As part of the recent industrial action, teachers across the country took part in extensive Action Short of Strike Action (ASOSA).
ASOSA gave teachers – and their families – the opportunity to experience what a better work-life balance looks like in practice. And they liked it.
Moreover, with teachers focusing their working days on teaching and learning rather than the empty “make-work” which cluttered calendars and diverted them from their core focus, the performance of students in NI continued to top the league tables.
But now our industrial action is coming to an end, and around the country schools are preparing for the post-ASOSA world. It is essential that we do not return to the bad old days of untenable workloads, intolerable stress, and inevitable burnout.
Over the years the Department of Education, employers, teachers and trade unions have negotiated scores of agreements aimed to maximise the effectiveness of education in Northern Ireland, while protecting the rights and welfare of teachers at the same time. This campaign puts together these agreements and builds a best practice approach to some key elements of teacher workload in the form of a charter, a simple document which shows that a school is putting the welfare and work-life balance of their staff at the forefront of their planning going forward.
think1265 has three main aims:
Educate
Empower
Campaign
We want to educate teachers in their employment rights, equip teachers to defend those rights, and campaign to have schools and employers sign up to a think1265 Best Practice charter which puts the work-life balance of teachers at the forefront of school planning for the years to come.
The rights you need for a positive work-life balance exist already.
Learn your rights. Use your rights. Stand up for your rights.
Designed and produced by teachers and trade unionists. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information on this site, members and representatives are advised to contact their own trade union reps before taking action which might leave them in breach of contract. © 2024 think1265