The gap school-hours work doesn't close
Australian school students get roughly 12 weeks of holidays a year. A standard four weeks of annual leave covers a third of it.
So a parent in a school-hours role still faces eight weeks a year with no school and no leave. The usual solutions — vacation care, grandparents, splitting leave with a partner, or simply going unpaid — are expensive, fragile, or both.
Term-time work removes the problem entirely. You work during term, you're off during holidays, and the arrangement is contractual rather than negotiated every January.
Worth knowing how much this matters: when the ABS asked non-working mothers what would most help them return to work, the ability to work school hours came first, rated very important by 54%. Term-time is the version of that which actually survives the calendar.
What "term-time" actually means
There's no single definition, so check which model an employer means:
Term-time only, unpaid holidays — you work terms, you're not paid during holidays. Simplest, but the income gap is real.
Term-time with annualised pay — the most common in schools. Your term-time hours are averaged across 12 months so you're paid evenly, including during holidays. Same total, no cashflow cliff. This is the one to ask for.
Reduced holiday hours — you work fewer hours or days during school holidays rather than none.
Term-time plus casual holiday work — you're term-time by default with the option to pick up holiday shifts.
Always clarify which model is on offer and whether pay is annualised. It's the single most consequential detail in the arrangement.
Where term-time jobs actually exist
Schools — by far the largest source. Not teaching roles: school administration, finance officers, enrolment and admissions, marketing and communications, IT support, library, lab technicians, teacher aides and learning support. Independent, Catholic and public schools all employ substantial non-teaching staff on term-time contracts. These are professional roles with professional pay, and they're chronically under-searched because people assume "school job" means "teacher."
Outside school hours care (OSHC) — before and after-school programs, often with vacation-care options if you do want holiday hours.
Universities and TAFE — semester-based rather than term-based, but similar shape. Student services, admissions, faculty administration.
Tutoring and education services — naturally term-aligned.
Sports and activity programs — school-based sport, music, drama and language programs.
Local government — some community and library programs run on term calendars.
Anywhere with seasonal patterns — some employers will structure a term-time arrangement even where it isn't advertised, if their busy season happens to be term-aligned.
What term-time roles pay
Term-time roles are generally paid pro-rata — the same hourly or annualised rate, applied to fewer weeks a year.
The confusion to avoid is the same one that catches out part-time workers. A role advertised at "$85,000" might be the full-time equivalent, with your actual pay reduced for term-time weeks — or it might be the real figure. Always confirm whether a quoted salary is FTE or actual, and whether it's annualised across 12 months.
Ask three questions before you accept:
Is this figure FTE or actual?
Is pay annualised across the year, or only paid during terms?
How does annual leave work — is it built into the arrangement or accrued separately?
If you can't find one
Term-time roles are genuinely scarce outside education. Three workable alternatives:
School hours plus purchased leave. Many larger employers let you buy additional annual leave — often four to six extra weeks. Combined with standard leave, that gets you close. Look for employers advertising "purchased leave" or "48/52" arrangements. Family Friendly Workplaces data shows certified employers are far more likely to offer this: 76% allow purchasing annual leave in advance, versus 50% of non-certified.
Compressed hours in term, reduced in holidays. Negotiate higher hours during term and drop to two or three days over holidays.
Job share with an opposite-pattern partner. Rarer, but powerful — one person covers holidays, the other covers term.
Nine-day fortnights and flexible leave banking. Several large Australian employers now offer these, which won't cover 12 weeks but materially reduce the pressure.
Our guide to part-time, job share and compressed hours covers how to propose each.
How to negotiate one
The key move is framing it as a business case, not a request.
Term-time works best where the work itself is seasonal. If your role has a genuine quiet period aligned to school holidays — and many do — say so explicitly:
"Our workload drops significantly over December-January and school holidays. I'd like to move to a term-time arrangement with pay annualised across the year, working the same total hours concentrated into the periods where the work actually is."
That's a proposal about workload distribution. It's much easier to say yes to than "I'd like school holidays off."
If you have 12 months' continuous service and you're a parent of a school-age or younger child, this can also be made as a formal request under section 65 of the Fair Work Act, which obliges your employer to discuss it and respond in writing within 21 days. See our guide to asking for flexible work.
Get told when they come up
Term-time roles are the hardest flexible arrangement to search for, because almost no job board treats it as a filterable field.
Rebalance is onboarding employers now, with roles arriving over the coming weeks. Tell us you're after term-time or school-hours work, along with your industry and location, and we'll email you when something matching goes live. It's free.
Frequently asked questions
What are term-time jobs? Roles where you work during school terms and have school holidays off, either unpaid or with pay annualised across the year. Most common in schools, OSHC, universities and education services.
Do term-time jobs pay less? Per hour, no — they're paid pro-rata at the same rate. Annually, you earn less than a full-year equivalent because you work fewer weeks. Ask whether pay is annualised so it arrives evenly across 12 months.
Which industries have the most term-time jobs? Education by a wide margin — school administration, finance, IT, marketing, library and learning support roles, not just teaching. Then OSHC, universities and TAFE, tutoring, and some local government programs.
Can I ask my current employer for a term-time arrangement? Yes, and it lands best framed around seasonal workload rather than personal need. If you have 12 months' service and are a parent of a school-age or younger child, you can make a formal request under the Fair Work Act.