PPA Time

[WorriedTeach]

I've started at a new school (primary) and have been told it's likely my PPA time will be 2 hours, half an hour short of a full 10% and not a full morning away from the classroom. When I questioned it I was told it's always been that amount of time as for people who have theirs in the afternoon they only get 2 hours due to the length of the session. I don't want to rock the boat if this is standard practice but it doesn't seem right to me?

My school is horrible for this. Its afternoon only which is only one hour 50 mins. You have to dismiss the children at home time which eats into the time too. You have to use it as a planning meeting with your partner teachers. There is no where to do it. It is cancelled at the drop of a hat. It is cancelled if there is an inset day or bank holiday. The head gets around it by saying you can request it if you need it but because the majority don't you feel like you cant.

Oh dear, that sounds worse than this. I think I was protected from it at my old school because I was in nursery and the sessions were the same length so it didn't matter which you had but thinking about it KS1 and 2 would have only had 2 hours if they'd had PPA in the afternoon as well so it's not uncommon I suppose

My understanding is that the 10% is a minimum. It doesn't have to be a morning - you could have an hour one day and two 45 min slots elsewhere. And lastly, you cannot be directed to meet a colleague or anything else - the time is for you to do what you need to do. www.teachers.org.uk/files/PPA_207sq%20(3996).pdf

Ppa should be a minimum of 10% of the hours yu actually teach. How many hours will you actively be teaching? I assume you are part time.

Thanks for that link Cynderella, good to know about the meeting colleagues part as well.
Nope d27, full time, will have the children for a total of 5 hours a day every day apart from this 2 hour PPA slot.

Ppa is a statutory of 10% of teaching time in localauthority schools. Academies don't have to give you any, unless if says difficult your contract/policy.

It's teaching time, not time with the children. So registration doesn't count, or assembly for example.

It's a local authority school rebel, just don't want to make a name for myself this early on into a new job.
Ah ok rebel, I'm in early years so we don't go into assembly and the children self register and go straight to play, we mark them off as we are supervising/teaching.

But it's just making sure what you are entitled to contractually. It like if they started paying you less than agreed.

Yeah it's just difficult when the other eys teachers looked at me a bit when I questioned it so they're obviously ok with it

Yes if you teach for 23 hours a week you should get 2.3 hours minimum
So really you should be teaching 22 hours then have 3 hours ppa.

I teach only 13 hours in a secondary school in a fortnight! But have 2 hours of ppa a fortnight as they round up.

It works out at 30 minutes per day that you're contracted to work. Mine is 1h30 because I'm 0.6

Our school has a 25 period timetable across a week (5 a day, 50 or 55 minutes each). We also have form time in addition to this, which is 20 minutes each morning, and 20 minutes in the afternoon. As a minimum, teaching staff (without TLRs) get 3 free periods a week, which works out at 150/160 minutes a week. One of these free sessions has to be taken in a classroom where disruptive pupils might be sent occasionally. There is no teaching requirement in that lesson though. We have a LOT of marking to do so the allocated time does not come close to the extra hous put in after school. Our school are very good in some respects though - we get time off to write reports, for example.

It's 10% of teaching time. Not contracted time in school. It can't be given in chunks of less than 30mins, so they would need to round up.

So my teaching time is 25 hours a week so am I right in thinking I should be having 2 and a half hours in total PPA? Whether this be in one slot or several?

Yes. We work to a two week timetable so we might have two hours one week and three the next.

Yes, 2.5 hours. I hate the whole morning/afternoon argument. It doesn't make any difference and they're using it as an excuse to not give you what you're entitled to. I used to have this so my PPA started half an hour before lunch.

Ok, I think I will wait to hear from the head because this info was from another membet of SMT and gently question it then. We are so short staffed though I don't know how they would manage.

you cannot be directed to meet a colleague or anything else - the time is for you to do what you need to do.

I know this so I don't know how our head gets away with this. I have tried to stand up to lots of things before but it didn't work and I often got 'in trouble' for doing so. It has improved, believe it or not! We used to have to plan and mark the work that was done in our absence!!

My friend is at a new school and they get the correct amount of time and can be off site. They can also choose to take it fortnightly and get the whole day off.

Oops, that was in response to us having to plan in PPA sessions.

You could always do this through your union. You should have a union rep in school who could discuss PPA with the Head. If this doesn't work, go to the regional office - they will probably offer to come in and talk to the Head.

No union rep - you need one. If there is a rep for another union, consider switching to one which has a rep. No reps at all, maybe you need to think about stepping up or encouraging a willing colleague.

Those of us who have been teaching a while remember the weeks when all of your frees were snatched away because it was 'unavoidable'. PPA made Heads empty cover supervisors and put strategies in place to avoid that. Shame about academies taking off just after that. But, if you're employed under teachers' pay and conditions and let headteachers get away with bending the rules, it can only get worse.

You need the time to plan, prepare or mark (I could never do all of it in the time given). It's not meant for manicures, walking the dog or manning the isolation room. It's your time to do whatever you prioritise. As a one off, I would staff isolation or cover for a colleague who had gone home ill. I would not do it every week.

I am in a union but not sure if we have a rep in school, I'll try and find out. I really value my PPA and like you say it's so needed to get stuff done and half an hour a week doesn't seem too bad but I'm effectively losing a sessions PPA every 5 weeks!

Let us know how you get on. Sometimes we miss ppa but are told we can 'request it if you need it'. Well obviously we need it with a never ending list of jobs, but it's hard when you don't want to be seen as the awkward one.

Agree that you need to insist. The afternoons being shorter is no reason to not work it out fairly - as suggested above, one full day a fortnight would work if they think it is too disruptive to timetable parts of a morning session.
Also agree they can't insist on you doing things like going in to dismiss your class - that's ridiculously disruptive of your time.