an option, they'd just accept my resignation, even though I'm a maths teacher, because my school doesn't give a shit about retention.

It sucks. It's just as frantic as working full time because you have to be rushing around every morning. When I went back after maternity leave my DS was still napping in the afternoon so I'd pick him up then he'd go and nap so I didn't get to spend much extra time with him anyway (although it was good for getting housework done). Evenings are still full of work because I have to prepare for the next day every day.

You might find that a nursery operates sessions so that you'd have to pay for a full day even if you wanted to pick your child up at 2pm. That's what I found, so I had to get a childminder instead otherwise I'd have been paying to work.

If you had a school-aged DC, a pro would be that you could do school pick-up every day, but you don't.

And do pay attention to the meetings thing. If you only work mornings, then you'd miss every staff meeting, but they'll either pressurise you to attend them, or you'll be hideously out of the loop and not know what's going on.

Dithering and noble I am worried that you experiences are typical

It's good to hear it is working out for you junior. Do you think it's because you are sort of separate in Nursery? Another thing I worry about is being seen as a slacker if I rush off at the end of my hours - but I can't and won't work endless hours for free!

Oh yes and another con is that toddler groups tend to be in the mornings so you miss out on that too.

Yes I do think nursery is a bit separate from it all, which had helped. I find that rather than being seen as a slacker, colleagues are more likely to say things like "what are you still doing here?! Get yourself away home. You do right with a little one" etc.

I have had some instances where I've had to attend work related things outside of my hours. One time a staff meeting was swapped from the Thurs to the Weds. So on the Weds I left at 12.30 then had to go back at 3.15. Luckily DH was able to get an early finish. I've also been on a couple of afternoon courses. I spoke to the Head about the possibility of being paid or having time in lieu for them but she wasn't up for it, saying that full time staff might attend training after school 4 til 6 or something so me going 1 til 4 is similar. She did say that I was under no obligation to attend as its outside of my hours, but in the end I wanted to really- especially being new to the EYFS there was some useful CPD and I've even booked myself on some more in the Spring term. Ive managed it with extra sessions for DD at Nursery and my parents helping out.

I do 0.6 over 5 days, but by choice. When my DD was at nursery I did it as 2.5 days. I also had a battle to get the same days both weeks!! I am lucky that the school has been understanding though.
However now she is at school over 5 days means I get to pick her up 4/5 days and drop off 2-3 days a week- on a fortnightly timetable. I think the extra petrol is cheaper than having to pay for wrap around care. I do get 1 whole day off a fortnight and I really try to keep it work free (sometimes feels impossible)
My school is wierd in that they don't allocate PPA, I get paid for it but it is not on my timetable. This means I come to teach my lesson and can go straight afterwards, but can mean I end up with lots of work to do in the evenings.
I am an experienced teacher at the top end of the pay scale but point out to my colleagues (nqt and younger than me) that I get paid much less than they do, if they moan when I leave at lunch! You have to be strict with yourself about working extra hours when part time, especially over 5 days, as you are already in "work mode" I work more than I did doing 2.5 days I think, as it's harder to switch off.

I did this through choice when I went back after having DS and it worked really well for me.

DS went to an amazing child minder very close to school. I dropped him off at 8am and was in work at 8.10. She took him to a baby/ toddler group or class every day which, frankly, I would have loathed and probably never done so I think DS got a lot out of it. He got to be out and about being busy during the part of the day when he was freshest.

I picked him up at 1pm. As I had that childcare deadline it wasn't an option to spend the afternoon in school 'just finishing things off'. Then I took DS home and we had lovely lazy afternoons together safe in the knowledge that he'd already been out and 'socialised'.

It really suited me. I imagine if you want to head out to baby groups etc you might like it less as they do tend to be in the morning.

I reckon you'll do full time work for part time pay. I can't understand why they would do this in primary- I bet there are loads of people looking for a job share.

I did it across three days after my first maternity leave which was fab, but the second year they had to do it over four which was ok but straight away took an extra day out of my time with DS, plus the two half days nursery cost more than one day did. No way would I have been happy with it stretched over five. Might as well be full time and get paid!

I'm secondary, and going from full time to 0.6 workload wise.....,,was a grand total of one less class!!! Plus I went back as head of two departments, and because I was part time they gave my classroom to an nqt!

I work 5 mornings in primary. As someone said I teach all the maths and English and I really like it. There's no handing over and I am responsible for planning and marking my own books. This is particularly good as I can do things my own way and I'm not worried if I don't get through what I had planned as I can just amend it myself. It is also very clear for accountability purposes as I think sometimes when it's split into days certain things can get missed. Whereas anything to do with maths or English is my responsibility eg targets.

I only work until midday and had to pick my DD up at 12.30 so also couldn't hang around. I used to work each evening for a couple of hours but did no work at all at the weekend. So I would pick DD up at 12.30 and then go to playgroup, out to visit friends or whatever and not do any work until she was in bed. On Friday I would work in the afternoon as DD was with my parents so I would get things ready for the following week. I choose to go to some staff meetings and also run a lunch time club.

I really like it although I was sceptical at first. I like being up and out and got a bit of me time each day and some time with DD!

It can work really well can't it KeepSmiling. I think it probably depends how much you actually like your job/ school. TBH it was a lifeline going into school for part of each day because I love my job and my friends were there.

It also handily set a precedent for what I do now- 0.9 but short hours each day so I can do my own school run. I feel like I pretty much have the best of both worlds now, I am working full time enough to take on responsibility and make progress with my career but also do my own school runs and am around after school for DS (he's at a prep so does longer hours than my school which helps). However, I'm in a specialist role and don't teach a full class- it would be difficult to fit in the marking for 30.

I would hate this-you'll have no time to do stuff with your kids!! If you work three full days, at least you'll have two days to meet friends/go out for the day.