School hour friendly jobs?

[User7164]

My LO is starting primary soon. I have (very fortunately) been a SAHM for the last 3 years. Before this I only ever really worked part-time retail jobs, so not much by the way of experience and no qualifications.

It’s really important to me to be able to be there for my child’s drop off (9am) and pick up (3:20pm) every day, and weekends and (ideally) holidays.

Are there any jobs that would accommodate this… or am I just wishful thinking?

Thank you!

I have had several 27-30 hours jobs over the years.

But one was granted at interview, as I had some unique & relevant skills. (I originally thought I shot myself in the foot for asking for school hours!!) The others were just a deduction of hours, from full time to pt. All were over 52 weeks though, so still issues with school holidays!

Most kinds of self employed work - I work freelance and can pick and choose when I work or meet clients around school hours

Also delivery work such as Amazon flex or Uber/deliveroo as you just take on jobs when you're available

School jobs, obviously. The office or even in the kitchen.

Retraining as a teaching assistant

A lot of the parents at my kids' school work from home for the council or local government and it gives them time to still do the school run and then just work an extra hour once the kids are at home

I've also seen a fair amount of NHS and local uni admin jobs which are reduced hours or term time only (the latter relating to uni)

I spent 10 years looking for such a thing without success and gave up when my youngest started secondary school. People just dont leave those jobs.

Cleaning maybe?

A job in a school maybe?

Work in a school, but you'll be fighting people with qualifications for that work. There are ten people women who want that work and are overqualified for it for every job, other than the very very part time ones on lunch duty. Or self-employed work.

Quite a lot of civil service roles can be done part time/term time. I work part time (though I do do two long days where my dh does pick up) and whilst not term time I do part year working so have an additional 5 weeks leave on top of my annual leave that is unpaid- makes it loads more manageable and it is balanced out across 12 months pay. If you have no flexibility outside school hours at all though, a role in a school or being self employed is probably your best bet. Good luck!

All the schools I have worked at expect TA’s to work the school opening hours at the very least and my current one is 8.15-4.30pm. They are NOT flexible with child related issues.
kitchen staff is a possibility. They generally work for a company though not the school.

Not at all! We have a desperate shortage of cleaners for private houses. You could start tomorrow.

You can get lucky sometimes with part time retail. Best of luck op!

Part time retail or cleaning. Realistically you’d only be able to work 4-5 hours a day