Maternity contract

[NorthernKnickers]

I'm hoping somebody can help me. I'm on a maternity contract...started in September. Only I've never actually had a contract, despite asking several times. My only 'agreement' (if you can call it that' with the school is one email saying something chatty like 'following our phone call after interview, we are happy that you will be joining us some time in the new academic year. We will let you know your start date once the maternity leave is agreed'. This was never actually followed up and I only found this our 'word of mouth' by my TA and had to ring the school to ask if this was actually the date they wanted me! Nothing else has ever been given me in writing and I've not signed anything.

What I want to know, is am I still required to give a terms notice? Has anyone been in this position before? I've been told that they can't tell me exactly when the job ends, and I could be told just a couple of weeks before the job holder returns, so it seems a little unfair if I still have to give a full terms notice if the same courtesy is not extended to me.

Ask them.
But no contract to me says no notice, certainly not a term or half term.

Maternity contracts are fixed term contracts, you usually have to give 1 calendar months notice. You do not have to give the same notice as a permanent staff member.

Thank you 😊

On the TES forum they often discuss how slow contracts are come through

I've done several maternity contracts and they've all had different notice periods (ranging from a week to 8 weeks). My contract has always stated the notice period on both sides and the one time that it wasn't equal for us both (I had to give 4 weeks notice and they only had to give 2 weeks!) I queried it and refused to sign/enter into that contract - it was quickly amended. I'd say if you currently have no contract and nothing has been said verbally or written informally about notice then currently it's no notice on either side.

In terms of getting your contract have you spoken directly to HR? They're often external to the school staffing/admin itself and can be quite good at quickly resolving contract issues. Another option is to request a meeting with the head teacher to discussed contract terms, including notice. If this brings no joy you could arrange a meeting with your line manager and point out that without any notice terms having been discussed and no contract are they aware that you currently have to give no notice to end your contract - this is likely to then hey filtered to the correct person, as it's highly unlikely that your line manager will want to risk your system overnight departure.

Sorry there was paragraphs in that post, but they don't seem to have worked! (I'm on the app)

I'll email HR tomorrow, thank you. (Your paragraphs are showing 👌🏻)

Just for me they're not then - odd.

Also just seen the autocorrect typos in my original post 🤦