Teachers- how did you find going from full time to part time? Some questions!

[Pinkflipflop]

I'm considering my options when I return to work, school are happy for me to go pt.

I'm not sure whether to go to 4 or 3 days; before I had my ds I was convinced it would be 4 days but now I just want to spend as many precious days as I can with him.

How did you find it financially going to part time? I will be on ups1 from September and it will be quite a drop. I have no childcare expenses for the 3 days I will be working due to family input.

Did you find the benefits of working part time outweighed the drop in money?

Would you recommend 3 or 4 days? I've heard that 4 days is hard in teaching as you aren't really considered part time. I'm so

[CabbageLooking]

I'm going back for 3 days simply because I KNOW that if I do 4, the 5th day will become planning/marking and I'll end up effectively doing the same job for less money.

[sozzle8]

I felt exactly the same that l couldn't be away from my baby for 4 days but l am finding that it's working well. In my school, as l am working 4 days l have a full morning or afternoon PPA on a Thursday which is ideal as l get organised for the week ahead and catch up on marking etc. Although l do take work home, l do it on the evenings that l work and not the three days that l am off.

I find that l have full ownership of my class rather than a job share and have more input in school on the whole. The teacher working on Fridays does his own planning which makes it easier. I just keep in good contact with him.

I have found the money is great on 4 days as l moved to UPS1, so haven't noticed a massive difference.

I do find that l am now a lot more focused on what needs doing and l make sure that l do the important things, rather than faff and hang around chatting to other staff after school. I am really pleased that l started on 4 days and am lucky that family help with childcare. I do love my 3 day weekends. It is hard but l am enjoying the balance of being a mum and a teacher. I hope this helps. I am happy to answer any questions about going back. The thought is definitely worse than the reality

[PETRONELLAS]

I think it depends if you'll be managing your own class or doing PPA/NQT cover or even inclusion. I found the latter much easier on many levels, although missed the ownership of my own class. Actually though covering four different people did take up some time outside of school as plans would change etc. Was also a nightmare having 120 books to mark a day!! I would start with three days and see how you go.

[cece]

I went to 2 days.

Although I earnt less it wasn't as little as you would think as the tax you pay is less.

I found it suits me. Initially I shared a class with another part timer. This was OK but still had a lot of things to do for my class, which took a lot of time at home.

I now work part time as a support teacher to Year 6 and also do a bit of PPA. TBH I prefer this as I have less extra things to do, as I do not have responsibility for a class. Obviously I still have planning, marking and assessment to do. Plus subject co-ordinators role and school based things - I am UPS3. I find I do my days and at least half a day at home. However, I do not get given PPA in school time - I get paid an extra 10% to do it at home on one of my days off.

[BackforGood]

DEfinitely don't do 4.
Everyone just thinks it's your class and you get to do all the stuff that goes along side teaching, only losing 5 hrs of actual teaching time (think reports, think class assemblies, think tracking, think curriculum co-ordination, think arranging visits and visitors, etc.,etc.etc,)
By doing 3 days, it's much closer to half, and you share these things then with your jobshare partner.
The cut in pay isn't as bad as you'd think - you certainly get a lot more 'take home' than 3/5 of what you currently get, because of the way you don't pay tax on the first £9K ish of your earnings.

[olivo]

I went to 4 days after having DD1. I work in secondary. It was hard as people forget you are part time, but after a few years, they came around to it. I put DD into nursery, used the day to do things like food shopping, housework, and probably about half the day to work. It meant that evening sand weekends were nmuch less fraught. I still had the same amount of reports etc to do though.

I do think Though, that I definitely did not do 20 % less work than other people. I went back 4.5 days for a year, and that was crazy, I did pretty much the same as everyone else btu for less money.

I am now full time, and I notice no extra work but helpfully more money! Good luck!

[2kidsintow]

You could try 3 and a half. I do this. My job share partner and I share the morning of the Thursday and effectively cover each other's PPA. It means that we are both there on at least one day a week to be able to talk about the class and do a proper hand over. I have shared a class with someone who only came in as I left or who came in on my days off and it was more of a nightmare.

With 3 and a half days, I felt like the class was mostly mine. And I still got to do 2 school pick ups and one drop off.

I've been on the same hours for nearly 11 years now and am about to up my hours to 4.5 days. But I have an agreement with the head that I will teach for 4 days and fit my PPA hours in on the 5th day around school runs. :)

[doublecakeplease]

I do 4 days (I teach in FE if that makes any difference.) - I find it hard going tbh as I find that on Mondays (I'm off on Fri) I have lots of emails but a full teaching timetable means that I don't catch up on them. They (and any issues from Fri - behaviour / parent to contact / register to sort / yet another ridiculous demand from management...) then roll over to Tuesday so I never get a handle on the week ahead. Wish I'd gone to 3 - I think that it'd make me 'feel' more part time and make others see me as part time and so not expect full time work from me.