Does this sound right regarding PPA?

[CheesecakeAddict]

Hi all

I am a full time teacher and HoD. At the start of the year, I flagged up that my timetable was an hour short of PPA and was told that my ppa is calculated based on my teaching hours and I should only get 4x ppa per fortnight as I get tlr which reduces my hours taught. We work on a 5 period day and HoDs get 4xtlr per fortnight too. So I left it and I've been struggling with workload and burning out all year.
This week someone commented how heavy my timetable was for a HoD. I have since looked at a few and every other HoD is getting 5xppa per fortnight and even 2i/cs get that ppa plus 4-6 tlr hours.
We are obviously at the end of the year, but I don't get gain time this year when yr11 leave but still have been sent a list of gain time tasks from leadership. I'm really struggling to keep on top of it and wonder if this sounds fair or if I should raise it again with the head or just leave it now we only have 5 weeks left?

They are trying it on/don't know the rules... PPA is calculated first for everyone, so 10% of the number of lessons in a normal teaching week (a five period day school being 25) rounded UP which they often 'forget' unless you point it out. Then they do the additional reduction for ECT time.

Then finally you get any additional non-contacts on top (management time, LM meeting etc) but importantly they aren't badged up as PPA so aren't protected time in quite the same way. Although my school doesn't actually put PPA on the timetable I've not yet had that conversation because it hasn't been an issue while I've worked here- we do very little rarely cover.

A separate issue is that if you don't have any gained time then you can't possibly do any gained time tasks. I think that's the battle to have this time then when you are looking at next year's timetable allocations mention the PPA thing then.

It may be awkward raising these things but equally if other people aren't getting the same treatment then it's possibly because they think you won't rick the boat.

Just a note as well if someone is part time you work their PPA out based on the maximum number of teaching hours they are present for- so a 0.8 person in a 25 hour week school would be available for 80% of lessons, so 20 lessons, which means two PPA a week. A full time person would be three PPA a week (2.5 hours rounded up)

I'm a HoD of a core subject and get the same PPA as everyone else and then management time on top.
My school is heavy on contact time I think, so would be interested in what others get.

We have a 50 period fortnight.

I teach 35/50 plus I have a form (45 minutes a day), plus we have to do 2 x 45 minutes co curricular a week. Form involves actually delivering stuff which is taken in for work scrutiny so it's not easy.

From 50 hours a fortnight, I teach 42 hours.
I have form every day for 30 mins and that is delivering pshe. It is learning walked but all work is done on MWBs so isn't scrutinised.
We have 2 morning briefings per week, and 3 morning duties, so every day starts at 8.15. Then we have CPD once per week after school and leadership meeting once every 4 weeks.
We have to call parents if we remove a child and it is an RI school so it's more frequent than you may think, that's easily 3 hours per week especially if it is my bottom set heavy week.
One of my tlr hours per fortnight is taken for LM meetings, then once per fortnight I have to learning walk my department or do a book scrutiny, so that's another hour. So realistically I'm looking at 8.15-4.30 of non-stop before I can even plan or mark, with just 6 hours per fortnight PPA/remaining TLR time.

It's a lot, isn't it? It's not just me being lazy or incompetent?

@CheesecakeAddict yes it is a lot!

I also have duties - 2 break, 2 morning, 2 lunch (leadership scale) per week.

Like you, one free is my line management meeting, then it's book scrutinies, learning walks etc. It's an outstanding school but they expect so, so much from staff!

On 42 periods you are entitled to 4.2 periods of ppa rounded up to 5. Management time isn't protected but PPA is.

Raise it now ready for next year.

Also I'd say you may need to check your directed time (if 1265 applies to your role) with lots of duties. Breaktimes are directed time so can't do so much about that (we have one duty and one meeting in a break). Also I'm not sure how long a session has to be before it counts as teaching time- registrations usually don't afaik know but if it's a taught PSHE session that might be different. Worth exploring!

I tried to explain this exact discrepancy to someone at my school. They've mostly fixed it this year but frankly they couldn't fix it last year.

PPA should be from the full timetable - so if 50 periods a fortnight should be 5 periods a fortnight...

Leadership time really does depend on the department... HoDs of English will get more than a HoD of drama as there's more lessons going on and more teachers.

But it's ridiculous to take a PPA away, and then replace it with a leadership time, and then say oh we've given you more time.....

I'm a HoD of a non-core EBacc subject and my load is 40/50. I have four PPA and six QA hours, two of which are line management meetings. My subject doesn't even finish GCSEs till this week so haven't had much in the way of gained time yet! Still deadlines for this week though. I also have a form so 30 minutes every morning and we do a 15 minute duty every day. I always nod and smile when SLT talk about workload and resting over holidays... I feel your pain OP, I really do!

