Category: Information for Members

Under trade union legislation an election for General Secretary has to be held every 5 years. The present term of office for the SSTA General Secretary will conclude on 1 February 2020 and the SSTA Council have agreed a timetable for the election process.

Nomination of a candidate in the election for General Secretary may be made by (a) Council and/or (b) any District or Area of the Association. Council may nominate any person; any other nominee must have been an ordinary member of the Association for a period of at least a year as at the date nominations close (but not a Life, or Associate, or Retired member).

Seamus Searson has been nominated by the SSTA Council and this decision was unanimously endorsed at the meeting of Council on 2 March 2019.

• Potential candidates seeking nomination will have the opportunity to send a single email communication to all District Secretaries and members of Council.  The text of the email must be submitted to Andrew Brown in the SSTA Office and be received by 12 noon on Wednesday 9 September 2019.
• The Executive Committee has appointed an independent scrutineer for the election:  Electoral Reform Service, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, LONDON, N8 0NW. The Depute General Secretary will act as the Returning Officer.
• Districts and Area are required to clearly indicate who they are nominating using the approved proforma.  The nominations must be made at a properly constituted District or Area meeting. Nominations must be returned to the Depute General Secretary by 12noon on Wednesday, 2 October 2019 the date when nominations close.
• Within 7 days of the close of nominations candidates may submit an election address of not more than 300 words together with a photograph (together called the “election statement”).

Seamus Searson the General Secretary would like to meet with SSTA members to discuss the issues that face secondary teachers. This includes the potential new career structure and pay scales for teachers, the impact of the Government’s Empowerment Agenda (Headteachers’ Charter, RICs, etc.) and reducing teacher workload.

Public Sector Pensions – Legal Challenge – Age Discrimination.

The outcome of the legal challenge (McCloud & Sargent) regarding Public Service Pension Schemes and the transitional arrangements that were introduced in 2015 to help protect those members of the schemes closest to retirement. This case has shown that the transitional protection discriminated members of the scheme on the grounds of age.

We see the outcome of the legal challenge applying to all teachers who were active members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme prior to 31^st March 2015. Whilst this matter is not yet fully resolved and there is ongoing discussion the SSTA believe it is important that you understand the potential implications of this outcome and what this could mean to you and your retirement plans. Stuart McCullough, Independent Financial Advisor from Llife Ltd will be giving a presentation on the potential impact of the legal challenge.
Agenda

1. General Secretary – Members’ Update,
   • Career Pathways Report – new pay structures
   • Reducing Teacher Workload
   • Empowerment Agenda – Headteacher Charter, Regional Improvement Collaboratives
2. Teacher Pensions and potential changes. (Stuart McCullough, Independent Financial Advisor, Llife Ltd)
3. Members Questions

The briefing will start at 5.00pm and will be repeated at 7.00pm.

• Monday 2 September – Inverness, Jury’s Inn
• Monday 9 September – Aberdeen, Aberdeen Altens Hotel
• Tuesday 24 September – Ayr, Mercure Ayr Hotel
• Wednesday 25 September – Glasgow, Hilton Glasgow Centre
• Tuesday 22 October – Dundee, Hampton Hilton Hotel
• Wednesday 23 October – Edinburgh, SSTA Head Office

To book a place click at a briefing go to the SSTA website and select the briefing you would like to attend and complete the registration form at the bottom of the page.

The 75th Annual Congress was held on 17th and 18th May 2019 at Crieff Hydro Hotel. You can find the text of the motions passed at Congress below.

MOTION A

Congress believes that Restorative Practice is increasing teacher workload and is often ineffective in improving pupil behaviour.

Congress calls upon the Scottish Government to review the implementation of Restorative Practice at Local Authority level and in schools. 

MOTION B

Congress notes that the 2018 SSTA survey showed that 70% of members experienced incidents of serious verbal abuse, 60% had experienced incidents of threatening or menacing behaviour and 19% experienced incidents of physical assault.  Teachers then face difficulties in reporting incidents and teachers are often seen to be ‘the problem’ if incidents are pursued.  Only 33% of teachers felt supported or received feedback after the incident. The perception of ‘no action being taken’ undermines teachers and fails to address the worsening conditions in schools.  The high number of teachers who feel that the schools try to ‘sweep it under the carpet’ and not address the issue is alarming.

