How much ‘free’ work is acceptable in a Primary School

[Jaye12]

Hi Everyone,

I’m just after a bit of advice really..

I’m a School Business Manager at a Primary School, I’ve been there just over a year and on the whole I really enjoy it.

The previous School Business Manager before me was full time, 5 days a week, term time only. When she retired they restructured the job to 3 days a week (18 hours), term time only. The hours suited me well and with kids at home, term time only was ideal.

In her infinite wisdom, our Head teacher set up a WhatsApp group for all staff which goes off at all hours of the day/evenings/weekends/school holidays.
I do my best to mute the group on my non-working days etc but if I don’t respond, staff tend to phone me anyway.

I find myself having to answer queries on my non working days, there are demands on my time during the school holidays, supervising contractors etc for jobs that can’t be done when the children are learning during term time.

Today, (Saturday and in the school holidays) a teacher rang me to tell me that she couldn’t log on remotely to our school system to download something from her email and ‘could I go in to check the server’

Is this reasonable?

Staff seem to assume that as School Business Manager I’m paid a fortune but I only earn £14k a year as it’s part time, term time only.

It feels to me that the role is a full time role and the school have tried to save money by making it part time, but I am doing so much unpaid work that I am starting to resent it a bit.

Any advice on how I should proceed with this would be welcome.

Thanks for listening to my rant x

And why the hell do you not have a caretaker that's insane

Just wondering here...who's going to do payroll, book cover for the first week back, handle any August 1st resignations and register all the new admissions Parentpay accounts if the SBM isn't paid to work over the summer?

I know I'm Secondary rather than Primary, but I can't see them all being done by the third week of July when you're already only 0.4 on 3 days TTO.

Stop answering calls and messages on your email signature out something along the lines of my normal working hours are x to x on z days of of the week and you will respond to you email this time - keep to it and be strict with yourself

Our business manager (secondary sector) switched to a compressed fortnight. (I think that's what it was called...) That meant that she only worked on a Friday every second week. We knew that we couldn't get her on those days and we certainly didn't expect to get hold of her outside school hours.

My LA in Scotland switched to a system where a group of janitors were on rota to deal with several schools together. This meant that - very often - the head cleaner opened up and locked up.

ETA Very inconvenient, but it saved money.

I was once told that “schools run on people’s goodwill”. Utter rubbish. You’re doing two people’s full time roles in 3 days, it’s impossible!
I would explain to your head that you cannot be available on your non-working days. I used to work 0.4 and directly told my boss that any time working is time away from my family and I couldn’t justify that if it wasn’t paid. Let staff know too and don’t respond to anything. People have no choice but to accept your boundaries when you set them.

I’ve only completed one end of year so far but payroll is dealt with by a central team at the Academy Trust, not had any resignations to deal with yet and parentpay, for some parents, was a little late getting up and running at the beginning of this academic year.
We got there in the end but it felt unnecessarily hectic when, if me and the school sec could have been paid to come in for a few days before term started, we could have been on top of it. Beginning of new academic year is bonkers enough without that too, to be honest.

They should have thought of that before they made the OP's job part time / termtime only then.

I think that if you continue to answer calls on days off and work during holidays, the head teacher will not be motivated to 'find' the budget to pay you full time, which is what this job really needs. Why would they, when you are giving away your labour for free? You need to focus their attention on why this increased budget is an essential, rather than a 'nice to have'.
I'm a bit cynical about the 'no money' argument - they always seem to find it for stuff that affects the bosses directly!

Answer to the going in request
‘have you cleared the TOIL with the head teacher for the time to get to school, check it out, return home and the mileage for the 40 mile trip as this is my Saturday in the holidays, and I work term time only?’

usually makes the person stop and think.

That’s really unreasonable of them. I think you should block all the numbers in the WhatsApp group.

Still not your problem. Their will be no change if you (and probably others) are plugging all the gaps either unpaid work.

Calculate how many hours over you are being asked to do - then work out your actual hourly rate.

You have 3 options

1. set and keep your boundaries regarding your working hours
2. find a new job
3. keep going as you are and hope that something will magically change

This is not acceptable. You need to create some boundaries here for their epic piss taking.

