Part time teaching - does it work?

[stressheaderic]

I'm returning to secondary teaching in December after 11 months mat leave. I'm about to go in this week and make a part time request, for 3 days a week.

Any part time teachers here with advice? Will I end up doing just as much as before, but only getting 3 days pay?? Do you still feel as 'in the loop' as everyone else? I've always taught split classes with other colleagues so I'm used to that.

I wasn't hopeful of our Head allowing my request - but he has just laid off my replacement early, and I have no timetable to return to at present, so I imagine I'll be teaching all kinds of things until next September. Dreading it really. Any advice?

No advice, but I start teaching 2 days a week on Tuesday - would be interested to hear any advice from others!

Slightly different circs as a primary teacher, but i job share (i do .4 partner does .6). I really love part time work, and is the best decision for my family etc
BUT I definately do more than 2 days work for only 2 days pay , as does my jobshare-they definately get their moneys worth from us and despite all efforts to maintain good communications i do feel very 'out the loop' as you put it( not in regards to my class but to whole school issues iykwim)
Not sure how to get around that bit, and it is that element of it that i hate the most; the workload well, pah, our job never has a finish point does it.

Sorry i cant be more positive. It is what you make it though, and i think i have allowed it to happen to a certain extent. I need to be more vocal/pro-active when i am there and maybe then i would feel more part of the team

Good luck

I have just started my third year teaching part time. I do three days a week. I had to drop all responsibilities to get the part time though and so am just a class room teacher at a secondary school, although this was never said explicitly.
In some ways it is brilliant... I have three days worth of lessons to plan/ teach/ mark for.
You have to attend meetings on the days when you are in school.
Teacher days you have to do pro rata so I do 3 or the 5 for my 0.6 of a timetable.
At the moment it has ballsed up any promotion possibilties and i do feel separated from the school, completely different to how I used to feel: but overall, the pros outweight the cons.
I am much less stressed than friends who are at different schools and have Heads that do not suppost part time work

Not an english teacher obviously...
'outweigh' and 'support' sorry.

Anyway, good luck with your chat with the Head

What Josette said! I have been teaching secondary 3 days a week for 3 years. It is a really good work/life balance but you have to be really on top of everything, I don't think you end up doing more than your fair share as you generally will have fewer classes. Marking never goes away though and your PPA time will have to go much further (that was a shock to me, PPA always used to incorporate tea and biscuits as far as I was concerned! ). Oh and not having your own classroom isn't great.

I do also think you have to work a bit harder as a part-timer to be taken seriously, and full-timers can be a bit sniffy and quick to point out what you might not be doing. But that will depend on the people in your school. There were a few women in SLT without kids in my school who weren't particularly understanding, shall we say!

I've never regretted it for a second, though. Never. I never wanted to be HoD or anything so classroom teacher suits me fine. Friends who wanted promotion stayed full-time which I think was absolutely right - one is an Assistant Head now and would never have got there part-time.

I am starting a new job tomorrow and am nervous! I am still doing 0.6 but for the first time I am doing 4 short days. I am hoping it will feel like that and not like 4 long days! Will post back and let you know!

Good luck!

Hi - to echo what Josette and IHeartKing posted, part-time, 3 days a week teaching is a good work-life balance. It is important to establish your routine and what you do early on, though. If you are the only part-timer in the dept/faculty it is good to have clear groundrules and for them not to expect you to do the work of a full-time teacher, as you are not paid full-time! Equally those staff that come in and go, don't always give p-t staff a good name, well not where I work anyway.

Our dept/faculty has its weekly meeting on the day all p-t staff is in, which helps keep in the loop. I have to attend all parent evenings of the classes I teach, which is reasonable. I also share a form, which is better than being used for form cover all over the school!I have managed to share a classroom with another part-timer, which is working very well - a base for our resources and just a bit of movement when both in. Do ask for this if you can!

I do Inset days pro-rata, so 3 out of 5 if 0.6, and go in on days off if they are not on my working days. If school want you in above and beyond those days they can offer payment. Being proactive about when work as a p-t means you can book things in advance which helps!

Much depends on your subject and timetable as to how much work 3 days is I find - if end up with different ability groups in same year, or lots of different years it can feel like planning is the same as f-t. But if you get on well with your HOD or Head of Faculty you may be able to get a timetable of certain years, which reduces planning I have found - even if each year's timetable you change what years you teach. I teach yr 7-12 this year, but have managed to not have top and bottom sets in one year group, instead 2 bottom sets in yr 9 say, which helps!

All the best with your request. At my place of work, some people were turned down, but appealed to governers and succeeded.

Thanks for all replies so far.

I know that 2 women were turned down last year, and both chose not to appeal for fear of 'looking bad'.
I'm hoping that the severe cost-cutting that is prevalent in our authority might mean that he is more likely to consider my request.

We do not have our own classrooms anyway, as it is a brand new school and we move around all day to different areas of the school (absolute nightmare, but that's another story) so I am used to that.

Hi, yes the finanical angle is a good way of gaining p-t status, which is how many people have done it recently in my area! Also, if they school is not keen, could you ask for it to be a temporary variation for one year - and if it works for you and them, then it may become permanent. In my faculty so many wanted part-time that all were refused, including those with and without children - yet it was then given temporary for a year, everyone was happy, no reduction in results or issues so it was made permanent!

It's working quite well for me. Been back 0.6 (3 full days) since end of last session and so far (I emphasise the 'so far', as I have only worked the 'easy' part of the year so far i.e no prelims, exams,parents nights, etc.)it's been fine.

I am absolutely disciplined about doing what I can at work and not taking anything home (reports at the end of last year were an exception as there just was no time at school)and I have to say that it's working so far.

