Specifying days off when P/T

[banjaxed]

I am a teacher. I am given 3 months' notice of what my days off for the next academic year will be, which may be different to the days I requested due to timetable constraints. This leaves me in a bit of a pickle for childcare.

Just wanted to find out how it works in other schools and occupations. Can you specify your days off, how much notice of any change of days off do you get, and are employers obliged to help out if childcare cannot be arranged?

My kids will have 3 different caters next academic year, one of which I am not that comfortable with, due to a change from requested days.

bump

Am secondary and just have to have what I am given and get the feeling from friends who teach that this is the case in lots of schools as the timetable comes first.

I get told in July so have to cross fingers childminder has spaces free as there is no other childcare in my small town at all.

Have tried the line before of childcare issues and that I can't guarantee that I have it to be told it is not their problem!

Having said that my school are accomodating and if I can re-jig my days/half days within the department then they usually are fine accepting this. However evertone in the situation must be in agreement and not be disadvantaged.

There are 'rules' regarding how many full days/blocks you can have off if below a certain number of teaching hours and I know the union have helped a member of staff in my school before but having said that they are now seen as unreasonable and inflexible (the teacher) and I feel that when you have young children you have to keep the school onside as you never know when you need them.

It is always my most stressful time of year and the uncertainty of what I will be working and childcare arrangements cause me untold stress. I feel for you. At least primary teachers know what they are doing year on year.

Not sure with your job, however where I work I'll be putting a flexible working request in when going back from maternty leave, for p/t hrs on specific days, however if they cannot accomodate for business needs I may be offered the p/t hrs but on different days as a compromise, or they may just decline my request completely! I think there won't be much you can do about it, as long as they can prove it would be detrimental to the school to have to accomodate the days you wanted.

NHS - lucky if you get 2 weeks notice of next months shifts generally, however, for those with children under three they are fairly good at giving fixed shifts.

I work in a similar type of organisation where our hours are constrained by timetabling constraints.

I wasted many meetings trying to persuade the powers that be to be more accommodating. In contrast, a very quick chat to the more junior person who actually did the timetables solved all my troubles :)