Anyone recommend working TTO part time in a school office?

[rosiethen]

Doing finance or admin? Preferably finance as I'm currently an accounts assistant but would like to move to a TTO part-time role to help with childcare when DC1 starts school.
Can anyone provide an insight? Good and bad points etc?

Every support staff role in school is squeezed to the max in terms of productivity because they can't afford to pay the hours/staff that it really requires.

If you get a finance role you'll be shielded a little from all the extras. But admin will be expected to help with setting up school events. Anything that teachers will just turn up to - parents evening, school fete, inset day, school plays etc - admin staff will have been running around doing this that and the other on top of having to do their day job. So you'll be expected to muck in is what I'm saying and you may not always leave on time because of it.

I'm very happy to muck in, I love being busy, thanks for the insight.
I'm wondering about the job itself, the pay, pension side and how it makes life easier/harder having the holidays off!

I considered a job in a school when my children were younger but never found one local to me. I wondered if they are usually filled by word of mouth

Btw Ive googled but nothing seems to fit, what is TTO?

Term time only. So means you have all the holidays off and no need to find childcare/spend the money as you're off with them!

Apart from Inset days presumably.

Many office staff are still in during the summer holidays. DH is a bursar and gets 3 weeks during the summer. He's in the rest of the time (kids get approx 8 wks off here) He does get the other hols at midterms, Christmas and Easter.

I used to work in a school office, you'd need to do your research of this is a different school to your children as not all holidays align. We often had different half terms, or weeks out in the summer.

I would say most schools now take admin staff on as term time only, to save costs. Even hogh schools who used to have more staff on full contracts don't as much any more. But you maybe asked to do some extra time. I'm term time plus one week which is to cover the PD days DH would cover the PD days when the kids where little. They are old enough to be left now so it's not a problem.

Look on your local council website, that's where most of the school jobs here are advertised or directly on the academy chain websites. If there are large academy chains in your area. It's true the primary school jobs can often go by word of mouth or be advertised internally but not so much high schools.

Thank you, I should have been able to work that out 😀

It's not well paid. Also unless you are a basic entry level admin you will likely be required to work some days of the school holidays, pure finance positions in schools in my experience actually tend to be AYR not TTO. You get access to the Local Government Pension Scheme which is pretty decent as DB schemes go.

It can be very pressured and really thankless and unappreciated though as you do SO much background stuff that people only notice if it's not done. You also take the brunt of angry or upset parents/people who live nearby.

Working TTO is great from a childcare perspective, especially if you have a child who can't access holiday provision for whatever reason. It's also great for our family as a whole because DH doesn't have to use annual leave for childcare so it can be used for family time/holidays together. BUT there is no flexibility which brings its own issues.

Absolutely go for it. I do finance part time TTO & I love it.

I love it too.

Primary school admin is far more jack (jill) of all trades than senior school.

Pay is rubbish - better for finance than other depts but still not amazing) but hours, holidays and colleagues (in the right schools) are great.

Where are you OP? I have the perfect vacancy for you!

It was the most pressured, most thankless, and least well paid job I have ever had. I did untold, unpaid overtime that took me well below minimum wage (so illegal). The senior leadership team had the attitude that 'we all put in the extra hours' but the difference was they were paid £50k plus and I was paid £8.5k (before deductions) and was basically the school business manager. I have always been happy to work hard in every job I've ever had but that job really took the piss. I was very very glad to leave. I sincerely hope your experience is better.

I work FT TTO and love it. I do both admin and finance, and everything else on top of that.

However I used to be an LSA in primary and got the shit kicked out of me on a regular basis, so anything is better than that.

I'm TTO office admin team in a primary. If you've got school aged children then it's an utter game changer - I will not leave TTO until my daughter leaves school.
Endlessly entertaining, busy every second of every day. You need teflon skin for dealing with parents and stressed teachers, willingness to deal with a lot of bumped heads/feeling sick just as a lesson starts, and an ability to do your work in 30 second chunks as that is how often you get interrupted. And the pay is bad! But the work/life logistics win out and you do feel like you're making a positive difference to the world.

Finance are in over Easter if a maintained school and all summer if an academy - for the financial year end. Both also have to set up the coming September's new starters and do refunds, which is dependent upon them being in the MIS and tends to only be finalised and ready to sync in July.

I used to work a similar role within the LEA office (back in the day when there were such roles going) and I found the working hours and full school holidays off to be invaluable. I used to have to work an extra few days in the school holiday to make up for taking the inset days off .

Primary maybe, high school no. I'm admin in a high school and cannot wait to leave, I'm actively job hunting.

It's so stressful, we're so overworked, no staff and the work just increases.

Some students speak to me like crap, they speak to teachers even worse. I've been threatened, called names and had parents shout at me. SLT are not interested.

TTO is great but don't forget we only get 39 weeks pay, so it's low. I don't need TTO anymore as my child is grown up now. So I'm looking for a full time easier job!