Can someone please explain in simple language teacher's maternity pay and leave?

[Morosky]

I teach and am trying for a baby.

I was going to wait and start trying in DEC for a Sept baby, thinking I could maximise my maternity leave.

I then thought that was a little selfish of me so thought perhaps it would be better if possible to time for a baby and maternity leave so it would fall in the summer holiday as that would have the least impact on my school. The plan is to take 6 months and then my dp will take over at home..

Now I know you can do all the planning you want and nature will have its own way. I will be happy whenever my baby arrives.

But a colleague told me today that if I take maternity leave over the summer I will lose my August pay, which we cannot afford as I am the major wage earner. Surely it would make sense for schools to try and encourage us to combine holidays and maternity pay rather than penalise us for it

Hi there
I am currently on ML and I am a teacher too. My baby was born in March and I am going back to work in Jan.

Basically as a teacher the whole year counts as working time. If you qualify for OMP (if you have been teaching constantly in one or more LA's for 28wks before your Qualifying week- which is 15 weeks before your due date- so basically as long as you are in the job before you actually get pregnant), you get 2 weeks 100% pay, 4 weeks 90% pay, 12 weeks 50%pay + SMP (£105 ish per week, works out about £500 per month) then onto just SMP for 21 weeks. You are entitled to take a year off, but obviously the period at the end is completely unpaid.

So, if your baby was due in August, for example, you would be get your full pay for most of Aug, most of your pay for Sept, then onto half pay for Oct, Nov and Dec. However, if your pay free period fell in the summer holidays, you would get no pay for this time, even though you would not be working anyway. As teachers we are entitled to 25 days holiday, but as we get a lot more than this you cannot usually save it up and take it as part of ML or the next academic year, as there is lots of time for you to take it in the following years' holidays anyway.

Of course you cannot totally plan when you might get preg, but it sounds like you are being very sensible and thoughtful thinking about it! However, it is the job of HT's to sort out this sort of thing, and if I was you I would play the system to my advantage. I am sure that your HT would do this to you without batting an eyelid. My DD was born 6 weeks prem- I was planning on going on ML at the end of the easter hols, but she came 2 weeks before them! Therefore i didn't get full pay for the easter or summer hols, nor will I for the Xmas hols. And when I made my flexible working request my HT (who I thought was very reasonable and supportive before) was v v difficult and made the whole process v stressful.

Time it so that you can start you ML at the end of the summer hols! that will give you 6 extra weeks before your money starts to go down and you will be very pleased to not have to work when v preg!

HTH

Thanks, so is the SMP alone £105 a week.

SO in reality I can only afford to take the 18 weeks so four and a bit months.

Right I am still struggling to get my head around the August pay issue, I have been at work for 13 hours today as it is open evening so I am a little jaded.

I am not fully understanding what you mean by the pay free period. Why did you not get paid properly over Easter?

Our school never agrees to flexible working requests so dp will be at home.

Best timing is baby due to be born end of Sept. Then yoou get paid for August and go back for 1-2 weeks (supporting small groups/re-writing SoW etc) in Sept and start mat leave then.

I would just feel very uncomfortable going in for 1-2 weeks and watching my classes not being taught by me just so I could get paid. Although I suppose I could be back at work for the end of Jan start of Feb to pick the classes up.

It is so complicated it is putting me off

I have two DC and have been in different schools for both.

DD1 was due at start of Nov and I was due to start ML at end of Sept. I was to have no class and was going to cover PPA and write policies - SMT.

As it was, DD1 arrived on a Sunday 8 weeks early and 3.5 weeks before I was due to start ML! (My first thought, once she was breathing, was 'at least she will be in the right school year'!)

On returning, I was officially back on April 16 which just happened to be the first day of the Easter holidays! Went back FT for the summer term - no class responsibilities in a primary school.

HT very supportive.

