All of it felt like stolen time, an end rather than a beginning. But he didn’t know why, and he didn’t know what to do differently.
Ruthie Knox
Consider this: A school of 80 staff finishes at 3.30pm, and the Principal calls a 1 hour twilight staff meeting at 3.45pm. This is normal practice for a Tuesday, so for 35 weeks 80 people finish teaching at 3.30pm, and then go to a meeting at 3.45pm. The hour-long meetings are faithfully included on the Directed Time Budgets, but what of that sneaky 15 mins? Where has it gone?
Some Principals will call it a “comfort break.” Others will say it’s PPA, and an opportunity to reset the classroom before the meeting. But you have to be in school during that time, otherwise you’ll miss the start of the meeting.
This is known as “trapped time”, and needs to be accounted for in the DTB.
Do the maths. For one teacher that trapped time is 30 x 0.25 hours = 7.5 hours a year. Not much, but it’s still hours you have to be at work. If you’re a UPS3 teacher, working for £36.65 gross per hour (new rates), that’s £275 you’ve just given to work for free – with no other option.
But there are 80 of you trapped during this time each week. So that’s £22 000 of wasted teacher time that needs accounted for in the DTB.
Imagine if the meeting didn’t start until 4pm? That’s £44 000 of wasted teacher hours.
Why can’t it just be part of the PPA time?
Firstly, what effective PPA can be done in 15 minutes? Secondly, if it’s part of PPA it needs to be accounted for in the PPA budget.
Trapped time happens in other places too, such as Open Nights, where there isn’t time to travel to and from home. In each case trapped time needs to be considered in the DTB.
Otherwise “trapped time” becomes “stolen time”. Time stolen from you.
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