The TES Secondary Group is a great source of support, ideas and inspiration and is the place to share best practice and get your questions answered by your peers. This is also where you go to debate the latest issues in secondary education.
I currently work 4 days a week and have additional responsibility as KS3 coordinator. I've been in this role for 6 years (although only part time for four). I would like to go down to 3 days a week as I'm finding it very difficult to cope with two children at home - the problem is that if i reduce my days I'll lose my TLR... I'm concerned that in three years time when both my kids are in school and I want to go back to full time and possibly even apply for a position with a promotion (HOD?) i'll be in a weak position to apply for such jobs as I wouldn't have recently had any leadership/management responsibility. What do other people think? Some part of me thinks I should stick it out for a few more years but it is really difficult to juggle everything!
Any advice appreciated...
It's not like you're going to be out of teaching altogether. You'll still know what the current issues are. You'll still have some management experience. You'll also have more "juggling" experience from combining work and parenting. I can't see why you'd be any less qualified than another aspiring HoD. I suspect that straight from 3-days-a-week to full-time HoD might be a bit of a jump (sudden workload increase as well as the responsibility), but via full-time without TLR or with lesser responsibility, I can't see why not.
But then I'm always in favour of do what's right now rather than worrying about career.
Dear Frustum
Thanks for the advice... I think that doing what is right now is the right idea. I have an interview on Wednesday so I'll see how it feels being in a different school for the day...
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