Looking to escape the 9-5 stress - term-time jobs ideas?

[mum2be99]

Hi everyone, I'm a high achiever and have been on the way to a high paid career but with my now toddler I've decided Id just prefer to give it all up. It's eating me alive everytime I need to drop him at nursery. But, I can't drop down to a miniscule salary and would still need around 25-30k minimum. Corporate sales is not worth my mental health, I'm young and want to enjoy every moment with my son and have more children. I wouldn't mind working in a school so I get some time off with my son, but starting as a teaching assistant is just not feasible with the low pay they get.

Are there any term time jobs I can start looking out for? Shall I start reaching out to schools? What experience could I build? Are there any courses/qualifications you can do for certain school roles? I know there must be so many jobs and more flexible roles other parents out there do. I'd be so much happier doing this and cutting down on things.

Any help or advice is appreciated

It depends what role you want within a school as to what qualifications/skills/experience is required. Likewise as to what qualifications would be relevant to gain for the role.

Why not a p/t role all yr round with decent holiday allowance?

I don't think there are many jobs in schools that pay £25k to £30k without being suitably qualified. What are you thinking of exactly?

My full time equivalent in a school finance job is about £30k but term time reduces my take home pay considerably.

Have a look at high schools and colleges for jobs in finance.

This is what I'm looking for ideas on

How did you get into this role? What experience and qualifications?

Looking for ideas on the roles. Surely there's more than basic admin and TAs

Currently on 4 days but I like the idea of a long stretch of time off with my child

Some civil service roles you can request term time hours or part time flexi hours depending on your current skill set once your in you can move round roles / depts.

Thanks I'll look into this

In secondary schools there are roles to do with attendance/pupil engagement that are in that wage bracket. But I would assume you would need experience of working with children/teens and education.

There is a job going at my school - PA to the Principal so maybe something along those lines?

Finance Officer, exams officer, business manager, premises manager, ICT manager, data manager in schools would be possible to achieve that salary depending on your skills. Larger secondary schools or colleges are more likely to have those type of roles. Depending on the role, they may be offered as either full time or term time plus X week holiday working, whereby you commit to working 2 or 3 weeks during the schools holidays over the course of the year, so still more weeks holidays than a 52 week contract, and those extra holiday weeks would be during school holidays. But you would be looking at full time hours during term time. Pay would obviously be pro rata but could be 25k+, even when pro rata'd.

My FTE is around 26K so term time plus 3 weeks of holiday/ evening hours is more like 23-24K, I work at a large secondary/ sixth form college doing UCAS, admissions and generally organising sixth form events around students next steps. You may be able to get an attendance officer or pastoral/ student support type role on approx 25K depending where in the country you are.

I have seen a job like this… it’s during term time only https://housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/appcentre-16/brand-2/candidate/so/pm/9/pl/23/opp/5190-Education-and-Engagement-Officer/en-GB can’t find a current vacancy but there are jobs out there sometimes

When I worked in finance for a LA many people on my team worked term time only. We had flexi time too.

Look at education support roles for the local authority.

Most reasonably well paid non teaching roles are in secondary/all through schools.

PA to Principal/SLT
Managers of:
Catering
Business/Operations
Exams
Data
Attendance
Pastoral

All the people I know in these roles have worked up from dinner lady/admin/finance assistant/TA though.

But someone with business admin qualifications could get an office manager/ops role fairly easily

It's eating me alive everytime I need to drop him at nursery.
How will a 9-5 job change this? Wouldn’t it be better to wfh in the hours which suit you?

I work for the LA and they have a very flexible working policy, lots of people condense their hours to term time/majority term time and work a small amount in the school holidays or have a tailored working pattern.