All teachers who participate in the teaching of students are entitled to reasonable periods of Planning, Preparation and Assessment time as part of the 1265 hours, or pro rata equivalent (as the case may be) to enable the discharge of the professional responsibilities of teaching, planning and assessment. PPA time must be provided in units of not less than half an hour during the college’s timetabled teaching week. A teacher should not be required to carry out any other duties during the teacher’s PPA time. Where reasonably appropriate and agreed by both the college principal and individual teacher, PPA can be taken in one weekly unit and it can be taken away from the college site.
Cover
Supervising, and so far as practicable teaching, any students whose teacher is not available to teach them:
Teachers should be required to provide cover only rarely, and only in circumstances that are not foreseeable.
Provided that no teacher shall be required to provide such cover:
- after the teacher who is absent or otherwise not available has been so for three or more consecutive working days;
- or where the fact that the teacher would be absent or otherwise not available for a period exceeding three consecutive working days was known to the college for two or more working days before the absence commenced unless,
- She/he is a teacher employed wholly or mainly for the purpose of providing such cover (‘a supply teacher’),or
- The college has exhausted all reasonable means of providing a supply teacher to provide cover without success,
Colleges should continue to consider the impact of cover on teachers’ other working time activities and on non-contact time, to ensure that any obligation is distributed equitably among all teachers and aim to ensure that, overall, teachers’ workload and working time is not unreasonably increased by the imposition of any routine cover obligation.
Nothing within this section is intended to replace, weaken, or override effective local practice that protects staff workload, professional time, or non-contact entitlement. Any such local practice relating to cover that goes beyond contractual obligations must be subject to mutual agreement.