Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement
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Email: employment.relations@education.govt.nz
Part Five: Hours of Work
Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement
Effective: 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022
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5.1 General
5.1.1 As well as the number of classes a teacher may be timetabled to teach, the hours of work of individual teachers are influenced by factors such as:
- The preparation, evaluation and assessment time that may be generated by those classes and the students within them or by other requirements such as external examination prescriptions or the need to report on the progress of individual students;
- The counselling and pastoral needs of students;
- The administrative responsibilities of individual teachers either in respect of their curriculum or pastoral responsibilities or in respect of the general administration of the school; and
- The responsibilities of individual teachers arising from their appointment to a Kāhui Ako Teacher role;
- The extent to which individual teachers may participate in the extra-curricular programmes of the school.
5.1.2 For the foregoing reasons the parties to this agreement further acknowledge and accept that the hours of opening of schools, the structure of the timetables and like matters are designed to meet the curriculum and pastoral needs of students and are determined within each school according to well-understood national guidelines or specific legal requirements.
5.1.3 The clauses which follow identify the guidelines and requirements upon which the decisions in individual schools are made.
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5.1A Timetabling Policy
5.1A.1 Each employer must have a policy on timetabling, developed in consultation with its teaching staff. This policy shall incorporate:
- The non-contact entitlements of 5.2.3 to 5.2.6 below as relevant for the type of school;
- Class size matters, including the class size provisions of clause 5.9 below;
- Reference to other matters, including hours of duty outside of timetabled hours, which impact on timetabling practices;
- A process providing for circumstances where, for genuine reason during timetabling or at short notice, it is not possible to provide the non-contact time entitlements described in 5.2.3(a), 5.2.4(a), 5.2.5(a) and 5.2.6(b) and where the employer has used reasonable endeavour and is unable to achieve the class size provision in 5.9.2.
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5.2 Non-Contact Time
5.2.1 The non-contact time allocations for secondary teachers are an acknowledgement of the importance to quality education of the duties other than classroom teaching (such as those referred to in 5.1.1 (a to d) above) which teachers are required to undertake while schools are open for instruction.
5.2.2 For the purposes of 5.2, non-contact time is based on individual teachers’ timetabled hours comprising a total of 25 hours or a combination of periods of time equivalent to 25 hours per week.
5.2.3
- The employer shall provide five timetabled non-contact hours within each school week to each full-time teacher subject to 5.1A above. The non-contact time may be a combination of differing periods of time which total no less than the equivalent of five non-contact hours.
- The individual time allowances provided under clause 3.7 (Te Atakura), 3.8 (Beginning Teacher), 3.8A (Head of Department Beginning Teacher Time Allowance) and 3.8B (Specialist Classroom Teacher) of this Agreement shall be in addition to the non-contact time entitlements above.
5.2.4 Specialist Secondary Teachers of Technology
Specialist secondary teachers of technology who come within the coverage in clause 1.4(a).
- The employer shall timetable each full-time specialist secondary teacher of technology for no more than 20 contact hours within each school week subject to 5.1A above. The contact time may be a combination of differing periods of time which total no more than the equivalent of twenty contact hours.
- The maximum classroom contact hours of each full time specialist secondary teacher of technology provided above shall be reduced by any individual time allowances provided under clause 3.8 (Beginning Teacher) of this Agreement.
5.2.5 Permanent Unit Holders
- The employer shall provide as a minimum the following non-contact time entitlement to each teacher allocated permanent unit(s) in addition to the non-contact time entitlements set out in 5.2.3 and 5.2.4:
- one hour per week for holders of one permanent unit;
- two hours per week for holders of two permanent units; and
- three hours per week for holders of three or more permanent units.
- The non-contact time allocations expressed in 5.2.5(a)(i-iii) are minimum entitlements. For the fourth and subsequent permanent unit(s) the employer will endeavour to provide one hour for each additional permanent unit. The employer may continue to provide additional non-contact time above this for senior management positions in accordance with school policies.
- The individual time allowances provided under clause 3.7 (Te Atakura), 3.8 (Beginning Teacher), 3.8A (Head of Department Beginning Teacher Time Allowance) and 3.8B (Specialist Classroom Teacher) of this Agreement shall be in addition to the non-contact time entitlements above. The Beginning Teacher Time Allowance (Clause 3.8) is calculated before the non-contact time entitlements are calculated.
5.2.6 Part-time teachers
The timetabled hours of part-time teachers shall be determined according to the following provisions. Attention is drawn to clause 4.5.1 which sets out the basis of the establishment of a part-time teacher’s FTTE proportion as the sum of their timetabled class contact hours and any allocated timetabled non-contact time.
- The employer will endeavour to provide non-contact time for part time teachers who are employed between 0.48 FTTE and 0.89 FTTE to allow such teachers non-contact time that is proportionate to that provided to full-time teachers (five hours per week under clause 5.2.3). The timetabled non-contact time outlined in the table in (b) shall continue to operate as a minimum entitlement.
