Term time working from home...Does such a job even exist?

[FartingAgainstThunder]

Prior to having my youngest child, I had the perfect work from home job and my employer had no issue with the children being present during my working hours so it didn't 'have' to be term time.

Sadly, My dad died two days before I was due to return to work after maternity leave and I took extended unpaid leave at this point.
By the time I was ready to return to work the company had folded and there was no job to go back to.

I've only just started to think about returning to the workplace and am wondering if anyone has any idea of a job that would allow me to work from home in term time only?

Or perhaps a business I could start that would allow me the same type of flexibility I had previously?

My background is in customer service and administration with a focus on data privacy. (Previous job was providing outsourced DPO services to various companies/charities)

Any suggestions gratefully received.

@NCgoingdry hence the starting of this thread to ask the question.

It does look like I'll have to be my own boss.

I have a friend who is a bookkeeper, she basically works around the kids, so school holidays she works once they're in bed or gets up early and does an hour or two, or works weekends when they're not at school. Seems to fit in quite well, although she seems to do a lot through Christmas as everyone's trying to get their affairs in order before the 31 Jan deadline for the tax man, and she is always muttering about people not respecting deadlines.

That sounds like a good sector to research, Thank you.

I have over a year before any childcare is available anyway but I'd like to use this time to get a bit of a plan in place and look for any potential employers/do any appropriate online courses.

Thank you @Ariela that's certainly a good one to look into also.

Lots of clerk to school or academy governing bodies jobs are now wfh.

It is evening work usually but over and done with no later than 9pm and not every night.

Many local authorities have a bank of clerks that they ‘hire out’ to schools on a subscription basis. Academy trusts often advertise for in house clerks (generally annualised hours contracts, so as long as you get the work done it doesn’t really matter when you do it so can be TTO)

You don’t need experience but if you’ve got good admin and writing skills that will be a good start.

I did this type of work as a single parent when my child was at primary school. The advent of Covid meant everything moved online. Zoom / Teams means more and more meetings are now virtual or at least can be clerked virtually.

Try Indeed, local authority websites or TES for jobs

Thank you @GovernorGal I'll definitely look into those.

This is what I was going to say, although I imagine that the Arms Length public body I work for might do a TTO contract from the start for the right person.

We definitely would not tolerate WFH with young children though.

Surely that’s what thousands of other families do though, including using holiday clubs/ friend favours/ childminders?

I'm at no point planning on WFH with children present.

I'm quite sure that is what thousands of families have to do and what I've said in my post that you quoted is what we would do if I can't find something suitable.
Again, there are no holiday clubs, no childminders, no school holiday childcare for children past the age of five in the area.

A potential business idea there! Not TTO obviously, but it would appear to be a gap in the market in your area!

That's what DH suggested 😁
I really dislike other people's children though 😉

Someone should definitely get on this though.

No holiday clubs at all? DS has done a week at a drama club (which literally ran for one week) and sports days

do you have friends in a similar boat? We have taken turns for days in the holidays (only a few, but you could do more if everyone was a bit stuck!)

don’t forget statuary unpaid parental leave: you could each take that on top of paid leave.

@JustKeepSwimmingJust All my friends children are around the same age as my eldest. (15)
They leave them home alone.

Wow, that's pretty unusual

Do you live extremely rurally?

What do the other parents at your school do?

I really didn't think there was anywhere with absolutely zero holiday childcare.

Pretty rural, although it's a large village.

I'm really not sure what other parents do as until now I didn't need to think about childcare.
The nursery was previously open all year and provided breakfast and after school club but then was taken over by the council and is now only open term time.

There was another private nursery but it shut down a few years back, Not sure why.

I know a few parents used childminders but there are none now.

It might be worth asking around just in case there is something you've missed.

Maybe something in a neighbouring village that hasn't been as obvious.

It just seems a bit odd that there used to be wraparound and childminders and now there is nothing - all the parents can't have quit their jobs, surely?

I have asked on the local Facebook page and asked about school holiday cover when I was emailing the nursery.

There may well be a childminder in a neighbouring village but those would be too far away anyway.

What about the Gov right to unpaid parental leave to get another week each?

And are there any reliable late teens in the village who could do daytime nannying for 2 days/week during the school holidays? I’m guessing there’s not many employment opportunities for teens if it’s rural enough for no holiday clubs.

I work TTO and am home based (although I am peripatetic so in reality I am generally only home 2-3 days per week). I work in the FE sector. My colleagues on similar contracts are in areas connected with student support - as am I. Colleagues in MIS & data management/DPO work from home - not TTO but quite generous holidays and in FE things definitely quite down over the summer and people can buy extra holiday etc. friends who do similar roles in HE have similar contracts. I would look at FE/HE

*quiet

I suspect a lot of people have stopped using wraparound care due to being able to wfh. I know at least one of my colleagues doesn’t use any childcare for his young children after school or in the holidays, claiming he and his wife alternate working and looking after them (but the kids are always in the background on calls), and I’m sure he’s not the only one.

The number of children using the wraparound care at my DD’s school was much lower after the lockdowns and are it’s only just starting to get back to previous levels. So it’s plausible that wraparound care in a village, with lower numbers to start with, couldn’t keep running.

OP, some local authority jobs could be term-time only and tend to be flexible in terms of wfh. Have a look at your local council web site.

We'll use all our annual leave and each take unpaid leave to cover the additional weeks. I think there are 14 weeks of school hols (roughly) so will each need a week and a half of unpaid leave per year.

I'm going to try like hell to avoid that situation though, it's no life.

I've checked the school's vacancies page but I'll add checking the local councils page to the list.

My friend works term time from home for HMRC (not sure what her role is) but she started in the office so as others have said I'm not sure it's a starting point.

Can't hurt to try though 🙂