Termtime working position question school nurse

[Snowwhite83]

Hi recently accepted a termtime position as a school nurse. This is in an office coordinating care for several schools and not based onsite
so is 9-5. They've asked me to work the end of the week (they need cover as lots of people don't work Fridays for example) and I realised that I don't know what happens in the last week of term as my daughter will normally break up before the end of the week (on a Wednesday or Thursday normally).
Will I still be expected to go into work these days? I can get DH to take time off if needed but was hoping we would spend holidays together. Realise I'm v lucky to have termtime as most mums have to work through the hols. Any advice appreciated.

You will normally be contracted for x weeks so you have to work those full weeks. So if the school goes back or breaks up on Wednesday you would normally work until the Friday. It will only be a few days a year so you will have plenty of time together as a family still! Your husband will have to take off 3 or 4 days annual leave.

Of course you work them. You work the term time of your employer. You'll need to get childcare. Am I missing something? You could always ask to shuffle your working days that last week?

Your child's term dates are not relevant here. You'll still have 6 weeks together.

Of course you work your contracts terms!

You dont think you shouldn't go in wherever you child is off do you?

Remember inset days (both schools) will have this problem too. Just like anyone else you need childcare for the days you work... just in your case it will only be a few days here and there.

If you’re based in an academy trust, I would expect your days to follow the trust term dates, so it would depend whether your child is at a school with the same pattern of dates. I’m on a term time only contract, and if term finishes on Thursday, I finish on a Thursday.
Be cautious about INSET days though, as these are down to individual schools and can be a bit of a pain if you can’t take any leave in term time.

When I had a term time contract I was offered something like a 37 week contract or 36 to cover any inset days. Pay adjusted to whichever I chose. You need to see what you signed up for.

I chose the 36 week, so could take those extra days off.

Of course you go in! I’m a teacher - I’m back on sept 1st this year, my children sept 7th. I can’t just say I won’t go in on those days…

In my work (term time contract) I am contracted for 39 weeks a year I believe.
They go by official term dates for the authority where my children go to school.
Inset days often tacked on to the beginning and end of the holidays are my responsibility to cover.

If the official end of term is a Thursday (not inset) then would your office be open on the Friday, for example?

Im still slightly amazed that you are really asking this.

You want time off a term time only job for childcare reasons?

Term time jobs don't mean you will always have exactly the same time of as your DC, but you will get the majority. There will always be a few days at the start and end of the academic year where staff are expected to work before/after the children are in. There will also be Inset days, and if you are in a different LEA term dates can differ.

Some school nurses get things like inset days off/ i have had a co tract where I didn't as I was based in a school and it was quite tricky sorting inset days out for childcare as my childminder was also term time only but I've also worked in a non school based community school nurse team where there was a mixture of people on term time contracts and in our area there were different holidays as we were on the border of counties. Some had I think a 39 week contract and some had 38 (I think) check with hr

Hi thanks for your replies,

I thought I would need to go in the whole week which it is fine. My DH was insisting I must finish when the kids do so made me doubt myself.

Childcare. Just like countless working parents. Try covering all the school holidays when you are limited to the amount of school holiday leave you can take yourself! I used to be limited to 3 weeks leave in school holidays over an entire year and sometimes due to demand I got none in school holidays at all.