Teacher mums chat thread

[charlieann]

the fact i've found this thread again means i've started to think about the dreaded return!
i'm back on the 6th, so a week and a half to do all those jobs i had planned but never got around to. i'm inheriting a form group from one of the teachers who left, going to be year 8's but a good bunch of kids from the looks of it. i'm hopeing to find lots of short fun activities before i return, so if we get the rare occasion of having free time in the morning they are kept occupied.

 

[Jchihuahua]

Work tomorrow and it is finally sunny after 6 weeks of rain .

 

[history_girls]

Boo the holidays are almost over!

Can I rant ladies? My school is so crap. I'm now having wednesdays off so I don't have to go tomorrow! Yippee. So being conscentious I told the head in an email yesterday that I was not coming in and I doubted anyone would work out why and to save them thinking I hadn't turned up I explained I was off. So get email back from personnelt saying could I woke with 12 hours notice! So I said no. They haven't told me anything about being part time and noone bothered to check who was in or out.

oooooo - it makes me look like I am 'not supporting the school' but I ahve no childcare and I wouldn't get paid!

Sorry to rant, feel bit better.

Enjoy the start of term!

 

[charlieann]

first day back today and all was well. were overstaffed in my dept. my timetable is very light compared to previous years (7 extra unprotected frees) so not looking forward to how they are going to fill it. stayed bit later than planned, sorting out paperwork and planning, but couldn't do too much as still waiting on class lists. LO was proper screaming an tantrums when i got back. seems he got used to me being there all summer and then was really grumpy after his nap.
hows everyone else's return been?

 

[Jchihuahua]

Hi everyone,

HG: your school sounds a bit crap, after the fiasco with your pay after your maternity leave finished and now this too. I hope apart from that your return hasn't been too bad.

Charlieann: I'm glad your first day back wasn't too bad .

We had three insets then today was the first day with kids in. It was fine but I seriously don't know how long I'll be able to function on the amount of sleep I get .

Cattia where are you? I havent seen you around in a while and miss youuuu!

 

[Nimbus]

Hello!

Thanks for the invite to this forum. Thought that i would introduce myself... i'm a secondary science teacher in lincoln, and i generally enjoy my job. I too have been effectively married to my job for the last 6 years, it consumes my thoughts and my time, so motherhood is a reality check and probably a good (more healthy) thing! My baby boy is 6 months old and has just started crawling!

I'm back at school and struggling a little bit. Work feels incredibly un-natural now, i feel very detached from it and i do think that it shows... my collegues have noticed. However, I am home for the next couple of weeks recovering from surgery i had on wednesday to sort out down there Being home definitely has it's benefits though, i'm incredibly thankful for the extra days home with my cutie.

My husband was an engineer but has decided to have a change in career and do a gtp this year, so lots of change, lots of added stress, however it's a change in lifestyle for us and the holidays as a family will be such a joy. We live far away from our families so we have had to find childcare, and have decided to use a childminder. Otherwise our support network is centred around our Church and friends

So, that's a snapshot of me and my little family.
Happy Friday!

 

[Jchihuahua]

Hi again and welcome .

I hope all you teacher mummies have had a good week and yayyyyyy its Friday !

 

[history_girls]

Nimbus - know what you mean about being married to the job and now finding it a bit strange I am finding teaching with year 11 being back a lot harder than in the summer when they were off. How I will do my marking i don't know!

My school continues to be crap - done my pay on 3 days a week not 4 days so pay at the end of the month likely to be wrong. Grrrrrrrrrrr

 

[maybebaby3]

HG -that's crap! your school needs to sort itself out.

i am on mat leave til may but need to go in to school tomorrow to sign off my last performance management cycle! really dont feel like going but needs must. also some job vacancies have come up so i want to get hold of a list of them as i really want to move schools!

 

[becstar]

Hi ladies! Took me ages to find this thread, everything's been moved!

Tomorrow is the end of my first week with kids in (I'm in Reception now) and I am loving it! As far as work goes, anyway... Reception is the way forward for me. So much creativity and freedom to really get to know and understand the children and their learning.

 

[Jchihuahua]

I have lots and lots of VERY boisterous and noisy boys in my reception so feel like I'm run ragged at the moment! Glad you're enjoying it Becstar, it is my fave year group.

I am SO tired this week. I took Daisy up to bed at half 6 and saw my own bed and couldn't resist getting into it and woke 2 hours later and even then had to force myself to get up and I'm still knackered. My bag of learning journey books to get done tonight will just have to wait until tomoro I think!

 

[becstar]

Our actual books still haven't bloody arrived! Got post its everywhere!

 

[Jchihuahua]

Ours are really strictly monitored every 2 weeks by the head so I seem to spend every spare minute cutting out photos and sticking stuff in! I had a nice day today, we made gingerbread men .

