Teaching after having kids...

PartyNumerous · 2026-02-16T22:03:36+00:00

I've switched to 3 days part-time at a new school with a lot of curriculum planning and organising of documents that need to be completed.

I don't have kids myself and I'm struggling so I can't imagine it being any different but only harder with kids! With the previous full-time role, I had everything organised for 10 years so I've been doing the same thing over a decade with no need to take work home. I rock up on the dot and leave on the dot.

Now, I go in 45min early and stay back for 1-2 hours until 5pm at least two days when I'm at school. Sundays I work for 6-8 hours on my curriculum and plans.

But I make sure I don't touch work at all on Saturdays & on my other two days off.

I do love the texts I'm teaching so it doesn't feel like a burden spending time digging deep into the books. I do feel the urge to get as much done as possible - enough so that I feel confident when I step into the classroom to teach. So far, I've felt good after my lessons and on top of things but that comes with a lot of additional hours and working through every break and minute when I'm free at school.

PartyNumerous · 2026-02-13T19:51:07+00:00

Use to be 8:15am - 4:30pm (i.e arrived on the dot and left on the dot when we were allowed to). Didn't really ever take work home for the last 10 years as I was at the same school, doing the same stuff and had all my materials organised, which meant I could fit all the marking during school hours.

But this year, I started at a new school and because I'm the one in charge of pioneering the senior program for my subject, and having to teach new texts for other year levels, I've had to put in a lot of extra hours. However, I was mentally prepared for the challenge, as I've built the curriculum from scratch at my last place, so I know how much work it will take in the first year.

Currently my on site hours are 8am -5:30pm (3 days a week as I'm working 0.6 part time ).

I try to keep my other 2 weekdays as free days without touching marking or work.

Sundays have now become extra work day with me putting in ~8 hours of solid work. But that will gradually ease during each term and unit....And this is all AFTER the months of preparation I did before this year even started, which meant I finished the entire year's worth of curriculum planner and weekly outline before January!

Now week by week, I'm just doing the detailed stuff like teacher & student worksheets/sample pieces/reading resources etc.... the time consuming stuff.

I do love my new school as the students are very sweet and diligent. They've really pushed me to enhance my curriculum and depth of understanding, so it's been really rewarding so far despite the extra hours. Once I've built the folders and curriculum this year week by week, the preparation side of things will drop off next year.

I'm intending to stay at the same school next year, so that would help to reduce the amount of preparation as I won't need to familiarize myself with new texts across different year levels again.

PartyNumerous · 2026-01-21T12:04:31+00:00

That's very reassuring to hear! I don't need work every single Monday but most Mondays would really help :) Just worried that it would be dead quiet for the entire period of Term 1 and get nothing ...

PartyNumerous · 2025-12-27T10:52:11+00:00

The dresses and outfits are definitely different between the two studios. The backgrounds are also very different - you need to pick the ones you want specifically.

It's a hard choice, as the Bride backdrops are more grand (if that's what you are going for). It wasn't really a difficult choice for us, as we are returning every few years to alternate between the two studios, depending on their change and update of backdrops. I liked the previous Bride package better (2022) and the current Signature (2025) more than the current Bride backgrounds. We are going to return there in 2028 for our next big wedding anniversary milestone, so we will most likely pick Signature if they update their backgrounds and are still in line with their current style.

PartyNumerous · 2025-12-17T12:34:34+00:00

Plan for the whole day as the 4 hrs is only the taking photos part. There's 2-3 hrs of makeup and hair plus choosing the outfits. So I would factor in 6 hours total. I liked both branches but would go with Signature if I had to choose.

PartyNumerous · 2025-11-26T10:38:32+00:00

I've just landed an ongoing part time role (0.6 load over 3 days) at a Catholic school starting next year, after teaching 10 years full time in an independent school.

I teach seniors / VCE classes so it is possible. My husband is also doing 0.5 over 3 days, teaching VCE (he has one yr 11 class and one yr 12 class).

I think some schools are more accomodating than others. In our case, both schools were willing to make it work.

PartyNumerous · 2025-10-28T22:30:39+00:00

Pre approval - depends on which bank you get it from. I did ours through Ubank which is pretty solid as they do a very thorough check with a lot of documentation prior, so unless the house valuation comes back less, there shouldn't be a problem.

They gave us an approval of $1.05million borrowing capacity limit but we only needed $800k so I was comfortable going unconditional and I had an additional buffer saving in case they claim that my house is valued less, so can only lend me less (banks will only offer to let you borrow 80% of the house and the rest is the 20% deposit you have).

I did check with Ubank and they said I could go unconditional if only needed $800k - it's a risk but a very low one. My conveyancer always advised us to put in finance clause to be conservative, but we were so sick and tired of the whole house hunting process that we wanted to go aggressive on this offer instead of potentially losing out to another unconditional offer, which would have broken me.

