Obviously I am not asking for legal advice, my wife is contacting her union but just wondered if anyone had any experience with this sort of thing.

My wife is a teacher at a private school, we recently had a baby and so has been on maternity leave. She applied for flexible working to come back part-time at 2 days a week. This has been rejected with the school stating that there is no part-time role for her. They have not attempted to employ another part-time teacher to make up a full-time post. Just stated they don't need a part-time, 2 day a week teacher. We are awaiting a case worker from her union, initial thoughts from the union is that they have not followed proper procedure and have not made any attempts to accommodate my wife.

This school is unfortunately run by men with massive ego problems, honestly, they are c****. They don't deserve my wife as a teacher but she likes the school and some of the other staff so we will fight it as far as is practicable.

Any thoughts or experiences/pitfalls would be MUCH appreciated.