Reasonable adjustment for pregnancy?

[Aquablues]

I am 28 weeks pregnant and not feeling great. I have my risk assessment next week (second of them.)

I teach three days a week. On one of these days I register a form group on the other side of the (big) school. I’d like to ask to be relieved from this for the rest of my pregnancy. I don’t like walking back to my classroom amongst the crowds and it’s quite tiring.

I’d also like to ask to be taken off break and lunch duty.

I think these are reasonable adjustments - what do people think?

It depends on your school.

I was offered a chair for break duty. Which was not really a safe option in a busy corridor of teenagers. Surely moving the tutor group to your classroom will be suggested instead.

No, they are all registered in the same areas. If it was a form group I’d had for years it would be different but I’ve only started registering them recently on that one day and am not even sure who they all are.

My school wouldn't agree to this

Seriously? Whyever not? It isn’t a lot.

What's the basis of the risk to you? "I don't like it" isn't a hazard.

You need to justify your requests if you want it done under your risk assessment or as a reasonable adjustment.

You will want to be able to demonstrate a clear hazard and appropriate control measures to reduce the hazard to you.

Walking through the kids in the corridors is something you don't like, but you'll need to be clear about what is making this hazardous to you, the risk it poses to you and the consequences of that.

Asking to drop cover times - you'll need to justify it. "Quite tiring" is one thing, but leaving you too exhausted to function safely in the classroom is the kind of language you want to consider (if accurate).

@PinkFootstool i am struggling quite a lot with pain in my back and sciatica. It is very tiring for one thing and I get very breathless moving from one part of the school to another. This is even harder with the crowds. It’s a very big school, and safely moving from one side to another, getting to my classroom and starting teaching there is exhausting. Also, teenagers aren’t particularly careful.

Likewise, with the break and lunch duty, it means that on one day a week I have no break at all for five hours, which is pretty exhausting. I can’t sit down as I am outside and then there is a risk from stray footballs, fights, kids running around and so on.

I don’t want to be signed off but I am in quite a lot of discomfort and very, very tired. Staying in one room and actually being able to sit down at break/lunch really isn’t asking an awful lot.

When I was in late pregnancy I had to sit and do a three hour parents evening where I had appointments booked with no break at all, remaining in the same position for all this time without the opportunity to move around or go to the toilet. This was a 12 hour working day and I suffered reduced movements and had to go for monitoring the next day and as a result call in sick. I had another parents evening coming up the following week and the only adjustment I ever asked for in all my pregnancies was to have the appointments moved around so I could have a couple of breaks during the evening. They refused - so there was no way they would agree to things like not walking across a school (which I also did for form every day in all my pregnancies) and not doing duties (again I did all the way through.) If you have a sympathetic employer they may agree, but I know mine definitely wouldn't.

This. You need to identify risks not things you don't like or make you feel tired.

It's because working in late pregnancy is tiring that you can take maternity leave from 29 weeks. I was commuting to centre london peak time so went on maternity leave at 34 weeks. It's fine working later if you can genuinely cope but if you are struggling it's time to go on leave

What’s the risk to you? Do you have SPD or complications? Is your pregnancy higher risk?

I doubt they’ll go for it.

sorry to sound harsh but pregnancy is tiring. I found climbing 6 flights of stairs to the upstairs classrooms tiring but I did it because id chosen the stay at work until 39 weeks and not take Mat leave early.

it is a risk assessment not a preference assessment

All of those things you describe would be equally "hazards" to anyone, not just a pregnant woman. If you get tired walking is your fitness a problem?

Sounds like maybe your back problems and sciatica might be more of an issue than your actual pregnancy? My sympathies.

@hoais I’m still doing parents evenings, but the parents don’t have fights (usually) or play football. And they aren’t every week, although sometimes it does feel like it.

@Paq but not everyone has a risk assessment.

Why would the physical risk to you as a pregnant woman be different if it was a class you’d known longer?

Every individual doesn't have a risk assessment but there will be risk assessments for e.g. playground duty. Have you looked at those?

You're not presenting a strong case here OP.

Is the Sciatica pregnancy related? Have you discussed this with midwife? Did you have it before pregnancy?

You might have a case for being relieved of lunch duty given on one day there is no break for you for 5 hrs.

But doing doing the form register won't wash especially as you said if it was a form you had for years it would be different....

When will your maternity leave start?

Fair enough.

@MiddleParking if I had taught them and knew them well, I would probably ask for them to come to my classroom. As it is, for one session a week it would probably be more disruptive for them. The naughtier ones would keep claiming they forgot and go wandering around the school. A class I knew better and had a strong relationship with would be different.

@Aquablues the walking amongst crowds is definitely hazardous. I was put in a quiet area for duties - break and lunch. I would tell them there is the risk of being pushed, jostled.

As for the walking across the other side of the building l wouldn't know how to justify this as they could just say it is the symptom of pregnancy and not something being caused by you moving from one end of the building to another.

My employer were horrible during COVID, l had to come in despite advice to the contrary. It was coincidentally at 28 weeks that they finally relented and that was because we had the second wave so l could work from home.

Definitely state your case and stand up for yourself.

You've missed the point of my post. It wasn't what I was doing (parents evening) but what happened as a result (a potential problem with the baby.) I physically had a specific negative impact related to pregnancy as a result of something at work that I couldn't change and they said no to an adjustment for the future to stop the same thing happening again. So something bad actually happened and they still wouldn't make an adjustment - so when you ask how I know they would say no at my school to your request that is how I know.

Concentrate on the lack of breaks and the need to rest. Your midwife might be prepared to say that you need to have a rest during the day so you might be able to drop the duties. I don't think the tutor group reg is likely as the fact that it is a big svhool is unlikely to cut it.

Public sector jobs can be so crap for this unless civil service.

I worked for a big FTSE100 company when pregnant and they told me I could stop being a first aider and avoid anything like laminating for the whole of my pregnancy. They even let me WFH which was rare for junior staff in those days. Compare that to my friend who was an anaesthetist still sprinting to see patients when it all went to hell. She actually fell once and was lucky not to have done damage. It sucks and they get you with the whole duty of care, what about the kids? schtick.

I work in schools now so I know! They get me that way too and I'm not even a teacher

I was taken off certain duties due to pregnancy complications and had some of my classes moved rooms so I wasn't walking around school so much.

From talking with friends it seems luck of the draw whether your SLTs are supportive and are willing to help.

The risks and relevant adjustments are about you and the baby though, not about the kids. If it’s a risk for you to be moving across the school, and the way to adjust that is for them to come to you, then that’s what you should be proposing. Asking to be relieved of the responsibility altogether rather than make the adjustment just in case some of the naughtier kids take advantage isn’t really reasonable.

Rather than asking to stop doing something I'd approach it by suggesting how you could do it more safely. That would be adjusting it rather than just not doing part of your job.

For example: ask to change the location of your duty and/or timing so it's in quieter place and on a day when you get other breaks.

Move the class to your classroom (you are lucky to have your own classroom so you aren't moving between every lesson) so you don't have to walk across school at busy times. If the kids misbehave on that journey across that is the problem of the year team/senior leadership not you. They will have had to get to the original classroom anyway so it's not like they don't move around school normally.

If you approach it reasonably and offer an alternative I think the school are more likely to agree to it. Although as I said previously mine would probably just say no.

@MiddleParking honestly not meaning to sound arsey here (honestly!) but there is a risk walking across confined spaces including numerous flights of stairs quickly with nearly two thousand jostling, pushing, shoving teenagers.