Maternity Leave for Teachers

Hey! The holidays count in exactly the same as term time. So according to your policy if say the Easter holiday falls in the 8 weeks of normal pay you’d get your normal pay during that time as our pay is spread throughout the year. I’m doing shared parental leave though as it works out so much better! I used this service: https://www.teachersspl.co.uk/

Yeah we don't get accrued annual leave that we can take afterwards unfortunately because we'll still end up getting enough holiday after returning to work during half term hols to meet the statutory AL entitlement. So I'm looking at going back just before christmas hols because thats when SMP finishes. Its fine for those with September babies because they can return to work just before summer and then get paid full time over summer so basically end up with a year's leave, but sucks for us expecting in March as our enhanced maternity pay finishes just before summer and it's just statutory after that. We're looking at shared parental leave as you mentioned for over summer hols - this website explains it really well and for a small fee do all the paperwork etc for you to make sure you get the most money https://www.teachersspl.co.uk/

Also it’s worth noting that you don’t have to go back before the holidays to get paid for the holidays. I’m returning to work the first day of February half term so I get paid for that week in full without being in work.

@Gabrielle So we do get paid during the holidays in relation to where we are up to with the maternity policy? In that case, 18 weeks (8 weeks normal pay and 10 weeks half + SMP) would take me right up to the summer holidays. Would it be worth using the first block of SPL for the start of the summer holidays then and if so, at what rate of pay would that be? Also does that eat into the 21 weeks of statutory maternity pay or would it be in addition? Sorry for the million questions, it’s all so confusing! I think I’m getting confused because all the other teachers in my school have never heard of or used SPL and I think what they have done instead is had the standard yearly figure owed to them divided by 12 months in order to take a year off. X

@Kate yeah basically. It doesn’t make a difference if it’s term time or holidays. I’ve done the shared leave so that my first block of leave ends before the summer hols and I get paid in full for those 6 weeks. Then my second block ends before October half term so I get a week paid in full there and then the third block ends before the Christmas hols so I can get paid in full for those two weeks. My final block ends at feb half term which is when I return to work. The holidays are paid in full. So basically I’m having 47 weeks leave but only one week unpaid due to shared leave. I’m the second one to use SPL at my school and they’re a bit confused about it but they have to accept it!

@Kate I work in hr in a school! Defo make use of SPL so you get your full wage in the holidays. They can only require you to go in and work if that was a requirement for all staff eg inset days. I would 'Return to work' on the first day of the summer holidays until last day before teachers go bsck eg the day before inset or your have to go to inset. That be block 1 then be off on SPL until Xmas. Then return to work for the Xmas holidays, block 2. Then back on spl until you go bsck to work. The government have a great spl calculator where you can play around with start dates and see where the leave weeks take you up to.

@Ciara Thank you! Is it definitely full pay in holidays if doing it like this? I’ve been trying to read up on it all day but a lot of websites say that unless the school has a specific policy it’s just at the statutory rate which I assume is the same as SMP? X

@Gabrielle Thanks for the advice! I still really don’t understand it, every time I think I do, a whole new set of questions pop up 🙈 It doesn’t help that my school haven’t put out the calendar dates for the next academic year yet either but as soon as they do, I think I will pay for the service on the SPL website x

@Kate I didn’t fully understand it until I got the documents back from SPL. They make it really easy for you but you will need the term dates which is very annoying if your school! The SPL people are also fab and answering all the questions you gave and they make you a spreadsheet of what you’ll be paid when x

@Kate Yep definitely full pay for when you return. As if you used SPL in a non school role you would be fully returning to work as normal and they would be required to pay for normal work. SPL just works nicely for teachers because you return in the holidays with no requirement to actually work but still get the full pay. After the holidays when you 'go bsck on leave' your be on statutory ratewhich is why you initially go on maternity leave and use the occupational maternity pay you get then give notice that you want to end your mat leave and move onto SPL (8 weeks notice) and this is where you submit the forms and tell them the blocks you want to take x

@Ciara Thank you that’s really helpful, I think I’m starting to get it a little bit now x So essentially make use of the 18 weeks enhanced maternity leave offered by my trust then end maternity leave early and go onto shared parental leave instead, “returning to work” during holidays to get full pay then taking the term time as blocks of shared parental leave at the same pay as SMP? X

@Kate Yep that is exactly it! :) your free to work your blocks how you like but you can only take a maximum of 3 so bare that in mind when planning! Honestly it took me a while to understand it all as it is so confusing! But we'll worth the effort to do :) x

@Ciara Thank you so much for your help 💖💖 x