Teaching part- time help

[powerpufff]

Hi everyone,

I really value mumsnetters who are teachers- you will tell it to me how it is ( uni and school placements are sugar coating it and trying to present everything as wonderful due to retention crisis in schools )

thank you in advance to everyone
I am about to finish my PGCE - I have been working 60 + h weeks ( I know I wont have assignments to do when I'm a fully qualified teacher but the workload is nevertheless intense with more classes tutor group extra curricular activities etc) I've noticed teachers stay in school till 6 / 7 pm even later

I realised that I do not want to work more than 30 max 40 a week ( full time teaching is more than this even in schools where there is a centralised planning system)

Should I go part time? I am thinking 2 or 3 days a week and then do some agency or supply work on the side OR pastoral full time ( I know it is challenging as I have shadowed a pastoral leader but classroom teaching is mental)

Or simply choose a different career all together ?

Id like your honest thoughts on part time teaching

I work PT in primary as a job share, 2 days a week. I worked as a classroom teacher FT for a good few years prior to this.

I find I have to work harder now I'm PT - I have to still stay on top of the daily goings on/changes to timetables etc across the whole week so that I know what I'm doing on my days as well as maintain awareness of what is being taught in my absence, as well as understanding where everyone has got to in their understanding so I can support/challenge appropriately without doubling up on what my colleague may have covered. I have to know where I'm picking up from, which isn't the point I left at, and where to move the children on to.

I have to do lengthy handover notes to my job share. I have to read their lengthy handover notes to me.

I have to attend pro-rata'd number of staff meetings yet keep up with 100% of staff meetings because some initiatives will be rolled out or introduced with CPD in the meetings I'm not present at, yet I'll still be expected to apply and use whatever I missed.

I have to attend parent consultations even though they are never scheduled for my working days. So on those weeks, I work my 2 days plus 2 extra afternoons and evenings for the consultations and get no recompense for it.

I sill have to write IDPs, intervention timetables, input data, write reporte (and proof-read my job share's too).

I have to liaise with parents and foster relationships to the same extent as working FT - but it's harder because I'm not there so much.

Secondary might be a different experience PT though, but for me it definitely feels like more work.

I’ve been part-time for 10 years, and for me, with young children, it has provided a good balance. I’m a bit resentful that I spend so much of my days off working though, and about what I earn given the hours I work. But, it does mean I don’t need to stay late in school on the days I work so I can pick my kids up relatively early, and it’s definitely better than full-time. In teaching, the fewer lessons you teach, the less work you need to do, at least in secondary. I know in other jobs part-time can feel like trying to squash tasks you’d do full time into fewer days a week, so I guess it’s better than that. I think primary can be harder though, if you still need to plan and mark for work done on your days off, whilst someone else delivers it. If you’re primary, it’d definitely find out before accepting a job how a job share would be managed, if you are sharing a class with someone else.

There is no full-time career that you can do in 30 hours a week, I’m afraid.

PT can work well if you are in a strong team or have a good jobshare partner, but it can also be a total swizz if you end up having to plan for the days you aren’t in.

How old are you? Can you afford to be part time? Make sure you understand the implications for your pension.

Are you secondary? If so, from my experience the planning time will be just the same but there will be less marking.

For everyone: I am doing secondary MFL

Hi thanksithaspockets! Thanks for your reply.
You are right re the 30 h workweek is not poss for a full time position ( my bf has an office job and works more towards 36-40 on a busy week) with teaching I noticed its more like 60...

I am secondary- thank you for replying 🙏

Secondary MFL teachers are so in demand that you could probably pick and choose your terms. 60 hours should not be the norm. The marking load in MFL is not especially heavy before KS5, especially compared to English or History. The curriculum allocation is relatively small so you will likely have several classes in each year group and be able to re-use and adapt planning and resources.

I have been teaching nearly twenty years and I have never ever seen a school where it is the norm for staff to stay until 7 and I would go so far as to say that this is a sign of a poorly-run setting. Usually the site team start coming around at 5.30 to lock up and gently chivvy you out.

I couldn’t in good faith advise anyone at the start of their career to start part-time unless they had major caring responsibilities which made it unavoidable. It will take longer to complete the statutory ECF and it has serious implications for your pension.

Thank you 🙏

Yes MFL ( French and German) my first placement scarred and scared me.
My mentor told me " im in 7.30 and leave 7.30, this is the reality of teaching"
I have never been work shy.... but thanks for this - it has made me reconsider working part time

I agree in teaching, in term time, you will work more hours in a week than someone with an office job BUT you do get far more holidays. 30 hours a week is only 6 hours a day, so would not really be possible if you planned to be in school every day of the week.

I don't think 60 hour work weeks are the norm, though. The PGCE can be hellish, and the expectations in terms of admin and assignments do make the workload really high.

FWIW, in an average week, I think I work about 45 hours Mon-Fri in term time. More if there's a late evening like an open evening or a parents evening. Usually there's a couple of hours of marking at the weekends. In the holidays, I'll usually do 1-2 days of work and take the rest off.

I think if you worked 4 days a week, you could probably get it under 40 hours a week if you were disciplined.

It is worth bearing in mind that if you only do 2-3 days a week, it will take 4 years to complete your ECT, which will feel painful, and schools may be reluctant to provide you with ECT support for that long (that said, most schools are not in a position to be too choosy about this).

