Maternity leave

Have a look at shared parental leave for teachers x

I work in a school too, with the same plan as you! Maternity start date as the first day back at school in Jan (unless baby arrives early, which would trigger it automatically anyway!)
Look into shared parental leave if you’re interested in possibly doing that to boost your income whilst not actually needing to go back to work- not many teachers realise you can do it, but you can!
And it depends when you’d like to go back to work, if you want to go back for September and the start of the new academic year, be sure to put your return to work date as the first date of the summer holidays so you get full pay. Likewise if you’re taking a year, return date as the first day of the Christmas holidays so you get a couple of weeks of full pay before you actually go back to work.

If putting start of summer hols as return to work date, will you be expected to go in during the hols? Will I need to start childcare from then?

Nope, you can’t be directed to go into school during that time. Obviously if you are then going to go back on day 1 of the new term in sept and you haven’t been in at all and you wouldn’t be prepared (for example, I know in primary lots of teachers spend the summer getting their classrooms ready), then that might be the only issue!

So I’m due early Jan - I was planning to work up until end of term but I don’t think I’ll be able to now so first week of Dec might be when I go off. I need to speak to HR but my plan is to return the last week of term, so (as Chloe said) I can get a bit prepped with materials etc for the next year. That way I get the full pay for the summer hols x

can I ask what the benefit of the shared parental leave is for teachers? I really don’t understand all this and I don’t think my school’s mat pay is more than the SMP allowance so I could do with any extra money (esp as our mortgage is going up in April… yikes 😰)

You can take blocks of leave, and are entitled to full pay inbetween, so teachers can time them in line with holidays, so in theory you get full pay for the holiday weeks (especially beneficial over summer) without actually needing to return to work.
I would check your maternity policy in regards to it just being SMP, I haven’t known any teachers not get occupational/contractual maternity pay (but it depends on length of service etc), but it could absolutely be different everywhere, just worth a double check!

https://www.teachersspl.co.uk

Have a look on this website. I bought package A and they did all my paperwork for me and I get 8 weeks of full pay by going on maternity 8th Jan (paid for Christmas holidays) and returning after October half term. You are legally entitled to it so definitely worth doing! X

8 weeks extra full pay I should say xx

Thank you both so much - this is def something we need to look into! I’ve found our schools SPL policy but not the mat policy, Sid you both have to contact your HR for this?

Yes, I asked HR x

Yes I asked HR for the policy and then I am going to bring my completed forms to her x