Dilemma with PT 0.6

[RosieProbert]

Advice needed

I currently work 0.8 and 8 have a TLR2a (pro rata with the 0.8)

I'm thinking of asking to drop the tlr and move to 0.6.

I'm 40, I've been teaching since 2004.

I am struggling with the idea of basically banjaxing my career balanced with the relative freedom of working 0.6 with no additional responsibilities. I am a good teacher. Im being lined up to be in charge of ks2/3 transition.

I just don't know if I can a) keep feeling like a shit mum because of having to work all the time
B) cope with the absolute clusterfuck of things that my HOD is making of our faculty
C) continue on this treadmill rather than living
D) feel like I've fucked up a career

I'm all over the place with this.
Wwyd?

I have also been teaching since 2004 but am 46. I have only been full time for the first 5 years. Since my dd1 was born, I have been part time 0.6 in 2 different schools and about go start in my 3rd school.

I won't lie to you. When I first returned after mat leave and dropped to 3 days, I felt it was career suicide tbh. But since then, I have reconciled myself with the fact that I probably would have dropped out of teaching altogether had I NOT gone part time. So in fact, that is why I have lasted as long as I have 😄

I'm really not sure at this stage if I will ever go back to full time in a school. Possibly 4 days but not whilst dd2 is still at primary school. Maybe in a few years, who knows?

Also, I really feel I currently have the best of both worlds and the perfect work/life balance. I worry that even increasing to 4 days a week would upset that balance and tip it too far towards work 🤔

I dropped to point 6 - when my children were small- i'm not in a position where I don't need to be at home.. and could go to more hours - I'm choosing not to (unless finances dictate I have to)

Less days is less stress no doubt - with 3 - you are out more than you are in (although I'm still sure I do more work than many of my FTE.. as they don't have the time to do things .. whereas I do)

I dropped to 0.6 when my dc were little and it was the best thing I could have done. Now they’re a bit older I’m back to 0.8 and SLT. We work for a long time. Yes it was a bit of a pause career wise but also gave me useful other experience & perspective. There is lots of time for climbing the ladder. Children are only small once.

I dropped to 0.6 when I had dc2. She is a graduate now and I have never increased my hours. Never will.
In that time I have started 3 new jobs - 1 was a sideways move and 2 were promotions. It isn't my experience that it is career suicide, but, even if it were to stifle your chances of promotion, the odds are you won't stay in teaching if you have to work FT, so you won't have lost anything by going PT.

0.6 is so much better than 0.8
If you work 0.8 then you end up taking all the responsibility for the class and only really lose the actual teaching on one day. If you are 0,6 it is more clearly a job share, and you work out with whoever takes the class the other two days who is doing what, and genuinely share the workload.

Re the TLR, I think I would be cautious about giving that up. It will depend on your school of course, but keep an eye on the -probability-- possibility they won't give someone else the role, and you will end up doing it anyway, because you feel a responsibility for the dc. But you will be doing it without any extra pay.

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I'm still undecided. My HOD is being so useless and annoying I feel like quitting altogether at the moment