In terms of being a pastoral lead, I don't think the hours are so much less- at my previous school, pastoral only staff who were "full time" worked 8-5 in the week, and had to do some open events. Their pay was pro-rata'd for the holidays, so was quite low.

I think I'd try to do the ECT full time, and then drop to part time if it was viable financially.

That mentor needs some urgent support in time management. 7.30-7.30 on site is ridiculous and as I mentioned in my last post I don’t even know of any schools which remain open that long for teaching staff.

My subject is English, which equates to a heavy marking load. Pre-children I would get in at 7.45 and leave at about 5.30, but not usually take any work home with me (although I would at very busy periods, eg marking mocks). Post-children I get in at 8, leave at 4.30, and generally do another hour of work in the evening after my DC have gone to bed.

My mentor was not a great example in many ways ( she seemed very unhappy - and she might have said that to scare me)
I am just grateful she was not horrible to me and she did not try to make my life miserable
I have started my second placement and it is much better
I am late 20s ... Doing well in PGCE and just need to get on with the job

I fully support the strikes but of course I've seen a lot of frustration in the staffroom - I hope it gets better

I'd do your 2 years ECT full time and then consider going part time.

Part time roles are quite tricky to find so are easier to negotiate in role or when you have experience but applying for a full time and then negotiating for part time.

I'm 4 days and reality is 8-5pm non stop
Relentlessness for four days) but no work at home most weeks except some weeks I mark exams at home) after 20 years I do research and send emails from home though. Which is 36 hours a week.

I top up with extra cover at my school and exam marking.

I went into teaching in my late 30s and worked up the top of the main payscale (in London) and have been on 0.6 for 5 years now. It works well for me now I do 3 days (I did part time over 4 or 5 days till my current school). I do about 40 hours a week in termtime (I'm a 6th form specialist with loads of marking). I spread the hours across 6 days normally and do nearly all planning and marking at home.

I do have to vigorously resist promotion. I've done 3 sideways moves now...

I'm afraid I've concluded that part time and very strong boundaries is the only way to stay in teaching long term. I cannot teach full time - I haven't the energy at 50 and end up neglecting my health and my family.

I did have a baby a month after finishing the Graduate Teacher Programme, which in retrospect was a bit stupid. She has SEN and there is a lot of paperwork. However, I have sometimes done other bits of paid work and am also a charity trustee and a buy to let landlady.

While previous posters aren't wrong about the pension, so many new teachers burn out that I'm not sure that should be your main consideration right now.

My mentor was fab - I was incredibly lucky. She was a real work to live not live to work kind of person. You can't mentor or manage someone successfully if you're unhappy.

You make excellent points @Phineyj but would you have completed your NQT induction if it had meant three or four years of onerous additional work, as the new ECF would be for the OP if she went PT straightaway?

I do a 2 day job share as a primary teacher and then supply at a couple of nice schools (that I've worked in before) for the other 1/2 days - one day I always keep 'free' to do my admin for the job share plus home stuff .... financially it's roughly the same as working a 3 day permanent week but without the same amount of stress.

Probably - my induction took 4 terms due to PT working. It was a bit tedious but you've gotta do what you've gotta do with gigantic state bureaucracies.

A risk though would be what would happen if OP wanted to change job while still on induction - not always straightforward I think? And ECT paperwork seems to be more burdensome on schools than the old NCT, incredibly.

There are some other downsides too: some schools won't promote you if you're part time and there's always a faff about meetings and parents' evenings on days "off". Plus the dreaded trapped time if they haven't got a good timetabler. I had to go in to teach a single lesson on a Friday each week one year!

It's also slower to build up skills part time.

On the plus side, if I want to attend some free CPD or you know, read a book about some part of my subject I'd like to understand better, I have time to do that.

I must say that my current school is very grown up and reasonable about part time working though, despite having few part timers. I like them! The really odd thing is that my previous school had quite a few part timers yet was clueless about how to manage them effectively.

👍

Hi Phineyj
I really like your perspective on it all - teacher burnout is real and unfortunately they are not able to keep teachers in the job these days. I also noticed a trend unlike other professions most women in teaching who have children work part time ( not everyone but ive been in two schools and it seems the norm)

Almost half of my PGCE cohort are not going into teaching....

However I appreciate the comments on pensions etc as well...
I really admire that you had a child just as you graduated from the course and still moved up in your career

Aw, thanks OP.

I had almost given up on being a mum when I had her at 40.

I am really lucky to have her and a job I (mostly) enjoy.

I still love my subject 😀

💖

I’ve always been part time in secondary and I love it! I don’t work on the days I’m not in, I just stay a bit later and I set boundaries. If there’s a deadline for all teachers, I make sure it’s extended for me (as long as it’s reasonable). I don’t agree that teaching is 7-7, especially after your first year or two! However I have a WFH job on the other days, I don’t how I’d feel topping up my hours with supply as that’s quite draining and not always great pay.

Hi! Thanks for sharing. That is brilliant you have a second job that you can do from home...
I might consider a set up like this- full time teaching is too much for me! X

I've done resource writing from home, exam marking and also one off contracts with other schools (specialists in my subject are v scarce) - revision classes, practice Oxford interviews etc. Also tutored two students online (that was for a charity, but there's plenty of paid work of that nature).