Congress insists that all violent incidents in schools must be reported and any overly bureaucratic and duplicate processes must be removed. It is essential for teachers to work in a safe environment and to expect action to be taken by Local Authorities to protect staff in order to reduce the increasing level of violent incidents.

MOTION C

The SSTA calls on Local Authorities to ensure that all schools have appropriate facilities (e.g. staff rooms, staff bases, toilets etc.) to support the well-being of teachers.

MOTION D

Congress calls on COSLA to establish a minimum of 50 minutes lunch break as a measure to improve the working environment and health and well-being of teachers and pupils.

MOTION E

Congress notes with concern that, in many situations, the voice of teachers is not represented in important decisions affecting education and the teaching profession. Both the quality of decision-making and the securing of the commitment to necessary reforms would be greatly enhanced by including the perspectives of practitioners and their representatives who have an informed, professional input to make in advising on policy decisions. The exclusion of the teacher’s voice from many advisory and decision-making bodies is short-sighted, is contrary to best practice and demeaning of the profession of teaching.

Congress calls on the Scottish Government to involve education trade unions in all decisions affecting the profession and the education system and take into account their advice and opinions.

MOTION F

Congress is concerned about the potential loss of around 1,000 teachers in Scotland, as a result of leaving the EU.  The Association calls on the Scottish Government to take this into account when establishing the number of teachers to be trained in future years.

MOTION G

Congress welcomes the move by the Scottish Government to introduce bursaries of £20,000 to encourage new entrants into the profession.  However, the Association calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that the recipients are tied to a long term commitment to teach in Scottish schools.

Motion H

Congress believes that cuts to Technician Services are having a negative impact on high quality learning and teaching. The SSTA calls on the Scottish Government and COSLA to call an immediate halt to reductions in Technician Services and to undertake a review with the aim of providing a high level of service in all Local Authorities and schools.

Motion I

The SSTA welcomes the Scottish Government’s “Review of Personal and Social Education.”

However, the recommended timescale for implementation by March 2021 is ambitious. The SSTA calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that fully-funded, relevant, timeous and high quality in-service training is available to all teachers who will be involved in the delivery of the recommendations in the Review.

Motion J

Congress believes that pressure on teachers to ensure that pupil achievement in National Courses is increasing, with a reasonable expectation that pupils must leave school with a qualification. Many schools have persisted in using freestanding units to provide a fall-back position, thus defeating attempts to reduce workload.

The SSTA calls on the Scottish Government to instruct the SQA to set fixed dates in the academic year for all freestanding unit entries and passes, thus preventing retrospective entries and duplication of workload.

Motion K – remitted to Council

Motion L

Congress believes that all pupils, irrespective of their dates of birth or any decision by parents to delay the start of their education, should be entitled to leave school after 11 years of compulsory education, based on a single school leaving date at the end of the summer exam diet.  Congress calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward legislation to put this into effect.

Motion N

Congress calls upon the Scottish Government to carry out an urgent review of the increased workload for newly qualified teachers who enter the profession and to ensure a balance between pedagogical theory and curriculum knowledge. 

Motion O

Congress notes that there is a wide disparity in the provision and cost of music tuition in Scottish schools.   We also acknowledge that the Depute First Minister has recognised the importance of music tuition.

The SSTA calls on the Scottish Government to instruct all Local Authorities to scrap music tuition service charges and to ensure that ratios of instructors to pupil numbers mirror the best practice across the country.

Motion P

Congress calls upon the Deputy First Minister to insist that all school leaders implement his own directive that “the professional judgement of the classroom teacher must be listened to” when it comes to deciding at what level a student should be presented  within the exam system.

Motion Q

The SSTA calls on the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to resource sufficiently the principle of inclusion to allow teachers to get it right for every child.