I have just had to accept that I am going to be winging it for the foreseeable future and doing the minimum necessary to keep afloat.I've also been teaching for a number of years and am very familiar with the courses I'm teaching which helps.

I think it also helps that I come to work raring to go because I'm only there 3 days a week rather than getting bogged down with a 5 day week. Plus the novelty value of being able to get on with stuff without being interrupted every 5 minutes by my DD is so liberating I find I achieve so much more than I used to!

I've accepted that career-wise, I'll be treading water until such time as I'm ready to go back full-time but even then, there are promoted p-t posts that occasionally appear so you never know...

Agree with Cat's point - remember you may not get three full days and two off, but three days worth of hours spread all over the place! TBF, it is very hard to timetable a p/timer and keep continuity for classes etc, unless it's a job share.

But I'm biased, I decided not to do p/t because I do want to progress career-wise and because I hadn't seen it work for other people.

Another 3 day week teacher here. I've been part-time for 5 years and don't regret it at al (though a previous head tried to get rid of my job while I was on mat leave) .
Like others have said, I have to be very disciplined about using ppa time and working after school, instead of gossiping in the staffroom for a good hour! It also works for me because I am the only teacher of my subject in the school, I teach a few English classes as well split with another teacher. I don't feel out of the loop and my current head always ensures p/ters are up-to-date on any meetings they miss.
The best thing this year is not working Mondays
Good luck with your request!

I'm a F/T teacher, but it's worked well for me, as I was ambitious and wanted to work my way up, which has now paid off as I;m a Deputy Head.

The only issues about P/T in secondary schools are:

-split classes. If you want your days to be blocked, then split classes are inevitable. You won't mind, because it will make life easier for you, as otherwise you'd be in and out of school all week. However, the other teachers who share the classes may not like it, as it can create an extra work load for them, without the advantages of days off. (eg they may end teaching 6 different classes for half their timetable for the subject, rather than 3 classes for the whole of their timetable. A greater number of classes means more prep/planning/parents to see at consulations evenings/reports to write. For this reason, job shares tend to work better, as both teachers are then getting the disadvantages and advantages.

-meetings and training. The larger the school and the more P/T staff there are, the harder it is to schedule meetings and INSET so that everyone attends. And if you don't attend, you're out of the loop. We did CP training recently, and ended up having to pay all our P/T staff to come in even if it was their day off, because it was essential training. That sort of thing knocks the school budget. Also, I have been a Head of Dept in situations where it's impossible to find a day in the week when all staff are in, which has its problems. email and phone calls can go so far, but sometimes face to face meetings, and training, are essential.

It's worth bearing those issues in mind, as your Head may want to discuss them if you are applying for flexible working

I have always attended inset and meetings where necessary and been prepared to be flexible, which I think helps. I have never requested blocked days but have been given them for the past 4 years. I think if you're prepared to be flexible and understand the requirements of doing certain inset, then there is no problem. We have a number of p/ters in my school.

Hi I've read all your comments with interest. I have got a meeting with my HT this week to request part time hours when I return to work after having my first child. I am hoping to work 5 mornings as opposed to 2.5 days. What are the advantages/ disadvantages to this? My reasons are that my DC is still breast fed (I hope to avoid expressing and bottles etc) and I don't like the thought of DC being in nursery from 7.30am to 6.30pm. What are your views? And thank you for the sane balanced earlier comments!

The only downside I can see is that while 5 mornings may seem ideal while you are still bf, you may find it the worst of all worlds once your child is a little older. You'll have all the commitment of working each weekday, no full days off, yet a very p/t salary. I would imagine it will also be more difficult to find someone willing to work the afternoons to make up the hours - IMO 5 afternoons would be even worse than 5 mornings!

Worth thinking about the longer term. Your child won't need to bf during 'day time' hours forever, and it would be a pain to be lumbered with such restricting hours long term

Thanks violet, you are right and luckily I realised before my meeting! I've been offered 2 full days which will be great as it will feel a very short week!

I have to say reading this post that at my school I felt forced to come back part-time (although I had never intended to) for the second half of the school year as I was told I would only be teaching for 19 hours per fortnight and doing 23 hours of support, which I wasn't prepared to do. I absolutely hated being part time as I felt that I missed everything - I was ready to kill the next person who uttered the phrase 'Oh I don't think you were there when we discussed that' - both personal and professional things. I was miserable a lot of the time as I felt I wasn't really doing my job (and certainly wasn't getting any positive attention from colleagues for what I was doing) but still had to take responsibility for most of the housework.

Since September I've been full-time and although it hasn't always been easy (of course I feel guilty for not spending time with my DS and sometimes I feel guilty for not staying later at work to get more stuff finished like I used to) I find it much better. I've found my job satisfaction is a large part of my self esteem and because I know I have less time with DS I don't try and cook/clean/do the washing/run errands at the same time - I get to just sit and play. Unfortunately, I have also realised that I do still get left out of some things from friends at work who don't have kids who assume I won't want to go out or can't stay and do things when actually I do/can.

Having said that, mortgage permitting, I would consider applying for part-time jobs or job shares in the future as I think moving to a new school part time might be easier as it would feel totally different, rather than just not as good.

Im 0.6 and just returned at the start of term from a mat leave. I think it is a great work/life balance and I am more cheerful at work and at home than I was when fulltime. My workload isn't heavier but I feel a bit on the outskirts of things at times. If you have a js partner it is v important to establish a good working relationship even if it means gritting your teeth! I had 2 js partners in the past. One was great and the other was a real old bat. Now i have no partner as numbers have dropped in the school.