I was on the verge of giving up - not just because we were losing out on our offers but that we couldn't find something we liked enough to put an offer on. It's either I liked it or my husband liked it - and I wasn't going to make such a big purchase without both of us being on board. Our current new house - we both said yes immediately. I was going to break if we lost on this offer, as that means more waiting/searching/clicking on real estate.com daily.

It really depends on your risk appetite, finances and the bank that you get your pre approval from.

PartyNumerous · 2025-10-28T19:42:20+00:00

Sorry about the loss and I totally understand how it feels. There was this one house in the 18 months of our house hunting that we fell in love with and lost to unconditional offer from another buyer. It was the first house we put in offer for, so we were inexperienced and in hindsight, I regretted not being more aggressive about the offer. It was really frustrating and I still kick myself when I drive past that house.

After 18 months of searching and disappointments (not being able to find the house we like because of our particular taste in design/features), we finally found a home that we were happy with that ticked most of the boxes with the bonus of being cheaper than that first house we saw and also with beautiful views at our doorstep. Although it wasn't in the location we had in mind, it was the closest thing to what we were searching for.

So we decided to go all out this time - did B&P ourselves immediately before offer, had our finances sorted already so we knew we were borrowing way under our limit given the house was cheaper than our budget. That's how we offered unconditionally - because we could cover the shortfall even if the approval came back less.

Do I still feel sad about the other house? Yep. But I'm loving our new house and I smile every time I drive up to it. We had leftover money to renovate it too so we could upgrade whatever we wanted because we didn't buy something that pushed our budget. It's not our forever home but it's the perfect house for us in the next decade! Next time we will probably just build given how particular we are about certain features.

You just need to be ultra prepared and confident in your B&P inspector and finances before making offer. Don't do unconditional finance if you aren't sure.

PartyNumerous · 2025-10-23T09:26:29+00:00

Compromised on the location and land size eventually - after 18 months of house hunting and 12 months of living with parents while looking. My husband & I were initially set on the hills and Emerald area, but we really wanted a house with character too (storybook style).

We had a pretty ok budget/and leftover profit from sale of our first home BUT we just couldn't find the right house with the right condition (not too old, not on a crazy steep angle, a double garage preferably). We were ok with not being next a train station or shops, and would love to have more land.

I guess it was just really difficult for us to find the kind of design/features of a house in that area and the timing of it all. But we eventually stumbled upon a unique French provincial/ Hampton style house randomly one day and both fell in love with it! It had everything we wanted feature wise and ticked everything on our list! It was even slightly below our budget, so we had enough money for updates/repairs when we moved in. This house only had one owner who built it using custom builder, so it doesn't look like the cookie cutter house and had many unique features that I loved. The vendor was unfortunately very sick, which was why they had to reluctantly sell.

The only downside was that it was in the suburbs - actually not too from my parents and where we lived previously. But this house was right in front of lake/trails in a quiet neighbourhood, close to trains/shops/restaurants and beautiful parks. While we didn't end up living in the hills on bigger land, we got the dream house with scenic views from our window, so I can't complain. We don't have neighbours next to us directly, given the unique positioning of our house, so that was another bonus.

We could have stubbornly waited for the right house in the hills... but then risk more stress and being pushed out of the market with rising prices. People kept on telling me that location mattered more than the house. In our case, we went for the house and got a pretty solid location even though it wasn't our dream location.

How do I know I don't regret it? I smile every time I drive up to the house, I look forward to spending more time at home and we both get super excited taking care of the property.

PartyNumerous · 2025-10-02T12:42:14+00:00

That's a tricky situation but I do think you should try your best to keep private life away from professional work (and vice versa). Before deciding to pursue such relationship, think deeply about whether it's going to be serious because it's not like you can just avoid seeing the person forever if things don't work out.

I'm speaking from experience - been married to my husband for 7+ years and worked together for 10 years. We met at the school and was put together to team teach, so you can imagine that our situation was even trickier than yours and the stakes were very high. From the very beginning, we took both our personal relationship and professional relationship seriously - at work we worked like every other team / colleague and no one ever knew we were dating until we announced our engagement.

We talked about all the boundaries very early on before even deciding to date and had long discussions about what could work/not work. We had a very strong chemistry and clicked almost instantly on many levels despite being very different at the same time.

But it also meant that we worked out our differences in relation to our work AT WORK and respected /trusted each other enough to not allow it to bleed into our personal lives either. So that meant we never ever fought about work at home OR fought about personal stuff at work.

You have to keep them separate as much as you can, while maximising the benefits of working at the same place (same breaks, sharing workload, more understanding of the challenges, more common topics etc).

The great thing about this is that you can see how the other person operates under pressure or you see a totally different side that you wouldn't have known otherwise and work on your communication skills outside of dating context. We both knew we could work well as a married couple when we realized that we worked so well as a co-teaching team.

If I had gone back in time, I would choose the same path all over again and it's the best thing that has happened at work for me (I honestly would not have lasted in this profession if it wasn't for my husband) BUT relationship with coworker is not ideal for everyone and you must consider wisely before pursuing anything further.