Motion R

Additional Support Needs and Support For Learning teachers work with some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

Congress calls on the Scottish Government to fund and provide training opportunities to fully support the range of additional support needs found in classrooms across the country.

Motion S

Children and young people identified as having a hearing or visual impairment in Scotland, are legally entitled to support from a qualified teacher of hearing or visual impairment. This mandatory qualification takes over 2 years to complete but, despite that, is not recognised by the GTCS.

This lack of recognition devalues the qualification and undermines the dedication and professionalism of those sacrificing personal time to achieve it.

Congress calls on the GTCS to review their current policy to acknowledge this PGDip. Qualification and to recognise teachers of hearing and visual impairment as additional, distinct and valued categories of registration. 

Motion T

Congress believes that GIRFEC is overly bureaucratic and unevenly implemented across Scotland’s Local Authorities. This presents unnecessary barriers to teachers which are not in the best interests of young people.

Congress calls on the Scottish Government to standardise procedures related to recording and planning to best meet the needs of children and young people.

Motion U

The SSTA calls on Local Authorities to ensure that all workplace bullying is taken seriously and dealt with appropriately in order to maintain a culture of collegiality in schools.

Motion V

Congress welcomes the Scottish Government’s proposal to embed LGBTI issues within the curriculum in order to improve the educational experience of pupils. We therefore call upon the Government to provide quality resources and training to support this.

Motion W

Following the increase in the pension age and in recognition of teachers having a longer career, Congress calls on all Local Authorities / Regional Improvement Collaboratives to ensure that there is equality of opportunity for good quality CPD for teachers at every stage of their career.

Motion X

The SSTA calls for the Scottish Government to promote the use of the recently published HSE Education Stress Talking Toolkit (Preventing Work-Related Stress in Schools), so that teachers like other employees can ‘Go Home Healthy’.

Motion Y

Congress calls on the Scottish Government to extend its ambition for improving Mental Health in schools to include staff as well as pupils and to commit to providing Mental Health First Aiders for all school staff.

Friday 17^th May 2019

We are in the 75th year of the SSTA and the issues of 1944 are the same issues in 2019. Examples of these have been taken from our 50^th anniversary and are contained within the Congress Agenda you have today. We will include stories of the last 25 years in next year’s addition.

Concerns over pay, workload and pupil behaviour appear throughout our history and will probably do so for a good number of years to come.

At our congress last year – the call was for ‘Retention, Recruitment and Restoration’.

1. Retention – The first priority was to keep the teachers we have. It made no sense not to value the experienced teachers we have and any attempt to focus on recruitment would miss the point.

Why not ‘pull out all the stops’ to encourage teachers to stay. This could be achieved by paying teachers properly, providing a ‘real’ career structure, valuing teacher’s professional judgment, reducing workload, and giving teachers ‘real’ support with the appropriate educational professionals in meeting the challenges that pupils bring in to schools.

2. Recruitment – the second priority was to encourage more people into the profession.

We needed to encourage people to join the profession with offers of professional respect, professional levels of pay, career development and a manageable workload. Teaching should be seen as a career for life not a job for a few years until something better comes along.

3. Restoration – the third priority

To address the shortfall of teachers’ salaries over the last 10 years the main grade teacher salary should be in the region of £43,000.

The SNCT claim was for 10% pay increase. This 10% claim was the first step in a restorative pay claim. The Government needed to support and value its teachers by making a major effort to restore teacher pay levels.

The Pay Campaign and the three issues

Pay was the first issue

Before last year’s Congress pay negotiations were underway but little could be reported.

The SSTA took its place at the negotiating table alongside our EIS partners with the employers (COSLA) and the Government. The Government side was keen to move forward but COSLA was resistant to offering a bigger increase to teachers than to other council employees. Numbers were being discussed but no formal offer made.

During the autumn term teachers across Scotland were getting annoyed at the lack of progress on teachers’ pay. Both SSTA and EIS were preparing for a long struggle and a strategy to achieve a positive outcome.

