Any tips for a successful job share?

[Geordiebabe85]

I'm going back after mat leave on a 0.6 contract (primary).
I'll be in class 2.5 days and the other teacher 2 days (and her other bit is management time / PPA).
The head has made it clear he's not happy about job shares and we need to make it work.
Has anyone got any tips how to make it successful?

I have found the biggest most important thing is agree on the rules and make sure are both consistent

where is your ppa time? You're entitled to 10% so should be getting just over quarter a day a week

We will both be having PPA together

Just ensure that you are communicating with each other and that lessons are taught cohesively so there is a continuation of learning and no impact for pupils so to speak.

Thorough handover so you're both fully informed of how learning has gone each day, shared log of conversations with parents, incidents and behaviour log. if one of you isn't attending a staff meeting as it's not their day, the other teacher passes on all info.
Discuss and agree decisions you'd normally make yourself if it was just your class - seems obvious but it can be tricky going from having your own class to job sharing and having to communicate and agree so many things that you normally wouldn't have to discuss with anyone. . Discuss and agree data and assessment before pupil progress meetings. At parent teacher meetings take it in turns to start the conversation. Particularly for a sequence of lessons in English, plan so that it's easy for either of you to pick up and follow on to the next lesson. So planning needs to be tighter than if it was just you teaching. In maths we normally handover a list of any children who need extra input. Absolute consistency with behaviour management so you're using the same scripts, have same expectations so the class know you are discussing everything and know exactly what happened on the days you weren't in.

Thank you for the advice!

It will really help you having PPA together. That has always helped me in this situation.

As others have said consistency and communication is key. I always sent an email/voice note on a Wednesday to my job share and they did the same to me on a Friday. This would include where we were learning wise and anything of note to do with the children. Even the fact that one was having a wobbly week would be noted.

I've worked with 4 different job shares. The one that didn't work was when she didn't always share with me exactly how she dealt with a particular behavioural challenge from a child. I was left to feel like a supply teacher as rarely made decisions or had a say in decisions. This wore me down after 2 years and I was not enjoying teaching.

All the others we have been fine and worked well together.

Thank you for sharing what didn't work.

One thing we found worked was dividing the topics. So in maths for example the children did arithmetic with one teacher and space/shape and things with the other. So you could plan based on what you had done rather than waiting for a phone call the day before.