Can they ask me to do this?

[Ginandtv]

Leaving my school (independent) at Easter after giving a term’s notice. They have asked me to submit planning for my core subject for the upcoming summer term, which I have done. Now they are asking me to write the reports for July and submit them before I go. The teachers who are staying are not being asked to do this. Is this discrimination? Do I have any grounds to refuse ? My fear is that they will dock my final salary payment (over Easter) if I don’t do it as they have mentioned my ‘contractual obligations’ and have been known to do similar things when other teachers have left.

It doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary to me. You will have taught the kids for two terms by the time you leave. The person replacing you will only have taught them for half a term or so by the time reports need writing. It makes sense for you to leave a report that they can send (or tweak if necessary). In my school A Level teachers who are leaving in the summer are always asked to submit their UCAS references by the end of the summer term even though the deadline for everyone else is the start of October. The new teachers coming in don’t have enough time to properly get to know the kids in time to write them themselves. Nobody has ever questioned it. This sounds like a very similar situation.

I had to do that when I went on maternity leave. I went off in May and had to hand my reports in just after Easter ready for them to go home in July. I think it's just a case of who is best placed to comment on the children, and it's (usually) the teacher who has spent the most time teaching the class. It's annoying, but not unreasonable.

If you're starting a new job after Easter then have you checked whether or not the teacher leaving that class will be writing the reports before they leave?

It's standard practice to ask the long standing teacher to write reports before leaving at Easter. How can you expect someone who has only known the children for a couple of weeks to write their end of year report? Normally, we would give the teacher some extra non-contact time to get them done.

My only experience is of going on maternity leave (twice!) at Easter and both times I had to get my reports done.

My experience of working in the independent sector is that things which seem massively above and beyond the call of duty fall under “contractual obligations”. (The obligation in my case was “and any other duties as reasonably required of you by the headmaster.”)

Don't work in independent, but I don't think it is unreasonable to write the reports - as everyone has said, you have taught them for 4 of the 5 half terms they will be reporting on.
I think they are taking the mick asking you to do the planning though.

Thanks for your input. They have taken away my PPA this half term due to staffing shortages so it’s feeling like work overload. Again, as it’s an independent school it’s hard to know what my rights are. I would be very surprised if they give me any extra time to write reports and my work / marking load is such that I am really struggling to keep up as it is and feeling very stressed.

I would agree that it's normal to expect you to write at least basic reports before you leave, which can then have final levels added to them by the new teacher. If you were staying all year, would you receive additional time out of the classroom to write reports?

Your lack of PPA is different, but depends on your contract. Is there anything in it about an entitlement? Have other teachers also lost their PPA?

I would suggest they alter your leaving date to a couple of days later to give you time to write them, or have you out of the classroom earlier. They can only say no!

I started at a new school after Easter once in a specialist role teaching every child in the whole school. And I had to write reports by half term for every single one of them (300 kids - half a side of A4 each, no copying and pasting). I barely knew most of their names as I only taught them once a week however I would not have wanted to put my name to a child’s report that I hadn’t written. So I would offer an alternative - I’d write a word document with a couple of sentences per child about the topics we’ve done so far this year. Then the new teacher can edit this and add their own bit to it. Saves you having to do the formatting/spellchecking/boring bit but you are showing willing. Also if they’ve taken away all your PPA time it sounds like you’re having a lucky escape, that’s dreadful!

Ginandtv

Nothing in my contract about PPA. But as far as I know I am the only one to have lost mine this term. We don’t get officially get extra time to write reports but there are more margins in the summer term with the various events etc. Thanks for feedback - it’s helpful to hear what people see as ‘reasonable’.

This sounds INSANE to me!! They are asking you to do work for which they will not be paying you!

Surely sow are already in place? So I'd just update it. But writing reports based on what? How they perform over the next term using your crystal ball??? Stupid suggestion that shows that the reports are a box ticking exercise and not meant to be acted upon. What a joke?!

I'd be inclined to leave some detailed notes on the tricky characters and higher fliers, but other than that, jog on!!!

Ps - I only ever worked in independent secondaries.

physicskate I was expecting to get lots of responses like yours as that’s how my colleagues etc reacted when they heard. So much changes in a term so the reports could be signicantly out of date or even wrong by July if written in March

I think the fact they've taken away your PPA for the term, makes a huge difference.
I think that now makes me say that you are happy to do them when they give you the time you are owed - must equate to about a week to recoup your PPA

And you are 'contractually' obligated to perform duties as necessary for when you are employed - not to perform duties that will be 'useful' to them months afterwards!

Perhaps the reports thing make a touch more sense in primary??? But even so, I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

I left a school at Christmas and he supply they'd used to replace me left too so they didn't have to write reports for the spring term. So the hod wrote some one line reports about their current attainment. It was one subject of 9/10, so I'm sure the little darlings coped. I felt no guilt because I'd moved on to a new school where I was expected to write reports for kids I was still very much getting to know!