SHOULD IT WORK?

What is PPA?

The new legal requirement is that all teachers, whether full-time, part-time, permanent or temporary, have an allocation of time to prepare, plan and assess. This time must be at least 10% of their timetabled teaching time and must be allocated regularly throughout the term in blocks of no less than 30 minutes. PPA time cannot be delivered by saving it up and giving a day in lieu or by releasing staff from the need to be at assemblies or registration.

What can be done in PPA time?

This time is for your use and it is for you to decide how and what you plan, prepare and assess. You cannot be called upon to cover for absent colleagues or undertake any other duties during this time. We have heard talk already of Heads directing and monitoring what goes on in PPA time but it is our view that this is completely inappropriate.

Who takes your class?

In High Schools this question will rarely arise as we would expect PPA time to be timetabled in the way that non-contact time has always been. In other words you would not have a class in need of another teacher. In Primaries, however, the school will need to have provision for your normal class. NUT advice is as follows:

This is regular teaching time not supervision or cover and in every case the class should be taken by a teacher.
Under no circumstances should PPA time be provided by the use of a cover supervisor or a teaching assistant. Not only would this be educationally unsound it would also be an unreasonable imposition on support staff who are not trained or paid enough to require them to teach.

Many schools will seek to use Higher Level Teaching Assistants to provide PPA time. We will support members where there is a willingness to refuse to co-operate with such an arrangement. Where that is not possible we would remind members that we do not believe you can be required to plan or mark work for PPA lessons. For a normal absence due to sickness or CPD you or your Department/Key stage team would provide such work. PPA is entirely different. It is not caused by your absence but by a reduction in your teaching load. That reduction either includes the requirement to prepare and mark or it is meaningless.

What if you already have more than 10%?

The Workforce Agreement has a ‘no detriment’ clause which should mean that teachers have no less non-contact time than in previous years. Most Primary schools have no history of providing non-contact time so this will rarely be an issue, but many High Schools provide 4-5 periods out of a 20 period week (15-20%). The NUT view (supported by other unions) is that this is protected by the ‘no detriment’ clause.

Another no-no

It would not be acceptable to see leadership and management time moved outside of school sessions to provide PPA.

This is suggested in some of the training but the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document clearly states that

‘leadership and management time must be allocated within school sessions

Bradford NUT Guidance for Primary Schools on: IMPLEMENTING PPA

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