 

[history_girls]

mmm gingerbread men. No such fun at secondary school, I nagged a 16 year old boy to learn the economic policies of Gustav Stresemann ... somthings are just a lost cause!

I did howver make year 8 pretend to be in a slave boat and lie down, squashed up for 15 mins under their desks.

The pleasures of teaching.....

p.s. that learning journey things sounds hard work

 

[Jchihuahua]

at the kids squashed under their desks pretending to be in a slave boat! The things we do in our line of work!

The learning journeys are very time consuming but we don't have marking to do in Reception so it isn't too bad really.

Over the last couple of weeks I've had all the children starting at staggered times and even though I've taught Rec for years and years this year I have been so aware that it is these children's first day of school but also how their parents will be feeling too.

I always make sure the children enjoy their first day but I really felt for the parents this time, since being a mummy myself. I did loads of stuff I don't normally do, for example I rang parents who'd been anxious at playtime to tell them that their children had settled, a little boy who'd really cried when his mum left I took photos of him over the course of the day to give to his mum so she could see he'd had a nice day.

I always think of the kids feelings when they start school for the first time but this time the parents too. I guess I now know how I'll feel on Daisy's first day at school and how nervous and anxious I'll be.

 

[maybebaby3]

i have to finish writing appliction forms for a couple of jobs that have come up. they are for year co-ordinator and foundation subject leader. i am already year co-ordinator in an infant school (nursery-yr3) and the jobs are in middle school (yr4-7) which i prefer. thing is i want out of the school that i am in at the moment as its really bitchy but i'm not sure that i can handle the extra workload with 3 kids. i am not very hopeful that i will get either of the jobs as here there are about 20 applicants for each post and i will probably one of the least senior applying. oh well nothing ventured nothing gained. i may go and see one of the education advisors that we have (they advise teachers) and see what they say. The head of one of the schools i'm applying to advised me that maybe if i want to move back to middle school then i should perhaps ask for a transfer but that would mean i would lose the TLR post i already have. it's so complicated!!!

 

[Nimbus]

Ummm gingerbread men, i could just gobble one of them up now!

Feeling a bit cheaky right now, as i'm off work and so i have missed our open evening tonight. Open evenings are such a drag, essential, but such a stress. I hope that my dept don't think that i''m skiving, which they may do as my sick leave has been extended and my line manager hasn't been overly supportive recently, so who knows what she thinks! I hope to go back on Monday. I hurt still but i really do feel that i need to go back to work and get stuck in. I have responsibility for two KS5 courses, both have new specifications and when i was away on maternity no-one managed the classes. As a result classes are failing, teachers haven't marked coursework, and none of the new course SOW and assignments have been written. Arghhhhh! The teachers that i am managing don't pull their weight either - they're known throughout the school for being lazy. I feel really let down by my line manager for not covering my maternity appropriately and allocating teachers to me to deal who are clearly going to be a hassle. Sorry to rant, i'm struggling here and i know that going back to school is going to be tough enough (leaving my boy and still being in pain) let alone having to pick up the mess. If i didn't care as much as i do, i'd be much more temp[ted to hand is my resignation for my TLR and then let the dept deal with the mess they've created... i was so good, i went above and beyond the requirement for the set up for my starting maternity leave, so i'm confident that this was no my doing. Despite that i know that next september when it comes to performance management it'll be down to me to explain the poor results. Darn it! Please tell me if i'm being unreasonable.

 

[Jchihuahua]

I hope you're feeling better . Gosh, that all sounds stressful and I'm sure you won't be held responsible. I do understand how you feel though as it is similar for me. We had ofsted the day after I got back from mat leave and even though we got rated 'good' and had lots of outstanding features the phase I am responsible for was highlighted as an area for improvement as basically nobody had kept on top of things while I was on mat leave and nobody had monitored the teachers planning and assessment and everything had really slipped. Even though I do know it is not my fault I still feel really responsible, like if I hadn't gone on maternity leave it would never have happened and I sometimes feel that other staff are thinking that my phase let the school down in the report and I do feel crap and I'm not looking forward to my performance management either. I SO want to drop my TLR but can't afford to. The idea of teaching my class and that is all is so appealing but I just can't afford the paycut.

 

[Lu28]

I hope you guys don't mind me butting in?? I'm in the middle of my 2 weeks pre PGCE experience and am really enjoying it, especially the older classes I'm going to hopefully complete my PGCE application form at the end of this week and wondered if you had any tips for the personal statement part? This will be my second career as I'm a solicitor at the moment and I'm not sure how much reference I should make to that and my previous professional experience versus talking about my experiences over the last couple of weeks?

Thanks!

 

[history_girls]

Are you applying for primary or secondary?