The SSTA Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee had been active throughout from making the pay claim, determining the pay campaign strategy and consulting with members.

The SSTA and EIS worked together and prepared a campaign, and as you know a campaign with many twists and turns. The October teachers rally in Glasgow where teachers from all unions stood side by side to send a message to the Government and the employers that teachers were prepared to act and fight for a significant improvement in pay.

The first SSTA consultative ballot in November had a 76% membership response with a resounding 97% rejection of a divisive and derisory offer.

This was followed by a school representative opinion survey in January. The survey was conducted at very short notice with close to 2/3rds of our membership participating. I cannot pass without a big thank you to all our SSTA Reps in our schools on mobilising members on this occasion. But also their work in supporting and caring for our members every day in our schools.

This was followed by the second consultative ballot based upon the information received following our school rep opinion survey. Yet again our membership came out in force with a 76% response with 64% of members prepared to accept the pay offer.

There was another turn as EIS successfully sought a further increase but SSTA was still there at the negotiating table trying to reach a resolution for all teachers. The pay deal was agreed in April and hopefully the back pay and increases will be with you all soon.

Following the pay campaign. The top of the main grade in 2018 was £36,480. As from April 2019 the top of the main grade is £40,206 rising to £41,412 in April 2019.

This not the level we need to reach but it is a good step in the right direction. When the pay negotiations start again “Restoration” will be top of the list. But what we have achieved so far shows what can be achieved if we and sister unions work together.

This campaign has been a success but it could not have happened without the support of our members in schools, all our reps in schools and at local authority level. And of course all the members who are here at Congress, those on SSTA Council and Committees who further the work of the Association.

A Big Thank You must go to you for all the work that you do, regardless of how big or how small it is all appreciated. This is your success and well done.

The second issue – Teachers are demoralised by the never-ending and increasing teacher workload.

More new initiatives, more tracking and monitoring, more record keeping, more personalised learning plans, more accountability for every move and every decision a teacher makes, and of course a national qualification system that appears to go out of its way to dream up new ways to increase teacher bureaucracy.

Granted it is not all of SQA making but headteachers and local authorities demanding the ‘belt and braces’ approach of completing units just in case the pupil falls through the gap. Units were retained by the Deputy First Minister for the exception. For example, the pupil that had missed school during a long period of illness.

The SSTA said at the time that schools couldn’t resist the opportunity to carry on using the units as they are rarely concerned about teacher workload. The real reason units are being used is not in the interest of the pupils but in the interests of schools and local authorities. Their interest of pushing-up the ‘Insight’ scores and place up the fabricated and narrow measure of a school the league tables. This unfortunately, highlights how little teacher professional judgement is valued and the lack of trust shown by many in senior positions in the world of education.

But none if this would be necessary if schools, local authorities and Government would trust teachers’ professional judgement in placing pupils in the correct course, allowed a common course for all Nat 4 and Nat 5 pupils so that all pupils in the class could all be taught together. This would cut teacher and pupil workload in a stroke. 

The Government must mean what is says and put pupils at the centre, allow teachers to teach, put appropriate assessment in place for all pupils at all levels across the secondary school. As more and more pupils are staying in education it is time for a review of the Curriculum and National Qualifications. This is not an opportunity to start all over, but to talk to teachers (the unions who represent and speak for teachers) but identify what works, what is appropriate and put a plan together for implementation.

It is time for teachers to take back control of their workload. Agree sensible and properly accounted for Working Time Agreements that recognise the professional judgment of the teacher.

The teacher must be allowed to make decisions on what is a priority, what is appropriate to prepare for lessons, the how and the structure of the lesson, the method of assessment, and be trusted to present pupils for national qualifications.

All must be achievable within the Working Time Agreement when the time is used teachers need to say NO.  The days of ‘it is in the interest of the children’ or ‘you don’t care about the children’ needs to stop. These bullying tactics to undermine teachers and their right to a work-life balance must end.

Now is the time for teachers to take back the profession from the bureaucrats and ‘bean counters’. Teachers and teacher unions must work together in every school to bring about this change.

