Any prison teachers about?

[SwimmingBadger]

I applied for a teaching job in a prison (yoi) and have now been invited to interview. This job is amazing and I'd really like it (if I was successful) but I need to work out if it's going to be practical.

I have young dcs and iv read since I submitted my application that often prison teaching does not follow the same hours or holidays as mainstream schools. I'm struggling to find the information about hours and term dates on the prisons website.
I know each prison will be slightly different but can anyone share their working hours and term dates so I can get an idea as to whether this is going to be possible?!

There used to be someone on here who did prison teaching - can't remember the name to put a shout out though.
I do remember them saying that the overwhelming advantage was that you couldn't take work home, so you just worked a 'normal person's hours', so even if it meant working some weeks that AL wouldn't cover, it sounds like the balance of hours across the year would more than compensate for that, if it appealed to you.

I am due to start a prison teaching job next month. There may be some differences between prisons but from what I can gather, my shifts will be 8-5 (2 x 3 hour teaching sessions and time for planning/lunch). Marking is expected to be done 'live' during lesson time as you're not allowed to take anything home as it will have prisoner details on. No terms - teaching takes place 52 weeks a year Monday to Friday. 8 weeks holiday a year - this is fine with me as I work at least 5 weeks of my 13 weeks as primary teacher at the moment.

I am starting doing cover work so I can see what it's like before committing completely. Can't wait to start though.

That's really useful @BackforGood, it would be nice to have a bit more of a work life balance and be able to leave work at work! I think I'll probably have to call the recruiter and just confirm working hours to see if it'd fit around being able to pick my kids up from nursery, I just hope it doesn't come across in a bad way!!

Congrats on the job @tulippa! That sounds like a good work life balance at least then! Thank you

Can I ask why you are looking forward to it so much? I am not being negative. I once heard a prisoner officer give a talk at school and he was asked if he enjoyed his job. He said that he loved it, but was cut off before he could explain why. It seems such a tough environment to me, so am interested to hear how it actually is.

Just a word of warning if you're looking at pick-up times for Nursery, unlike a regular teaching job when you can pick your bag up and leave the building within 5 minutes, you need to allow extra time to actually get to your car.
For example, if I was teaching until 5, by the time the inmates had left, I'd locked the classroom, gone through locked areas out of the education block, into the main Admin block, through Security and out, it could near nearly 6 before I was actually getting into my car.

@Thinkinghappythoughts

I am looking forward to a job that offers work/life balance, is better paid, is a new challenge and may make some difference to some people's lives.

I'm not expecting it to be easy.