“Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.”
John Updike
What are the rules about “gained time” – that time some post-primary teachers get when their exam classes go on study leave? The guidance below is from NASUWT and has been officially sanctioned by them in mid-May, so it’s a very useful guide to what happens to all the planned teaching time you have on your DTB when the students are released for study.
Requests to cover other classes when students who are preparing to sit external exams are released for study leave.
This is a concept which is sometimes referred to using the term ‘gained time’ although the term ‘gained time’ is not a term which is included in the Jordanstown agreement.
The term ‘gained time’ is described and listed in Section 4 of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (The Burgundy Book) which would be the English equivalent to the Jordanstown Agreement.
Context
In many secondary schools in Northern Ireland year 12 and 14 pupils * preparing to sit GCSEs’, ‘A’ Levels and other external examinations are released from the requirement to attend ordinary timetabled classes in school, to allow the students to concentrate solely on studying for upcoming exams.
(In some schools year 11 and 13 pupils are also released early for study leave).
The time period from when these students will be released (usually in mid-May) until the official end of that school term (end of June), will be referred to as ‘study leave’.
For many teachers who have been teaching year 12 and 14 pupils who are preparing to sit GCSEs’, ‘A’ Levels and other external examinations, having the immense pressure of collecting and assessing coursework and covering all topics on the syllabus with the students, study leave can feel like a reprieve. Many teachers ask their pupils to attend class during this time for revision classes, but students are under no obligation to do so.
Teachers of year 12 and year 14 students can suddenly find their teaching contact time suddenly reduced with no year 12 and 14 classes showing up during that period formerly set aside for them on the school timetable.
The Jordanstown Agreement is silent on how this time, which is referred to as ‘gained time’ in the burgundy book, should be addressed by employers and how teachers are to be directed.
To explain how this time should be handled therefore requires that this time be dealt with under existing agreements within the Jordanstown Agreement and subsequent TNC agreements.
For teachers who now have students on study leave:-
● The school management cannot alter your class timetable which was agreed before the beginning of the school year, i.e. members of staff cannot be required to ‘take-over’ full or composite classes for the remainder of the academic year that were not on their original timetable.
● The rules on ‘cover’ apply and therefore school leaders must adhere to the existing arrangements in the Jordanstown agreement in relation to cover, i.e.
a. You cannot be asked to cover for teachers on long term leave. Substitute teachers covering for long term absence by a teacher should continue to be engaged where some or all of the absent teacher’s classes are present and timetabled for teaching.
b. Teachers should not be required to cover classes after 2 days (or one day in schools with less than 222 pupils) of a teacher colleague’s absence.
c. Teachers should not be required to cover classes for a teacher colleague where the colleague’s absence was notified and agreed by the employer.
d. If the school operates a timetable rota system for teaching staff cover, (or an equivalent system where teacher cover is equitably distributed among teaching staff), this system should continue to operate as it did prior to the period of study leave.
Relevant extracts from the existing 2011 workload agreement and the incoming 2024 agreement.
3.1 The term ‘cover’ refers to any occasion where the teacher normally responsible for teaching the class is absent and a teaching colleague is required to teach the class. Cover therefore is included within the teaching limit of 25 hours in any week in a primary school or special school and 23.5 hours in any week in a secondary school, as specified under the 1987 Regulations.
3.2 The term absence refers to a situation where the teacher normally responsible for teaching a particular class is absent from the classroom during the times they have been timetabled to teach. The absence could be for a variety of reasons, including internal and external activities* as well as sickness and could be long or short term.
*This covers scenarios like a school trip in excess of 2 days or covering for an exams officer who is off timetable for more than two days.
Hallowe’en break in…
Designed and produced by teachers and trade unionists. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information on this site, teacher and union representatives are advised to contact their own trade union reps before taking action which might leave them in breach of contract. Think1265 uses WordPress, which uses cookies for functionality. Think1265 does not use any cookies for any purpose other than those used by WordPress for site functionality, and no personal information is retained or processed by think1265 without users’ specific permission. © 2024 think1265