Pregnant/mum teachers ?

[flowerchop]

Hi, secondary school teacher here !

How is your school supporting you? What have you written on your risk assessment, any tips for asking for it all!!?

Aaand, when did you tell your students you're pregnant?

Pregnant and primary teacher here!

Standard pregnancy/maternity risk assessment proforma, tick box exercise really (that I had to chase my HT for). Nothing has changed day to day.

I didn't tell my students until I felt comfortable and secure enough to do so. Mine are tiny ones so not particularly observant. Parents were informed (before the children) when I was around 28w. Children only started to notice/ask in the last couple of weeks - I'm currently 37w, waddle and huge.

Which subject do you teach?

If you don't feel confident asking for your risk assessment- ask your union rep for help. I'm sure they'll be happy to support.

Is there anything you're particularly worried about?

The risk assessment will really depend on how straightforward your pregnancy is, what subject you teach, and the context of your school.

You should be moved from any duty areas where ball games are played.
If you teach a practical subject you might need measures such as a stool in the classroom once you are unable to stand for long periods.
If relevant for your context you won’t be able to restrain or intervene on physical altercations.
You might need to be re-roomed to avoid lots of stairs or poorly-managed corridors at changeover. If your school has a lift you might be given a lift key.
You will need to be notified in the event of certain illnesses in the school population, such as chickenpox or slapped cheek.

Ah, and on notifying students: secondary students will notice once you are visibly pregnant. You will know it’s time because you will notice them whispering and wondering if it would be rude to ask! I prioritised telling my tutor group and exam groups first. Pretty much their only question will be ‘who’s going to teach us?’ so in an ideal world it’s helpful to know the answer.

I didn't tell my students until about month 8! I'm sure they knew but I wanted to wait until my mat cover was sorted before I told them to avoid anxiety from the exam classes.
I asked for room changes to avoid busy corridors/stair cases and for the last 2 months dropped my break duties. I was also advised to sit down as much as possible in lessons and could ask for someone to cover quickly if I needed to pop to the loo in lesson time.

Thanks all!!
I'm secondary Maths, so no issues in terms of equipment or chemicals. We have a very large school site though, split site requiring a quick walk or even drive to the other site. So I will be including some detail to this in a risk assessment. We don't have our own classrooms and are constantly moving around.

I don’t remember anything on a risk assessment. I’m sure one was done but nothing changed in terms of day to day.

I didn’t tell my classes until cover was arranged etc, well past 20 weeks (2nd time around I didn’t tell anyone at all until after 20 weeks for a whole load of reasons).