- The minimum timetabled non-contact time of part-time teachers (including specialist secondary teachers of technology who come within the coverage in clause 1.4(a)) subject to 5.1A is outlined in the table below:
FTTE Minimum timetabled non-contact hours per week 0.89 3.0 0.87-0.88 2.5 0.85 – 0.86 2.0 0.83 – 0.84 1.5 0.75 – 0.82 1.0 0.72 – 0.74 0.5 Below 0.72 None
- The placement of each part-time teacher’s timetabled non-contact hours within the timetable shall be in discussion with the individual teacher and recognise the distribution of the individual’s timetabled class contact hours. The teacher is required to be available in the school during their timetabled non-contact time.
- Nothing in (a) – (c) above shall operate to reduce current agreements around the proportion of a full-time position to which a part-time teacher is appointed. Fixed-term arrangements with respect to all or part of a part-time teacher’s hours of work shall continue according to their current basis, including any agreement to revision of these hours.
- The individual time allowances provided under clause 3.7 (Te Atakura), 3.8 (Beginning Teacher), 3.8A (Head of Department Beginning Teacher Time Allowance), 3.8B (Specialist Classroom Teacher) and 5.2.5(a) (Permanent Unit Holders) of this Agreement shall be in addition to the non-contact time entitlements above.
5.2.7 Inquiry time
A board in an approved Kāhui Ako will be entitled to allocate a number of hours of inquiry time in each school year which will be generated by the relevant Staffing Order. The board will determine the allocation of the inquiry time following consultation with its teaching staff and the person in the Kāhui Ako Leadership role.
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5.3 Definitions
5.3.1 For the purposes of this clause, unless the context otherwise requires:
- “Half day” (HD) shall have the meaning implied by its use in the Education (Salaries and Staffing) Regulations 1957.
- “Overtime” shall mean any timetabled teaching time in excess of two half days on any one day, or in excess of 10 half days in any one week, and shall include any timetabled teaching time scheduled on a Saturday or a Sunday except where the timetabled teaching time is correspondingly reduced, and any timetabled teaching time scheduled for any public or other full holiday specified in this agreement or during any vacation fixed in accordance with Part 7 of the Education Act 1989.
- The term “teaching time” can include supervision, non-scheduled supervision time of students, teacher non-contact time, administrative duties or other directed or non-directed duties.
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5.4 Duties when Schools are not Open for Instruction
5.4.1 The employer may require teachers to participate in professional development opportunities at times when the school is not open for instruction provided that no teacher shall be required to attend for more than five days or equivalent per annum and provided also that the needs of the individual teacher are taken into account and that the teacher’s own initiatives in undertaking professional development during time when the school is not open for instruction are considered.
5.4.2 The employer may require teachers to attend school or elsewhere when the school is not open for instruction for up to five days or equivalent per annum for all or any of the following purposes – school administration, preparation and coordination, departmental or related activities and community, parent and whanau contact and liaison. The employer will endeavour to arrange matters at the school in such a way that any requirement under this section is not unreasonable and that teachers’ individual needs are taken into account. Teachers’ own initiatives in undertaking work for the above purposes shall be counted when applying this clause.
5.4.3 Where teachers are required to attend school or elsewhere when the school is not open for instruction pursuant to 5.4.1 and 5.4.2 above, they shall be reimbursed for any actual and reasonable costs incurred.
Note: This provision shall not apply to teachers in Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu. The provisions applying to those teachers are contained in Part Eleven of this agreement.
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5.5 Length of School Day
5.5.1 For each school the length of the “school day” shall be determined according to the requirement that students are normally required to be in attendance for two half days, one before noon, the other after noon.
5.5.2 The normal teaching load in respect of any one day is therefore related to that requirement and takes account of the normal timetabling practices of each school.
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5.6 Length of School Week
5.6.1 Except where interrupted by any public holiday or any other holiday allowed for in accordance with Part 7 of the Education Act 1989 or by any provision in this agreement authorising the absence of teachers, the length of the school week for each school shall be determined according to the requirement that students are normally required to be in attendance for 10 half days on the days Monday to Friday inclusive.
5.6.2 The normal teaching load in respect of any one week is therefore related to that requirement.
5.6.3 As noted in subclause 5.3.1(b) the 10 half days in any one week may include timetabled teaching time scheduled for a Saturday or a Sunday.
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5.7 Length of School Year
5.7.1 Except where reduced by any lawful decision of the employer to close the school to students, the length of the school year for each school shall be determined according to the requirement that schools are required to be open for instruction at least 380 half days in any one calendar year.
5.7.2 The normal teaching load of teachers in respect of any one year is therefore related to that requirement.
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5.8 Division of Year into Terms and Holidays
5.8.1 For the purposes of organising their educational programmes it is noted that schools are permitted to divide the school year into teaching terms and holidays (vacations) in accordance with Part 7 of the Education Act 1989.
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5.9 Class Size
5.9.1 Clause 5.1A requires each employer to have a policy on timetabling, developed in consultation with its teaching staff. This policy shall incorporate reference to class size.
5.9.2 It is expected that employers will use reasonable endeavour to achieve, for each individual teacher with more than one class, an average class size (based upon the teacher’s timetabled classes and the roll of each of those classes) of no more than 26 students and where this cannot occur 5.1A.1 (d) shall apply.
Note: This does not preclude averages of less than 26 students.