The following guidance applies to part-time teachers employed under the school teachers’ pay and conditions document (STPCD). Teachers employed on part-time contracts in many academies and independent schools may find their employment arrangements are different.
Where the STPCD does not apply, teachers are advised to negotiate with the employer with the aim of agreeing a part-time teaching policy resembling that set out in the STPCD. Part-time teachers employed under the terms of the STPCD are entitled to be paid on a pro rata basis of the pay rate they would receive if employed full-time in the same post.
This means the pay rate is calculated according to the amount the part-time teacher would receive if employed full-time in the same post.
Working time
Part-time teachers’ directed time is calculated in much the same way as their pay – by comparing the hours they have worked with the school’s timetabled teaching week (STTW).
What about part-time leadership group and leading practitioner teachers?These teachers are not covered by the STPCD working time provisions for classroom teachers. The STPCD advises only that the workload of part-time leadership group teachers and leading practitioner teachers should be reasonable and that they should be treated fairly in comparison with their full-time equivalents.
Part-time teachers cannot be directed to work or attend non-pupil days on days when they do not normally work. They may agree to attend staff/departmental meetings, parents/open evenings and Inset days and other non-pupil days by mutual agreement with the head teacher. The days they agree to work when they do not normally do so cannot be included in directed time.
The STPCD includes a provision for additional payment for this working time.
Yes, provided that the direction is ‘reasonable’. The STPCD provides that part-time teachers may be required to undertake work that is within their allocation of directed time beyond that specified in the school’s timetabled teaching week. Consideration should be given to the impact on the commitments and responsibilities a part-time worker may have outside work when such a direction is made.
Yes. All teachers, including part-time teachers, are statutorily entitled to planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time at a minimum level of ten per cent of timetabled teaching time.
Yes. Where they fulfil part of the responsibility, they should receive an appropriate proportion of additional non-contact time as part of their working time so that they receive an appropriate proportion of the teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) payment. Where part-time teachers carry out the whole responsibility attaching to a TLR post, additional non-contact time can be allocated to ensure they receive the full value of the TLR payment.
Yes, but it is not good practice. The STPCD advises that schools should seek to avoid such patterns of timetabling which create unpaid ‘trapped time' and which effectively prevent such teachers from taking other employment.
The STPCD advises that schools’ arrangements for deployment of part-time teachers should avoid any treatment which might constitute unlawful discrimination.
Contact your NEU school representative in the first instance for support. If there is no representative in your workplace, you should contact the relevant region.
