Work refusing to let me leave

[Summerreid]

This has happened twice now where I have needed to leave during the day and work have refused, saying there is no one available to cover (secondary school teacher.) Just wondering if anybody knows what my legal position is.

I am also a teacher and we are told to leave immediately if there is any serious family situation.

They are not refusing (as in barring the door and strapping you to the headteacher’s desk). They said there was no cover. You still had the freedom of choice to leave or stay.

This is really awful OP.

In my old school I used to sort out the cover. Yes if teachers had to leave in the middle of the day - emergency dentist appt, sick child, unwell themselves - it would be a pain to sort from a logistical point of view, I would rush round the school trying to track down teachers that I thought could cover, usually for next period and the bell was gonna go any minute. Sometimes I couldn't find anyone and SLT would step in or we combined classes in the hall.

Basically we always found a solution. It's not true that there's no cover. I think in a job like teaching where you don't get time off, if someone is asking for short notice time off its for a good reason and you should trust the professionalism of your staff!

It is unusual, @FuckingHateRats ! Particularly leaving early and working from home, because then it reduces the pool of staff available for cover, making the situation worse.
Value that job!

There probably is cover but it would require SLT doing it and they don't want to.

I'm a teacher.. I had to take Thursday off with my child who has chicken pox..both our children have had them and husband has worked from home, taken holiday over the past 3 weeks..

Husband was due a big inspection at his work and it's not fair he has to always pick up the slack.

My headteacher was really understanding and it's the first time in 7 years I've taken a day off to look after my children.

It's really hard op as a teacher abs a mother and you feel really torn. Sending ❤️

You need to speak to the union. If you are not in the union you need to join. You can also pay a solicitor to advise you.

Teachers are treated like shit. It is ridiculous. If you had to leave your class to pick up your sick child, and you taught my child, I would understand. I would expect you to be disciplined if you were taking the piss. I would expect you to be supported if you were not.

I’m in an English primary and out school is the same.

It’s the practicalities of that in a large secondary school, @PrivateHall - you can’t wander around hunting for a colleague and begging them for a favour if you have a class.

It sounds like your school doesn’t have a great workplace culture, and you may need to start putting your foot down and making a few waves.

Get to grips with the various policies and then arrange a meeting with the head plus any of the other affected teachers who might want to join.

That doesn’t let the OP no wether she’s at risk of having a disciplinary as a result of leaving without permission though.

My place would let us go. There is always cover available as other teachers are okay to cover in cases like this when it’s not foreseen and unavoidable. We wouldn’t mine covering for each other in these circumstances.
I wouldn’t walk out, but I would make sure I was in a union and become the union rep if there wasn’t already one.
What did you end up doing?

I don’t know the legal position which is what you asked fo, but a suggestion

I wonder if amongst your department you could find a willing cover person and present this as ‘I have to leave but x will cover me and I’ll pass the favour forward sort of thing’?

You could make yourself
aware of who has feee periods against your classroom time in advance.

In DS primary the head or deputy head would stand in for such circumstances when possible.

I’m a bit perplexed as how they can have literally no cover. My son’s school often have lessons that involve watching a video whilst the cover teacher sits in the room and gets on with their own prep/marking, or worse case scenario, the teacher next door sticks the film on for the class, keeps the door open and pops in every 10mins. It’s far from ideal but it’s an emergency 🤷‍♀️

I can't believe some of the responses you've had OP. Particularly those who have suggested you shouldn't teach, stay off work until your kids are older or rely on grandparents who are 2 hours away and are in fact in no way obligated to pick up a sick kid.

My mum was a nursery nurse, and I was a sickly kid so at least once a year I would be sent home from school. On one occasion I vividly remember crying in the school office, clutching a sick bucket because my mum's school wouldn't let her leave until lunchtime (about a 2 hour wait). Fortunately that was the only time I had to wait that long and obviously it wasn't my mum's fault but it was horrendous as a poorly kid who just wanted to go home.

There should be a reasonable time to cover you and then you should be allowed to leave. You are entitled to emergency dependants leave just as much as any other profession.

No wonder we have a teacher shortage, when we're not treating the ones we have properly.

I can just see it now "sorry Susan, your kid doesn't have a maths teacher anymore and we can't replace them. The one we had had to leave the profession because we couldn't facilitate them leaving 3 hours early twice a year to collect a sick kid"

Well obviously I don't work in your school so I have no idea if it is practical, just trying to offer a suggestion. Bit sad that it would involve 'begging', thankfully in my work place we are happy to help each other out. Sounds like a very different workplace culture in your place though. Personally, I would be looking for a new job then as obviously SLT aren't going to change.

My husband is a teacher, our 4 year old was throwing up at school last week and my husband has the car with him at work. He couldn't go and pick them up so our son had to wait until my parents could get there a few hours later (he was sat with a bucket in the office), you can't just walk out. We've had to take one of our children to hospital and my husband couldn't leave for that either, he can't just up and leave a class at the drop of a hat even for a very poorly child, that's just the nature of the job. My mum was always the same, she was a nurse she couldn't just leave work if we were ill or had been in an accident without someone to cover her (impossible to get at short notice).

A prearranged appointment is different where there's cover arranged, for example my husband came to a baby scan in work time, but he organised work for his class whilst he was gone and cover had been sorted.

I should think op cares too much about her job and her students to just walk out when she has been told there is no one to cover her class. Not very many good teachers would just walk on out in those circumstances, would they?

When my DM was a childminder, she was the emergency contact if a child was sick at school. She'd collect them and keep them until parent could collect them. If child was sick at her home, she'd again keep them until parent arrived. If she or one of us suddenly took sick, she'd still wait until the parent arrived.

So why don't you use childcare?

YABU

What sort of back up childcare can you arrange to pick up a sick child from school at no notice? Or do you think your child's teacher should employ a full time nanny on the off chance?

My SLT wouldn't be thrilled, but would sort it. The main staff body would pull together and cover without question. We've done it for staff with sick kids, sick staff members. My HoD took my class to assembly when my termination bleeding went from 0-100 and I needed to nip out for clean clothes. I've spent the afternoon with her classes becuase she threw up. Swings and roundabouts.

Quite easily in a small primary. We have one teacher per class and there are no ‘cover’ teachers. TAs are only in some classes and for the mornings only.

if a supply teacher hasn’t been booked, the head would have to go into the class if a teachers suddenly had to leave. The deputy is a full time teacher so can’t cover anyone else.

When staff were dropping like flies and there was no supply to be found, before the schools closed in March 2020, we had the deputy in the hall trying to teach three classes.

In fact, a few months ago, my son’s English teacher had to leave in the middle of her class (sick child needing to be picked up).

She told the class of 24 12 year olds to read quietly 😆 for the remaining 45mins and the teacher next door stuck his head in every now and then. They probably didn’t read anything, and caused a headache for the other teacher who had to keep coming in to shut them up, but why can’t this happen in your school?

@PrivateHall - don’t take me too literally re the begging.

I realise people are trying to be helpful but I’m not posting for suggestions as to alternatives. I have no way of knowing which teachers are free at any given moment, in a secondary school employing hundreds of us. The one who knows that is the person in charge of cover, but they refuse to help, just state there is no cover.

As I’ve said, I realise some people are trying to be helpful and I don’t wish to denigrate that, but if I get a phone call to say a child has been sick and need collecting, I can’t then leave my class and start wandering around the school, looking hopefully for whoever looks like they aren’t doing much and seeing if they’ll cover my classes.

@Shinyandnew1 I thought the OP was a teacher at a large secondary