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?

Remember that pregnancy related sick leave does not count towards normal sick leave records and you cannot be penalised for it. Some women experience a return of morning sickness, pregnancy related back pain or other things in the 3rd trimester.

So ask for them to come to you instead, that's the solution.

I wasn’t questioning that at all. What I meant was that the reasonable answer to that is probably to ask for them to come to you (like you said you would with a class you’d known longer) rather than ask to not do it at all.

I get it. Corridors are full of kids not looking where they're going, jostling to get to their lockers etc. it's not something you worry about until you're pregnant. I think raise it but I doubt that one will change. It's perfectly reasonable to ask to have your duty swapped to one in a safer area than the playground.

Just be careful it doesn't trigger your mat leave earlier than you want to go - but yes if you have been teaching a while the sick pay should be full pay as well.

In terms of the duty the other thing you could do is see if there is a nice colleague willing to swap with you. We did a lot of swapping around within my department (especially between the woman who had already been pregnant) to help whoever was pregnant out. Depends on how supportive your colleagues are.

7 years ago and primary, but my 20 week risk assessment had me taken off play duty there and then.

Why the race to the bottom from everyone on here? Police officers are removed from active duty when pregnant. I’m not saying teachers are like police officers but we have to be mindful of some of the issues pregnant teachers face, the stairs being a biggie. The travel across sites and to other sites.

We have a teacher retention crisis. This is just another example of this being an undesirable job with no consideration for individual people. Like a bare bones, basic, just be grateful for it job. Not something worth many thousands of pounds of debt and years of study for.

I think a lot of these replies are shocking. I worked in a pretty rubbish school pregnancy-wise (I didn't think my wooden kitchen chair was an appropriate desk chair so they took the money for a real one out of my classroom budget for children's glue sticks etc) but even they didn't let pregnant women do playground duty in the third trimester in case we were hit by a ball or knocked over. Being jostled in the corridor is definitely a risk. As for the pp for had to do a parents eve after reduced movements the first time, I genuinely would have refused. There is no way they would take any legal risk of something happening to your baby after the first time round if you pushed the issue. The replies really sum up the low expectations we have of how staff are treated in schools.

I’m very reluctant to be signed off due to exam classes.

Re the class coming to me - the problem is it isn’t every day. It if was a permanent change that might be different. I don’t think they’d go for it anyway. Different years are registered in different parts of the school.

I didn't do the subsequent parents evening, I can't say how as it is too identifying but let's just say I took matters into my own hands when they refused. There was no way I was risking the baby's wellbeing for SLT who genuinely couldn't care less. Unfortunately there were other bigger issues as well (but again too identifying) so let's just say I did what I needed to to protect myself and the baby at the end of my pregnancy.

I know my responses may seem a bit harsh to the OP but I'm just trying to say be prepared for them to say no, and be clever about what you ask for so there is more chance of them agreeing. I'm not saying any of this is right, I think it's disgusting but then a lot of the conditions in the teaching profession are.

Whether they come to you or not is management’s issue. You need to indicate the risk posed by moving around the site whilst the students are also moving, it’s up to management to find ways of mitigating the risk. Same with the duties.

It isn’t my decision though @VariationsonaTheme .

Before you have the meeting, note down the specifics and what you need. For example:

1. pregnancy related sciatica making it painful and difficult to walk distances. Risk to mum is pain and longer term injury. Risk to baby is minimal unless mum is struggling with pain or incapacitated which could happen if symptoms are aggravated. Control method - minimise walking, particularly from form classroom to regular classroom. That looks like the form being taken over or the form moving classroom instead. School can opt for which they can implement.

2. moving about corridors at same time as kids is becoming more worrying. Risk to mum is knocks to the belly, slips and trips, being hit even accidentally woth objects or by people. Consequences could include falls leading to worsening of sciatica, risk of early labour / early and unplanned birth and serious risk to health of both unborn baby and mum. Control method - change times for movement around school at key times by moving before or after the kids. Stop the movement between the form classroom and main classroom altogether by the form being taken over it the form moving to the main classroom once a week.

3. pregnancy related fatigue. Risk to mum is burn out, making errors of judgement, reducing capability for work. Control method - regular breaks required. Duties at lunchtime and breaks will either need to be split up, shared or stopped. Not having a break is not acceptable, and will reduce your capability to work up to your chosen date.

And so on.

Go in prepared, with practical requirements and solutions. It makes it harder for them to refuse you.

That’s what I mean. You ask for the risk assessment to be updated, indicate the risks you’re encountering and then they have to find ways around them. You don’t have to come up with the solutions.

If you are working in a school of 2000, then I imagine that pregnant teachers is something that SLT have to deal
with a lot. So speak to them. They may be used to having to switch around duties/form classes etc. At my school They would be happy to make adjustments eg swap your duty for a quieter one, but they’d be unlikely to remove your duty entirely as everyone is already dutied up to the max, and everyone has a form class or other morning roles so there would be no one free to take this on.

I was taken off break and lunch duty because the corridors are really rowdy where I work. You should at the very least be offered a quiet spot and the form group moving to a closer classroom if it's difficult for you. You should have also had your risk assessment as soon as you told then you were pregnant, so you might be able to use that as leverage if needed!

I did have a risk assessment but that was end of first trimester/beginning of second and I didn’t really feel I needed any adjustments at that stage. I suddenly feel like I’m carrying twin elephants! It’s a very critical time of year of course so I don’t want to be going off sick or anything but have struggled a lot this past week.

I did have a risk assessment but that was end of first trimester/beginning of second and I didn’t really feel I needed any adjustments at that stage. I suddenly feel like I’m carrying twin elephants! It’s a very critical time of year of course so I don’t want to be going off sick or anything but have struggled a lot this past week.

Sorry, double post.

I don’t know that these things would be reasonable adjustments. It’s highly unlikely that a risk assessment would identify the things you’ve noted as “risks”.

Flying footballs, crowded corridors, fights?

OP, I would suggest posting again in the staffroom if you haven't already.

Being taken off break duties (you shouldn't do lunch duties anyway) is totally reasonable and normal.

With registration etc, they may say moving around the school is a key part of your role. Are there specific pinch points that are a risk to you? Could you swap to a different tutor group that's closer to your room?

I'm assuming you're in a union (if not join one) so your rep should be able to help you negotiate this. If you don't have a rep in school, then contact your local branch. They will have a health and safety officer who should be able to advise you.

Your rep will also know what the school has agreed in the past - if they've made adjustments for someone else it's hard to argue they shouldn't do it for you.

It's not a race to the bottom, and just because other people have had a hard time it doesn't mean you should just accept the situation.

I went on maternity leave at 38 weeks, from working in a school 5 days a week,doing break and lunch duty every day and only having a 30 minute break,the only thing I was relieved off was putting the tables up and down in the hall during lunch duty

I taught in two classrooms and this didn't change whilst pregnant, the adjustment was that I didn't have to carry anything so they provided a trolley for books and I used kids in my lessons so take books back and forth otherwise no adjustments. Still did break duty and after school duty. You can't expect them to let you off lots of things as they will have to find someone else to cover, when I was pregnant I was one of three members of staff pregnant if they let us all off duties would have been a nightmare to sort out.

Two duties and one registration isn’t ‘lots of things’, to be fair. I’m still teaching my classes which is the most important part of my role.