You know you must be doing something right...

[fireheart]

...when your boss loans you out to another school.

So a quick background for clarification: I work for an after-school care provider which contracts their service out to schools. I can theoretically be allocated to various schools, although for the most part I have been at one school. But because I've met the boss of the school I went to today I'll call them bossman and bosslady.

So on Tuesday, we had the big honchos down to my school to talk to bossman and talk to each of us. Apart from some minor issues, I got through that swimmingly. On the way out, the regional manager asked if I could help one of my coworkers with the special needs topic for her course that she's studying. I of course agreed. *

This morning, I received a phone call from bosslady (who I've met before**) asking if I could work at her school that afternoon. I agreed and she said she'd ring me to confirm the details. No problem.

We eventually make the phone call and bosslady reveals that she'd spoken to bossman and he'd recommended me to her since she's dealing with a student who exhibits challenging behaviour. Because of my special needs background, I was offered up specifically. She then mentioned to me that "it took <regional coordinator> 8 weeks to find her a staff member, it took <her> half an hour"

Shift went AMAZINGLY well. We tossed up a few theories behind the behaviour of the student. Turned out that I was there to keep an eye on him mainly, since the other kids were independently.

Much to our surprise, our "challenging" child actually had a smooth run. It does help as we're tossing up a few theories behind his behaviour and we can see what was different between shifts.

Bosslady then admitted that the eventual plan she wants to clear with head office would involve the two schools having one "staff" pool where the staff can move between schools as needed. I've also been locked in for the next few weeks on that same shift

*-my workplace also offers up training courses in childcare for those who are willing. Those who are already studying childcare, teaching or similar are still able to work.

**-during the holidays, bosslady's school and my school combine for holiday care. Bossman takes the mornings, bosslady takes the afternoons. So I've met her before

[fireheart]

Even more awesome today: bosslady talked to big bossman and he's cleared me to work the next two weeks at that school so happy! *does a little happy dance*

Now I just need to start considering branching out further and taking more shifts elsewhere

[csquared]

Any chance of them bringing you on full time? Would you want it if they did?

[fireheart]

Any chance of them bringing you on full time? Would you want it if they did?

I'm currently studying so full time is a no. Also what most people consider "full time" isn't really full time for us, since we only do between 2-3 hours at a time per shift. So if I was to do only mornings, that's 10 hours per week and if I did afternoons that's 17.5 hours per week.

If they did ask for full time though next year, it would be a likely given. I've kinda focused on setting some rules for myself around rostering so I'm not likely to have a anxiety attack on shift. The main rules at this stage are pretty much that I don't take more than around 5 shifts a week and if I'm doing vacation care shifts, that I don't do all day shifts unless its an excursion.

Although that said, "full time" could also involve me working at several schools, not just the one or two that I'm at currently. I WANT to branch out a bit further-the program I currently attend has around 80+ kids on any given day, while most other schools have somewhere between 15-30. In fact, when I was prepping before the kids came in the ither day at the ither school, bosslady was telling me that whenever she gets staff in from my main school, they have this tendency to prepare way too much food for the kiddies (unless they have sport training or an allergy, they get fruit/veggies and a snack of some kind).

To give you an idea of how much food we prepare for the kiddies between schools, it takes 4 people to prepare six plates of food: 3 plates for the little kids who go in one room, 3 plates for the other room. At the school with bosslady, I just prepped one platter of fruit/veggies for the kiddies and we threw in one bowl of Doritos to go with it (ironically those are allowed despite the anaphylaxis risk)