Any teachers on a 0.4 contract?

[MsTaz]

I’m considering returning to my job after maternity leave either on a 0.6 ( 3 days) or 0.4 contract (2 days). Interested in the opinion of other teachers on similar contracts out there please?

I’ve just gone down to 0.4 from 0.6 (was full time before kids). Best decision for my mental health. I supplement by doing tutoring for a couple of hours a week x

I'm 0.6 and my job share partner makes up the other 0.4. I don't feel like I could have returned to work full time after having my daughter but I also feel like I'm trying to cram 5 days of work into 3. Doing support plans, phone calls with parents, pupil progress, displays etc falls to me generally I just have less time in work to get it done. I also get my 10% PPA time during the days I'm off so am paid for that but not actually in the building which is useful

I started back on 0.4 after maternity leave as ppa cover…odd job teacher. I found the workload ok but the job really unsatisfying…I’d find myself teaching over 100 children in one day and struggled with any connection…always moving bags etc. I then agreed to go 0.6 for a job share role. To be honest…the extra responsibility and workload for what is effectively only £3-400 difference was hard. Reports, parents evenings, pupil progress meetings. Plus it was a really difficult two years for the school’s staffing. But it was great to be based with one class!
If I had my time again I don’t think I’d increase my day…it was really noticeable on my home life.

0.4 is great in terms of work life balance but professionally in teaching it’s seen as not being bothered or really interested in the kids you teach.

I can see the problem with continuity for the pupils. But a part-time excellent teacher is better than a full-time burned-out/rubbish one.

Do you teach a particular subject? eg Maths twice a week would work very well whereas a primary school teacher who’s only around a couple of days a week and doesn’t know the children all that well may be more problematic for the school…

I’m a primary school teacher and would be based in one class. My concern with the 0.4 contract is the decrease in PPA, wondering if I’d be making it up in my own time. With the 0.6, I would get PPA with my job share.

@Marilla1966 I’m thinking along the same lines as you. Better for my mental health and I’m home for the bulk of the week with baby. Option to offer doing supply cover at school when I need extra money maybe.

I returned from mat leave on a 0.4 contract. I felt really disconnected from school life, I wasn’t there enough to be part of conversations and never knew what was going on. It did give me a decent work life balance though! I also struggled with marking etc, as I wasn’t at school enough to do it there (had to leave to get children from childcare, plus staff meetings etc), but couldn’t take books home as they were needed in school. It was very frustrating and I left in the end.
I can definitely see though that if you were the 0.6 part of a job share you do most of the work, which isn’t fair 0.6 of the pay.

I'm on a 0.4 contract at a special school. It's actually 0.44 as I do my PPA outside school hours. I negotiated that as part of my job offer and it's definitely worth it - I doubt whether in practice I would ever actually have got PPA in the school day anyway and it's equivalent to a 10% pay increase. I recommend it - the two days goes by quickly and (sorry job share partner) it definitely feels like the buck stops with the 0.6 partner so I feel there's less pressure on me.

I returned from MAT leave on 0.6 and dropped to 0.4 as I scaled up a side hustle, also in education.

On 0.6 I kept my tlr (the lowest one), felt I was still keeping my hand in and treading water ie when I was ready I'd come back full time and ready to progress. On 0.4 felt completely disconnected and when I eventually left to do side hustle full time they basically said that's what they'd been thinking I was planning. Not unreasonable, but the reason I dropped from 0.6 to 0.4 was because I could see it was the beginning of the end of progression for me there

I have fluctuated between 0.4 and 0.6 since having my children.
The thing that really makes a difference though is that I am not job sharing and don’t have a class that I am responsible for.
I do sometimes feel like I’m missing stuff but it works pretty well for me.