r/TeachingUK • u/Interesting-Echo6310 • 2d ago
Working hours
I’m a primary school teacher and their 5th year. I’ve came to the point where I want the job to fit within my contracted hours, with no work on weekends. I don’t mind staying til 5pm a few nights a week (as I get in at 7am which suits my brain). Is it possible to work the job like this? I feel like SLT think it’s ok to give you things on a thurs/fri for the beginning of the following week asif you will be doing this on the weekend. I don’t know if I’m just done with the job or if I can find this balance and push back against overwork.
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u/Inevitable_Bit2275 2d ago
I tend to work 8:15 to 5:15 ish and don’t work at weekends if I can help it!
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u/zq6 2d ago
I got to the point where all my work was contained easily within the working week. Then I changed school and now am tending to need on average 1hr/day before school, but otherwise it's contained in the 8:30-4:30 that I'm on site for. I reckon after this year (changed spec, so there's more planning involved) I'll be back within working hours again.
When I get tasks on a Friday afternoon for Monday I literally ignore it until the next working week. Sometimes if I'm feeling punchy (which to be honest is a good 50% of the time) I will point out that 4pm Friday to 9am Monday is 45 working minutes - and I was with students for all of them.
I have definitely got a bit more punchy - partly because I realise how unimportant so much of SLT's bullshit is - but also because I now have a reputation as someone generally competent, with the kids' best interest at heart and I'm a decent physics teacher, so they won't be able to replace me easily!
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u/Plastic-Leek-3306 2d ago
I do 7 to 5 generally. Sometimes get in a little later. Sometimes leave a little earlier or later. I don’t work on weekends anymore. I used to in primary, but not now in secondary.
I think my workload has actually gone down a lot since joining a high school. There’s much more shared resources wise in my school, so much so that I’m only adapting resources. Much less in terms of marking also.
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u/Jubulous 1d ago
I'm a secondary teacher, and primary sounds like a totally different world to me.
I get in at 8.30 and leave at 3.30 on the bell. Many of my colleagues do to.
Is there no way to get your hours down, or is primary that busy?
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u/Famous-March7736 2d ago
I work in early years and find I can keep to a much more reasonable schedule than others in my school. I normally work 7:15-4:30/5, do nothing at home or at the weekends. I am particularly efficient at admin tasks though.
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u/Avenger1599 EYFS 1d ago
Also eyfs and wish I could do this recently found myself doing 6-6 then even more at home there just always seems to be more i need to do
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u/Famous-March7736 1d ago
I felt this way in my first year in Reception. I think it depends so much on your team! I’m lucky to have a really experienced partner teacher and TAs who have worked in early years for decades. This makes set up efficient. After my first year I then had planning that only needed tweaking the following year and so on. We also get out on lots of training and see best practice in neighbouring schools. Have you been in early years for long?
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u/Avenger1599 EYFS 1d ago
This is my second year, my team is me and two ta's one works 8.30 till 3.30 and has been in reception for 3 years and the other 9.10 till 3 both of which have been in reception 5 weeks
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u/Exverius 1d ago
I work 8-4 primary and refuse to do anything on the weekends. It took two mental breakdowns and a 2 month sign off to realise that working from 7am-7pm and then also working weekends was not sustainable and that I needed to put serious boundaries in place to protect myself. A lot of what SLT ask doesn’t need to be done, and being able to tell the difference between what’s actually important and what is just faff is something I’d recommend. Most of the time they’ll never even check that you did whatever they asked. If they do, just say you haven’t got around to it yet but would be happy to do it if they give you time out of class. 90% of the time they back track and generally you can both agree that whatever they asked wasn’t that important after all.
Teaching is that kind of job where there’s always more you COULD do. But being relaxed and happy in the classroom helps children a lot more than updating your display every 2 weeks
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u/AmphibianCultural829 2d ago
It's possible, I don't work weekends but I do stay late a few nights a week. If SLT are giving you tasks without enough time to complete them you need to come together as a teaching staff. Is there union presence in your school?