Reflections from today's start on a new report from our study into women aged 30-39 who have left teaching... When mothers #returntowork and have to fight for their right to work #parttime / flexibly, involving unions... 1/ #MTPTproject @Flexible Teacher Talent @#WomenEd Being10%Braver 🦩 @Suzanne Brown

... visibly struggling, being signed off on stress, having to work a resentful 13 weeks of payback period full-time, knowing they have been forced to resign, sacrificing their values and time with their children, and these brave women's flex request is *still* denied... 2/

... it sends a very clear message to the pool of colleagues that come after them - those considering motherhood one day, those planning families, those expecting. The message is: "don't bother fighting, you won't win. Even Ms Courageous and Strong lost." 3/ #MTPTproject

It's like wiping out an entire set of chess pieces around the Queen. One colleague who suffers publicly from a denied #flexibleworking request that could be so simple to agree to - at classroom, middle or senior leadership level... 4/ #MTPTproject #WomenEd @Teacher Mum Done

... limits, or encourages a whole handful of staff to leave. They have seen, first-hand how a #flexibleworking request would be treated, so why would they put themselves through that? Role-modelling has happened, but the very worst kind 5/ #MTPTproject

And leadership teams who are active in making this denial and resignation a protracted and unnecessarily miserable process, will lose not just the one "troublemaker" who wanted to be a HoD on 0.8, but all the other potentials in the leadership pipeline... 6/ #MTPTproject

... who also want to be mothers, who would have otherwise gone on to be the stable, experienced, familiar, and loyal middle and senior leaders in their teams. Why would you even bother asking for #flexibleworking if you had seen a respected colleague poorly treated... 7/

And pushed to being signed off by their doctor, leaving without the chance to say good-bye and sacrificing both their professional career *and* time and energy for the children they are trying to secure the PT hours for? 8/ #MTPTproject @Hannah Duncan #WomenEd @Diverse Educators #DiverseEd

Not every #flexibleworking request can be agreed straight away, particularly if the requester lacks the contextual information they need, or if you be school has very specific requirements for their students / teams, but a flex request is a *negotiation* 9/ #MTPTproject

Where both parties have the same ultimate goal: for the requester to remain working at the school to benefit the students in a way that is fulfilling and sustainable. A request that can’t be immediately granted becomes an equal dance of problem solving 10/ #MTPTproject

… *not* a power battle of deny, destroy, discard. This harms everyone, including the leadership team who hold the power where such processes are draining, breed toxicity and damage trust 11/ #MTPTproject