The third issue for teachers is pupil behaviour.

Throughout the pay campaign the message from members was clear please do something to address pupil behaviour. The facts show over the last ten years that austerity measures have caused the number of teachers to be reduced, the number of specialist teachers to be severely cut and the range of other education support staff working in schools has practically disappeared.

At the same time number of pupils with Additional Support Needs has more than doubled from 98,523 in 2011 to 199,065 in 2018. But the number of pupils with Individual Education Plans has fallen from 42,819 in 2011 to 35,566 in 2018.

How can numbers be going-up at the same time as IEPs are going down? Each of the IEPs has a resource implication therefore, you cut the number and you cut the cost. As we speak Highland Council is planning to cut its ASN provision as tries to save money.

This means that teachers are having to manage increasing complex pupil needs without specialist support. Increasing number of pupils being denied the additional support they need and an increase in pupil frustration. Pupils with ASN are being pushed into classes without specialist support, they are unable to access the curriculum, and it is all left at the door of the classroom teacher.

The pupils can’t cope the teachers are demoralised and feeling like failures as they can’t meet the needs of all their pupils. Nobody wins. The Government and local authorities are failing both pupils and teachers by not putting money into ASN to address the needs of pupils and support teachers. It is no wonder the number of violent incidents and incidents of disruption in schools is increasing.

The SSTA survey on ‘Violent Incidents’ is again another example of the failure of the system to support pupils and teachers.

 The SSTA survey found that

• 70% of members experienced incidents of serious verbal abuse;
• 60% had experienced incidents of threatening or menacing behaviour and
• 19% experienced incidents of physical assault

Headteachers and Teachers reported feeling unsupported in trying to maintain good discipline and order in schools. The constant statistical drive to reduce permanent and temporary exclusions is putting tremendous pressures on schools, its teachers and other education support staff.

Exclusion has come to be seen as evidence that the headteacher, the teachers and the school are failing the pupils, when in reality it is showing that schools, following years of staffing and funding cuts, are unable to meet the needs of all their pupils in the schools all of the time.

And when members were asked ‘Did you report the incident?’

• only 55% of those who suffered serious verbal abuse did report it;
• only 66% of teachers threatened or received menacing behaviour, and
• only 71% reported physical assault.

This lack of reporting can be seen clearly when only 33% said they felt supported or received feedback after the incident.

Local authorities need to be the support to the schools in helping pupils that are unable to cope in the school environment and not the barrier to good discipline and order they have become.

SSTA Advice to Members

• All Teachers must be able work in safe and unthreatening environment
• Report all incidents of violence (verbal and physical) and expect a report of actions taken
• Reporting systems must a single entry process and not be unnecessarily bureaucratic
• A ‘Risk Assessment’ must be carried out following all incidents that outlines the strategies and process to avoid further incidents occurring (in the event of serious violence the pupil may need to be excluded from the school).
• Report all threatening and violent incidents to the police

The same three issues as 75 years ago in 1944. Maybe it is time to bring about change.

Teacher Career Pathways Review

SSTA has advocated a progressive review of the teacher career pathways and looks forward to flexible and alternative routes for teachers throughout their careers.

The SSTA expects proper recognition for all teacher roles in the education system, especially those in the classroom. The focus must be on teaching and learning.

The report is due to be published at the end of the month. It has the potential to retain teachers in the profession and let them see a range of other opportunities on their career journey.

A career pathway that recognises curricular specialism, pedagogical and policy specialism that runs in parallel with the existing leadership/management routes will be welcomed. The review will only benefit the profession if it allows all teachers to be valued and respected for their knowledge, skills and experiences.

If it is only for a chosen few, controlled by those who don’t see the future of education, and poorly resourced it will be doomed to failure and a golden opportunity to retain teachers will have been lost.

The last area I want to raise today is the place of the teacher and our union within the education system. SSTA members are demanding to be heard.

The Teacher Voice

The Government often refer to teacher unions as stakeholders with the same place as other stakeholders. On the outside looking in.

