Anyone is senior leadership or above?

[Yesthatsme]

Hi all,

Are you in senior leadership (deputy head or above), working full time with very young children? Or have been in the role with very young children?

How have you managed?
I’m looking at my next steps but have some anxiety about balancing work and home with the little guy only being 2. My husband would do the bulk of the drop off and pick ups.

Have any of you done it? What’s been the most challenging and what would be the tips you’d suggest?

I’m a full time senior leader in primary with young DC. I do the bulk of the drops and picks too. Sometimes it’s really hard but a lot of the time it’s the same stresses I had pre-DC. I try to leave by 5 every day and do more work when they are in bed.

Have been SLT in secondary with young children, wasn't a great school and I ended up leaving teaching for 5 years 9back now). Its not easy even with a very supportive partner.

The last school I worked at in the UK, the headteacher was mum to a 5 year old. He went to after school club and breakfast club when necessary and she always left by 5pm.

My mum is a primary school headteacher and tends to go in before 8 so she can leave by 4 most days, except for the one day a week she has SLT. She seems to have courses and meetings every other day so works from home if the course is far from school rather than go back. She will sometimes have last minute safeguarding and social services referrals after school which she can't always account for though.

I’m SLT and have a toddler. Due to DP’s work schedule I have to do all drop offs and pick ups. I try to leave between 4.30 and 5 (aside from our SLT night - sometimes I have to leave before it’s finished to pick DD up) every night so I get time with the toddler and then work once she’s in bed.

When I returned from mat leave I actually went to 0.8. I wasn’t sure it would be allowed but I’d already established myself at the school. Whilst I’m by no means irreplaceable, people don’t tend to be jumping at the chance to do the parts of my role that I do which I think helped. I’ve also accepted that despite being part time, I still work full time responsibilities just on less pay and less time at school to get them done.

My only problem now is that I’m a bit stuck where I am as I know that finding another SLT position on 0.8 won’t be easy but I don’t want to be full time right now. I have however started looking at my next step and building up my skill set so that I can already do them by the time I apply (and have some qualifications to back it up).

Our HT (secondary) has a primary age child. I think she would have been a preschooler when she first became a HT. She seems to juggle everything. She’s certainly in school a whole lot more than unihorn’s mum though.
I’m SLT but don’t have children. Apart from the Head none of our SLT have young children, although a few have been in SLT since their kids were junior school age.
I’d say a big thing to consider is the potential to be caught up in an incident and not be able to leave school when you expected. Our DSL, HT and Deputy HTs sometimes get stuck at school for hours waiting for police or SS to arrive. I’d also say that some of the stuff you deal with can take a huge emotional toll, especially for those closely involved in safeguarding. I was surprised, once I got to SLT, how many ongoing safeguarding cases there were that as a HOD I wasn’t really aware of.

Thanks everyone for the input! I’ve managed to be part time in the deputy role but am being pushed to go back full time. At the moment it works out ok because I can work from home with the toddler on one of the days.
But full time work on part time pay is ridiculous!
Currently only doing light deputy work and not the same remit before I had baby.
The school also has SLT meetings really late!

I did it for 4 years, but have taken a step back now that my child has started school. 'Just' teaching (as if that's a thing!) doesn't really fit with wrap around care now that 7.30 - 6pm nursery isn't available.

Personally I found the occupation of my head space with school issues to be more of a problem than the actual job. Classroom teaching is busier, but much less stressful.

I'm SLT, my kids are 9 and 3. I was part time for two years after having my second child but now am back full time. My husband does vast majority of pick ups and drop offs so that helps although I do tend to be home by 6 which is when they get home anyway. Our school has worked so hard to make things manageable. For example, nearly all late nights are on the same day, so easier to plan for. At the moment things feel doable but ask me again in a week when DD2 is not sleeping or one of them is ill and it might be a different answer!