Where do I stand with Parents' Evenings?

[Thisreallyisafarce]

I am a part-time teacher on 0.6. My school published Parents' Evening dates at the start of the year, four in total for my classes, all on days when I work. I was happy to attend all of them.

The school has now doubled the number of Parents' Evenings, so there are two per year group. Again, these are all on the same day of the week, so, in terms of my working days, I would be expected to attend.

Each time there is a Parents' Evening, DH has to take a day off work to have DD, as the distance from home is such that I wouldn't have time to take her home from childcare and then get back to school for the Parents' Evening.

I have therefore said to my line manager that I would like to discuss attending these Parents' Evenings in proportion with my salaried time (0.6).

Where do I stand?

Thanks if anybody has advice.

It was siakcaci. I thought she gave sensible advice.

Don't get sidetracked.It is a purely contractual matter.

Whats the statement of directed time and how does one get one?

limitedperiodonly

But the other poster erroneously suggested I was 'bringing up childcare'. I was informing fellow posters of my situation as a courtesy. My point re. the limits of directed time has nothing to do with childcare. I am not 'canvassing opinion' either. I am asking the advice of fellow professionals on a contractual matter. Other people can post if they like, but if they are ignorant of the topic, 'ask your manager' or 'read your contract' isn't helpful.

It's the lack of flexibility and what comes across an anger which I'm so taken aback by. You have referred to this request as you "being screwed sideways" and an "unreasonable expectations" ... it's a few hours for parents' nights. You're a teacher, I'd have thought that your presence at such events would be a non-negotiable. Even if it's not technically in your contract. And the "parents can be unhappy" comment just makes you appear difficult to deal with. Hence my comment.

@triwarrior would you work unpaid shifts for your job?

Unpaid evening shifts. So enticing.

It's the lack of flexibility and what comes across an anger which I'm so taken aback by. You have referred to this request as you "being screwed sideways" and an "unreasonable expectations" ... it's a few hours for parents' nights
How unreasonable. The OP wants to ensure she isn't shafted doing additional unpaid shifts beyond her contract. I mean obviously she should work whatever extra hours school ask her to on top of the hours of prep she does out of the school day.

As many of us have said, it might be that she does have to do the parents' evenings if she gets enough from missing meetings to still be doing her 0.6 contract.

It's highly unreasonable if her school plan to disproportionately expect part time staff to work additional hours to factor in changes they made to the directed time budget after the start of the year.

Just to add at my school you would be expected to do 60% of the evening, which looks like it won't work with your class size. Or we pay staff for extra hours. Many staff attend INSET on their non working days and then claim the extra hours on a payment form.

Read your contract is useful if you work for an academy chain.

In a regular school you'd be expected to do 0.6 of the directed time budget. Your head /business manager should have this. They can dictate which bits you do but often there is room for negotiation. I know our school expects PTs to attend parents eve (secondary) even if oj their day off because it is part of the time budget. Flip side of this 0.6 staff only do 3 days of inset instead of 5.

triwarrior

But it isn't a non-negotiable. Nor should it be. You don't get to pay people part-time salaries and then expect full-time hours. If I am angry, it isn't at my school, it is at some of the attitudes expressed here that it is 'a few hours'. No, it isn't. I have already explained the impact.

OP
Most of us know that.
Trying to point out the obvious to non teachers who turn up on teacher contract threads for no reason other than to poibt out why someone should suck it up their great auntie Susan has it so much worse is a waste of time sadly.

I would imagine all of the staff will be up in arms about double parents evening so rather than sticking your own neck out I would be canvassing first for whole staff opinions as it may well be that SLT will back down on the issue totally.
The points about whole school time directed time calculations are especially pertinent, if a standard pe takes 3 hours, then doubling those up for a full time teacher means between 15-21 extra hours depending if 11-16 or 11-18. It would be very hard to believe they has left that much slack in the directed time budget.
Sadly at many schools you would be expected to attend them all and would be allowed to miss other meetings to get to the correct .6 proportion. Refusal would mean a P45 someway or other within a year or 2.

What the handwringers on this thread seem to fail to appreciate is that the OP isn’t trying to duck out of Parents Evening. Of course teachers appreciate the importance of attendance at these.

