Agency keeps pushing me for a year 1 maternity role through them, but I want a permanent job from September.

[Se12345]

Initially I wanted an April start job, but haven’t managed to apply to much that starts in April. Now my agency is talking about a role in year 1 near me but it’s a years cover. I don’t know how I feel. I want a permanent job from September so I might say I can don it only until summer. I’ve been holding of pass couple weeks just incase I secure a permanent job that starts early on. Once I accept this role I’m not going to have much time to go for interviews. I don’t know. I definitely need a perm
job from september tho as we want a baby in next year or two latest.

Explain your situation to the school. They may be happy to offer it for one term only to begin with, if you're honest that you're looking for a permanent position so will be applying for other jobs. It's not like a class will be disrupted as it will be a new class with a different teacher in September if you do leave, rather than the same class having to get use to a third teacher within an academic year. They'll probably just be glad to fill the position for the rest of the year and will deal with September as and when it comes.

You never know, they could have a resignation between now and May. If they do, and you impress, you may be offered a permanent role within the school (it happened to me). It's not unusual for teachers to move year groups each year, so if someone else leaves and they wish to keep you on you may be offered a different year group, with the maternity role then becoming the job which becomes advertised (again) if you fill another vacancy from September.

If your planning to have a baby then you definitely want a permanent role so you are eligible for the maternity pay.

I’d see if you could do just the one term and then hopefully by then it’s given you the chance to secure a permanent job…. The upside to this is that you won’t be constraint to notice periods when schools may have vacancies in May /early June after the resignation deadline if you’ve not found anything already.

When I first started teaching I got a job as a maternity cover. I then ended up staying at that school for 7 years...

This obviously doesn't happen with all Mat leave jobs - but if it's primary - you do a Mat cover, then someone leaves, then you can apply for that job.

It will obviously be harder to do this if you're pregnant - but they will be able to see how good and reliable you are and schools will always go for better the devil they know.