DD2 was born last year after I had moved to teach in a Middle School. ML due to begin on Jan 5 (this year) but DD2 arrived 5 weeks early during Xmas holidays. ML starts immediately if you give birth early (my official date to return was Xmas day 2010!)

Returned to work on July 15 - which just happened to be the last day of term! Head teacher very supportive and we have had a teacher 'return' to work on the last day of the school year for the past 3 years and another is planning on doing so this summer.

Returning to work on last day of term means you get the paid holiday -although LEA paid me late as they weren't on the ball!

Middle school also agreed to my flexible work request and I now finish at lunch time twice a week,.

I would say, if you had the choice, plan for an Oct/Nov birth with a few weeks to work in a support role in Sept. Then aim to be back on the final day before the Easter Hols to get the best financial deal. (HTs in both my schools were very supportive of doing this - the money is not coming out of the profit of a small company - and when in Primary school, at least, I know we had maternity insurance!)

Do all teachers babies arrive early?

I am going to need to work until about 38 weeks , that is quite common at our school. Infact one teacher stayed for a meeting, went home that evening and gave birth!

So if I plan for a Nov baby and then start maternity leave as late as possible
will I get my 90& or 50& + smp over the Christmas holiday. I would imagine I would be back in work by late March.

I went for two november babies as this maximised my time off at home.

Both times, I worked until the October half term (but first time - I did not have my own classes - they gave me cover to do instead, so that was quite easy), went off at half term and then gave birth in November. I took 6 months off work, and then returned in May. This meant that I then didn't have any classes of my own, and I came back had a couple of weeks, then the may half term holiday ... another (easy) half term and then 6 weeks off.

I also found it helped because I had 6 weeks of my pregnancy off school and a further 6 weeks off with my babies. Also, I used family for childcare then until the september, so didn't need to use a nursery until my child was 10 months old and crawling and starting to communicate.
HTH

Thanks ellokitty.

It is so hard as I have so many exam classes for both KS4 and KS5 and it can be hard getting quality maternity cover for my subject.

I need to think long and hard if we can have another baby.

That's why they'll probably replace you for the year! My first mat leave was in a school - and they chose to replace me for the whole year.

With my second mat leave, I was at a 6th form college - so entirely exam classes - most of my subjects went off to other tutors ( I am one of two teachers for most of my subjects), but a couple of classes they had trouble getting cover for... so in the end I agreed to back early, but only for a few hours a week - they managed to work it out so that it was financially very lucrative for me, and in effect I was doing no more than a couple of hours a week - but this then stayed until the end of the term. I guess what I am saying is don't let work put you off this decision - do what's right for you - the school will find a way of making it work, and they will at least be in the fortunate position of being able to employ someone from the September, when it is easier to get someone iyswim!

The August is paid the same as any other period of time you are on ML- ie it depends upon how long you have been off school already. So if you decided to start your ML from Sept the 3rd for eg- you would have the summer holidays as 'working' time still= 100% pay, then 2 weeks at the beg Sept 100%, then on to 4 weeks 90% then 12 weeks 50% + SMP. If however, you started ML before the summer holidays- eg June 1st, you would have 2 weeks 100%- mid June, 4 weeks 90% to mid July, so through Aug you would be on 50% +SMP.

Hope that makes sense! My brain has turned to mush due to lack of sleep and/or intellectual conversation! I was teaching YR before ML and am going back to Y5- going to be a bit different for me!!

RNot all LEAs ave te same Mat Leave deals.

I remember thinking like you before I got pregnant - wanting to minimise disruption for my school. Since I had DS my opinion has been, well it would be nice if it helped the school but that is no way my first priority. The school will have to deal with whenever you have a baby.

I think what others are saying is that, for you, the best deal is to make sure your mat pay doesn't kick in while you would be paid for doing nothing anyway, ie long holidays. Obviously once you have a baby, you can't then avoid losing out for subsequent holidays, so basically try not to have a baby during July or August!

Yes Jeffily that makes sense, my head is a little clearer today.

Thanks BellaBear.