She doesn’t want to attend totally unneccesary extra Parents Evenings that have been sprung on the staff at the last minute and for no good reason. Unpaid and causing her logistical and childcare difficulties.

I can guarantee that none of the staff will want to attend these. Probably most of the parents won’t either. Union guidance says that staff shouldn’t be expected to do these.

It is entirely reasonable to push back. Hopefully as a PP said, this will be on a whole staff basis and the OP won’t need to be singled out.

'ask your manager' or 'read your contract' isn't helpful

I agree. Your manager, like HR which people often tell you to go to, is going to be on the company's side and I'm not an expert in interpreting contracts.

I might canvass the opinions of people who have been in similar situations but I don't think it's wise to rely on their advice.

I'd always prefer to talk to my union who are on my side and have people who understand these matters.

I'd have thought that your presence at such events would be a non-negotiable. Even if it's not technically in your contract.

Then you'd be wrong triwarrior and I'm not even a big fan of the OP's attitude. I'm a big fan of sticking to contracts and not getting screwed over at work though.

Trying to point out the obvious to non teachers who turn up on teacher contract threads

It is nothing to do with not being a teacher MaisyPops, Some of us do understand the issues involved even though we're not actually teachers.

The reason why non-teachers are on this thread is because it appeared in Discussions of the Day. If you would like a special teachers only forum, by teachers and for teachers, then take it up on Site Stuff.

Ffs people, if this was your sister or friend coming to you for advice would you be saying all these unhelpful things? Hope you get sorted OP x

limitedperiodonly
Non teachers wbo have some awareness of issues tend not to be people offering utterly unhelpful inputs about saying "but other jobs...".
Not being a teacher matters when the sole contribution to the discussion is essentially suck it up.

If a thread where Junior Doctor or midwife was asking for advice on their contract then unless I was offering some moral support or relevant useful advice then I'd just not post. I wouldn't post and then tell them that when I have mock papers due I work loads of hours so they should get on with it.

And actually my full post rather than quoting half shows what I have an issue with:
Trying to point out the obvious to non teachers who turn up on teacher contract threads for no reason other than to poibt out why someone should suck it up their great auntie Susan has it so much worse is a waste of time sadly.

I didn't quote the rest of it because I agree maisypops. This is a general employment issue and nothing to do with specific jobs. I might do a different job to you and have different demands on my time but we can both understand contracted hours and the difference between paid and unpaid work.

Most people who are employees with a contract ought to be able to understand the issues no matter what job they do. If they can't they are being unreasonable.

Though I understand the desire to get moral support from others in the same job, it is not as useful as getting accurate advice from an employment specialist attached to your union.

I noticed someone earlier telling the OP that her head didn't have a problem with her needing to avoid certain requests. That was well-meant but unhelpful because the OP's head isn't like that. That's why you need someone to tell you what your rights are so you can insist on them without getting sidetracked.

I agree in principle with what you've said.

The thing is I have zero issue with non teachers offering reasonable advice.

It's the non teachers who turn up on teaching threads offering nothing more than 'but aunty Susan has it worse and anyway I think x y z should be in your job after all you get enough holidays' comments.

The fact that this popped up in "threads of the day" or whatever it's called, is beside the point as the thread title made it quite clear it was about teaching.
If you don't have an informed comment, why post?

I'm still just wondering about the DH's job that he can't take half a day.
Can the poster who mentioned it above give an example of jobs when you have to take a whole day off when you only need an hour or two for childcare/an appointment/funeral etc.

leccybill

I am so confused by this. I did not say he couldn't take an hour or so. I said that it isn't an option for us in this situation - logistically.

I am also confused by whether you think I am simply making this up to a group of strangers on the internet. Why would I?

Why do you think I owe you this information?

You don’t owe us anything at all. However, you have posted on a public forum where people are free to express their own opinions and thus you don’t really get to dictate which bits of your post people engage with and speculate over. Given that you chose to share the fact that every time you are required to attend a parents’ evening, your DH has to take the entire day off work rather than collect his daughter from childcare at the end of the day, people are not unnaturally fascinated by this scenario. And the fact that you choose not to explain any further - which you have a perfect right not to do - naturally intrigues people further.