The Government is keen, some might say desperate, for ex-teachers to return to the profession. So why was I, an experienced teacher, faced with suspicion and little enthusiasm when I decided I was ready to re-enter the classroom? The answer is simple: I applied only for positions that would accept a job-share.

My story is not unusual. I trained as a teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge, and taught in inner-city schools until my children were born. While my youngest two were small, I completed a Masters degree in primary education and continued to work part-time in teaching and pastoral roles. I have worked in job-shares before.

I decided it was time to take on some permanent work when my third child started nursery school. But I also wanted to remain involved in my children’s lives. It sounded simple, but my desire to balance family and job has not been easy. The Teacher Training Agency talks of its “commitment to the recruitment of more high-quality teachers to the profession” and offers returners’ courses and bursaries. But it doesn’t address the issue of job-sharing and the concept seems to make heads jittery.

I wrote to six schools, enclosing my CV and giving my reasons for having left full-time teaching. I explained that I was only prepared to work a job-share, which drew comments of surprise and negativity. Most heads would not meet me. Two local schools I had worked for, from which I had received glowing references, did not even acknowledge my letter. Yet The TES recently ran advertisements for jobs in both schools.

Why does a job-share provoke such a reaction? One head said she did not want to form a relationship with two people, and that it was too complicated to organise; another that it would be too “unsettling” for the children. Children adapt easily to new situations when the guidelines are clear. In any case, children move to secondary schools, where they have many teachers, each with their own methods of teaching, foibles and eccentricities. Some schools have subject specialists working specifically with groups of children.

I was also told that my application might be considered if it was made with a colleague. Although this makes sense, it may not always work in practice. Teachers who have been out of the workplace do not necessarily have the contacts to re-establish themselves.

Why doesn’t the TTA establish a job-share register, where teachers can find others whose expertise balances theirs? As this doesn’t (yet) exist, I thought about placing an advertisement in the local paper. But things didn’t have to go that far, I was offered a job and I returned to teaching last month, a Year 3 class, as a job-share. The school found me a delightful partner. She is up to date with budget management, the numeracy and literacy strategies, timetabling, break duties and other issues I needed to reacquaint myself with, and she has a young family.

We managed to find time over the summer break for our class planning. Not only did we set up the classroom, order our resources and book our school trips, we planned our lessons, and wrote out our medium and long-term plans, as well as the weekly plans in numeracy, literacy, science and the foundation subjects. It is working well.

Communication is the key to a job-share as well as flexibility. The reality is that you do give more than 100 per cent, but the benefits make it worthwhile.

I am happy to have “returned” to teaching and, most importantly, am enjoying the challenge of teaching 36 children. That is, after all, what the job is all about. I am also happy that I can share in my own children’s daily life and routine. For me, job share is not a compromise: it is the solution.

Jo Ebner-Landy teaches at a north London primary