Fellow HOD and union rep who has working in a school in SM and also RI. Advice at the bottom of my post.

50 hours per fortnight should produce 5 hours PPA.

You cannot be directed in your PPA - i.e. told what to do with it. However, you can be delegated tasks for your gained time.

If I understand you correctly, you have 4 x HOD management hours per fortnight (same as me). Like you, one week 1 hour is taken up by an LM meeting, the other week 1 hour is taken up by LWs.

5 + 4 = 9. Therefore, timetabled hours should be 41. I get 2 additional hours per fortnight compared to you for departmental meetings - meaning I have 39 timetabled teaching hours over 2 weeks.

Re: briefings, CPD and meetings; assuming you're on MPS and your school follows the Burgundy Book, these should form part of your 1265 directed time, along with progress evenings, etc. If you're on Leadership, then you're not covered by 1265. Morning breaks, technically, we can be directed during those to do duty as they're paid but, crucially, these are budgeted into the 1265.

In terms of calling home, this could be considered reasonable additional hours to discharge your duties and not part of your directed time. However, management can't tell you when or how to do this.

Long story short, yeah, you're being worked too hard, especially as you're saying that you're being worked too hard. You need to speak to your union rep in the first instance. If you haven't got a competent rep at school, then you need to contact branch. If you're an MPS teacher, the first thing they'll be interested in is your direct time calendar. If you're not an MPS teacher, they'll be interested in the extent to which expectations of management match the capacity of staff. You're definitely being shafted with PPA though. You can challenge next year's timetable with your LM. You should also tell your LM that you're struggling with workload at the next available opportunity.

On a slightly more personal note, I've been in the position where we've had to turn the school around (before I was HOD) and it was tough. The members of your dept also have some responsibility. It's not necessarily up to you to do everything. Delegating is an artform. The Education Support Line is 24/7 and staffed by people who know what they're talking about. It might be that you consider reaching out to think through your position and any possibilities to improve it. It's a hard place to be, middle management. Having someone to talk to could be helpful for you.

Sorry you're going through this.

This is the relevant section of STPCD.

So technically they are not supposed to schedule a Raising Standards meeting, or a revision session without giving it back at some point....?

They can schedule whatever they want as long as it's not in your ppa

I think they basically use whatever is not a teaching hour in our school!

There’s some inaccurate information on this thread. 50 hours of teaching in the school timetable doesn’t necessarily provide 5 hours of PPA time for every teacher.

As the excerpt from the STPCD makes clear, teachers are entitled to no less than 10% of their own timetabled teaching time.

If teachers are timetabled to teach 50 hours a fortnight they are entitled to 5 hours of PPA time but if they are timetabled to teach 42 hours a fortnight they are entitled to 4.2 hours of PPA time. They are not entitled to 10% of their management time too.

The main question I think is why all other HODs have more PPA time than you, especially if they are also more management time and therefore have fewer timetabled teaching hours.

As far as gained time is concerned, if you are not gaining any time then clearly you should not be expected to do any additional tasks. The leadership team may not have realised that you don’t have any gained time.

I had half a day a week PPA and half a day every other week for management time.

https://neu.org.uk/advice/your-rights-work/teachers-workload-and-working-hours/teachers-working-time

While they may only entitled to 4.2 hours PPA, statutory regulations state this must be rounded up. Rounding up from 4.2 = 5. Therefore, a school with a 50 hour timetable would produce 5 hours PPA.

Please note anyone reading this that the inaccurate information is from the other poster.

@ProudCat could you please specify where in the STPCD the requirement to round up to the nearest hour can be found?

Thanks very much.

It doesn't specify hours. We don't teach in hours. It specifies "not less than 10%" and in units of not less than 30 minutes.

It's inherent in the 'not less than 10%' that any fractional result to that calculation would have to be rounded up, because it if was rounded down then it would take the person under 10%.

I’m certainly not suggesting that the calculation should be rounded down, which I agree it shouldn’t, just querying whether it needs to be rounded up, which I don’t believe it does.

Rounding up might be easier for the school for timetabling reasons, but it might be possible for the school to provide a teacher with exactly 4.2 hours of PPA time (though obviously they can’t just give them a 0.2 hour slot because that would be less than the required 30 minutes).

I think we'd struggle to timetable 2.7 periods of PPA - and if my head were to suggest it, I'd be pointing out that just because you can doesn't mean you should.