Is this a work phone or your personal phone? If it's a work phone, keep it switched off when you are off work. If it's your personal phone, I'd just leave the WhatsApp group and not answer calls from the staff or school when you're not working.

Add your working days to your email signature and state there that emails/calls are not checked/taken outside of your hours.

Be less available.

You should not be going into school for maintenance crap if you are not being paid for this!! Unless you are contracted to do so.

You are in a low paid job yet they are expecting a lot from you.

Get those boundaries in place from NOW. Do not wait to see if this improves in the hope that they may increase your hours/pay at the end of the summer term. They need to feel the struggle to make them realise they need to pay you to work.

This really irks me and this isn't even happening to me.

Most school TTO contracts have provision for one or two weeks over the holidays. If you're expected to cover holidays it should be planned and one of your working days

The WhatsApp group has definitely got to go!

We’ve had it 2 terms and it’s made people lazy and entitled!
It’s just too easy for staff to use the WhatsApp group rather than think for themselves..

I think it’s bonkers that the headteacher believes it acceptable to even have one!

Is it an Academy thing? I can’t believe that this sort of WhatsApp group would be encouraged in a local authority school.

it is an invasion of privacy, I think.. headteacher just added everyone to it, didn’t even ask if we wanted one or if we minded if she added us all.

I would strongly advise you to join a Union asap. They can support you with dealing with a Head / governing body that expect staff to work unpaid on their days off!

It will only go to full time though if you still doing over your hours. If you continue to support on your non working days or cover in holidays then they will think part time is fine. Stand your ground, work your hours and make "I don't work on that day" a key phrase.

@Jaye12 "it is an invasion of privacy, I think.. headteacher just added everyone to it, didn’t even ask if we wanted one or if we minded if she added us all."

That's out of order, it's your presumably personal telephone number and the Head should not have added everyone's personal numbers into a group without consent. Any group member can now access your personal phone number.

Not ok. I would be furious. I'm not a fan of whatsapp groups generally.

In about 15 years teaching it'd never even occurred to me to text or ring the SBO when she's not at her desk (and I work I'm a school with a very part time SBO). I wonder what led your school to have a culture where that is acceptable because for all schools' faults I'd say that one isn't normal!

We do have a WhatsApp group as an LA school. I'd say it's a mixed blessing. There needs to be a bit of a group consensus not to use it if something can wait.

I'm going to champion against the "you don't get paid for it, say no" voice.

I started in a support staff role at £19k (full time term time only). I said YES to everything. I love my job, I did tons outside of hours. It was noticed. 2 years later I was SLT and had well over doubled my salery. I kept on saying yes, doing more. It got noticed. Less than 1 year on I got promoted to have the Assistant Headteacher title. I now earn just shy on £64k. To be honest I still go the extra mile, it's in my nature. I'm currently (easter holidays) analysising my attendance data and tweeking the attendance strategy.

If you've got career aspirations, saying yes and doing more is not a bad thing.

Lots of good advice. I'd start tracking your time in a spreadsheet so you can provide evidence of how many extra hours you are working and I'd suggest delegating a specific task to someone else (to reduce your hours)

Well the WhatsApp thing might be a gdpr breach then. I’d def be out of it - we have a sept one but it’s v quiet and mostly only for snow day or absolute emergency notifications 😂

if your PT stick to it. You have to be rigid and they’ll find the money, especially if it’s a trust. They won’t find it if it doesn’t seem to be needed.

and I agree with others you’d easily get another similar job without this ridiculous expectation

If they want you to be on a work related WhatsApp group, you should be provided with a work phone, which you can switch off on your non-workinf days. Either leave the group or ask for a work phone.

Stop doing any extra, if you can't get it done in your working hours it doesn't happen. Make a list and ask the head what they'd like you to prioritise in your 3 days and what will need to be delegated to someone else or not done at all.

They're massively taking the piss and you need to put some form boundaries in place.

id get a spare phone - you can get dumb/ feature phones with WhatsApp that are cheap.
keep that number for work and turn it off when you’re not working - and yes business hours on WhatsApp profile

Completely unreasonable.