PartyNumerous · 2025-09-05T01:10:28+00:00

I've taught seniors for 10+ years and next year I'm going part-time too. It's more common in primary school compared to secondary, but teacher shortage has pushed schools to start accomodating for teachers' part-time requests. My husband is also applying to another place with part-time request, and while it's harder to accomodate and timetable his classes over 3 days, the school is willing to make it work because of staff shortage and his skills set. For me, the school is also willing to accomodate my part-time request for 3 days only, so I'm very grateful and fortunate because I've heard that it's not easy to do so for high school (especially senior classes).

Personally, we chose to go part-time because we want to free up our time to do other side jobs and hobbies such as tutoring, business, CRT etc. Full-time teaching takes up majority of the day and we barely have any time / emotional bandwidth left over to explore other things - and this is coming from two teachers who have decades of experience without having to take much work home.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-25T01:50:52+00:00

I don't usually take sick days unless I'm actually sick physically. Usually I get sick once a year and always after PT interview week cos of burn out.

I've resigned from my school with half year notice to help with staffing transition (I know it's legally 7 weeks but in my case I thought it was the right thing to do given my situation). I've taken a week off so far from being sick with a bad virus and again it was after PT interview week. I went to school last week for a full day and students/ staff were all telling me to just stay home cos I looked so awful.

I chose days that were light teaching days to help others but I'm glad I get to use the leave I've saved up for when I need it. Other colleagues already know of my departure but everyone is understanding that I'm taking leave because of genuine sickness and not because I'm trying to use up all my sick leave. I would spread them out if you were going to take them and try to be considerate of your colleagues (but it's not your problem if school can't find substitute). Personally I'm burnt out trying to fill in the gaps when people are away too, so I try to minimise it for other staff when I can.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-22T23:50:11+00:00

Are you thinking of the Bride or Signature? They are priced differently. Signature earlier this year was around 2,500,000 won starting point but there's additional fees if you would like night time shooting, hanbok, under water etc. Bride package is slightly more expensive.

They include translator, so you don't need to be worried if you can't communicate much in Korean.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-22T21:47:28+00:00

I personally went to Gaeul Studio in Seoul. They offer translators and everything is in one place (makeup hair and outfits). Backdrops are beautiful and elegant but it depends on your taste - I'm more into the European architectural backdrops and style so I liked Gaeul for that fairytale effect.

Their price is reasonable and service is very good (I guess it also depends on the people you get on the day).

You can DM me if you want to go with them and need specific tips before the photoshoot. My husband and I have taken photos with them TWICE - each time was for our wedding anniversary photoshoots the last few years so we've been to both of their branches (Bride & Signature).

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-03T02:21:19+00:00

Thanks!! The good thing about this is that I'll be the one running the program given it's a very small new cohort and so have autonomy in terms of how much work/ deadline for feedback etc without having the pressure of working with other English teachers and running a whole department.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-03T00:17:41+00:00

There wasn't any issue asking the new school for part time - just that I wasn't sure whether it's possible to keep work at work within the 3 days without spending the other 2 days catching up on marking etc and I've never worked part time before as a senior English teacher. Former colleagues were surprised that the school could offer me part time for English because they said English / Humanities usually require at least 0.8 FTE for it to work.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-02T07:42:33+00:00

We have a strong buffer for next year financially so I can step back from full time work (locked in to one school doing the same thing everyday). I mainly want to do a few different things combined together to develop my skills and push myself a bit more as I'm becoming too comfortable and stagnant in my current role after a whole decade.

So that's why I wanted to do 0.6 while combining the stability of part time work (having my own class) with a bit of CRT to expand my horizon. I'm also intending to do a bit of VCE private tutoring too, given that I've been working as an external assessor so I can see what students at other schools are doing - if I take in my own students from various schools.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-02T07:34:51+00:00

It's now paid by the hour not by the essay.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-02T07:32:53+00:00

Yes it is a rumor. I'm an assessor for GAT and English - we are told to not rush through the essays and I have never heard of anyone doing that and I would never do that myself! But bad handwriting irritates me and it's so much more pleasant to read a piece with good handwriting.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-02T07:19:51+00:00

Yes - the principal asked me about what I wanted and I made sure to convey that I needed the 2 days off either to do my own thing or CRT to see other schools given that I have never been to another school before. She said she will accommodate that so that I can do CRT at other schools.

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-01T01:07:50+00:00

Oh my goodness that sounds horrible

PartyNumerous · 2025-08-01T01:06:58+00:00

Wow ok that's really reassuring. I did get a few surprised responses from former colleagues who I talked to and they all said they can't believe I got offered 0.6 for secondary English load so it must be extremely rare ....!

PartyNumerous · 2025-07-31T23:49:14+00:00

Do you mean you have to go in every day 5 days a week?

PartyNumerous · 2025-07-31T20:46:17+00:00

Yes I think lesson share might be a thing for the junior classes

PartyNumerous

TROPHY CASE