Parents, community groups, businesses, the GTCS, the SQA, education officers, politicians and others could be called stakeholders in education. I am not however convinced that pupils are stakeholders, or consumers, or customers or something else. I will leave that for you to determine.

But one thing I do know is that teacher trade unions are not stakeholders. Teacher unions are Partners in education. Teacher unions represent its members, are the voice of its members, and most importantly is accountable to its members.

Government and others must not by-pass teacher unions, by selecting teachers, headteachers, organisations that only represent in most cases themselves. They don’t represent the profession and are not accountable to the profession.

The Government tries to gather about itself those who will not challenge it and then justify the decisions it makes by saying it consulted stakeholders.

Teacher unions are ‘partners’ in education and must be given the proper respect, must be listened to and have their views taken seriously if we want an education service for the future.

Without the teachers there is no education. That is why the teacher voice is essential in shaping and delivering education. All the education bureaucrats and stakeholders need to see their place as supporting teachers in the classroom. The days of the ‘back seat driver’ in telling teachers what to do needs to stop.

As the SSTA sets its course for the next 75 years – we have the power if we only chose to use it.

The SNCT Extended Joint Chairs met on Tuesday 26 March in anticipation of the major unions in Scotland (SSTA and EIS) prepared to accept the pay proposals contained in the DFM letter (8 March). Further discussion on the other elements included in the letter took place.

The other elements of the agreement include:

1. for all parties (unions, COSLA and Scottish Government) to work to together to reduce the workload of teachers and to undertake joint activity to assist in reducing and preventing unnecessary workload through increasing teacher agency and school empowerment
2. two additional in-service days to focus on key issues such as workload, additional support and empowering schools. Issues and activities for such days should be decided at school level and by collegiate process
3. further development of professional learning opportunities, a ‘Teacher Innovation Fund’ and enhancement of the current Teacher Leadership Programme. 

A draft wording for an agreement was discussed at the meeting and it was agreed that the Joint Secretaries would work to prepare a Pay Agreement document. It is anticipated that the offer will be agreed at COSLA Leaders meeting on Friday 29 March. Once this has taken place COSLA will make a formal offer by letter to Teachers’ Side.

The SNCT Teachers’ Side will meet on Thursday 25 April to accept the Pay Offer and this will then be followed by a full SNCT on the same day to agree the Pay Offer for 2018 – 2021.

COSLA has indicated that once the formal offer is made it will try and make arrangements for the April 2019 increase to be included in the April salary (i.e. 10%) with the 2018 back pay to follow possibly in May.

This should bring a close to a good pay campaign and a step in the right direction in restoring teacher salaries.

Do have a good Easter break when it comes.

On Thursday 7 March the SNCT Teachers’ Side Negotiators (SSTA and EIS) met Government Officials in an attempt to find a resolution to the 2018 Pay Claim. Following long discussions a revised pay arrangement for teachers was prepared. The Deputy First Minister, on behalf of the Government, intervened in the dispute and made a revised proposal on 8 March. The detail of the DFM proposal can be found here . The letter highlights a commitment to address teacher workload and other issues that are a broader concern for members.

As you are aware, the SNCT Teachers’ Side had rejected the previous offer. The EIS is recommending the proposal to its members and we await a formal offer from COSLA on behalf of the employers later in the month. The formal offer will then be considered by the SNCT Teachers’ Side with the expectation that the new offer will be accepted. Please note: As this proposal is an improvement to the previous offer going forward the SSTA will not be consulting members.

The latest proposal is for an increase of 3% April 2018, 7% April 2019 and a further 3% in April 2020.  This would take a teacher at the top of the main grade to £40,206 from April 2019 and to £41,412 at April 2020. (See draft pay scales here)

The SSTA will keep members updated on developments

Working Time Agreements (WTA); must be adhered to and any changes can only be made to reduce teacher workload. All changes must be negotiated with the recognised trade union representatives.

Staff, Department and Working Group Meetings; the school should ensure that all meetings of staff must be allocated on the school calendar, have an agenda circulated in good time, action points recorded and are time constrained. Meetings should not go beyond the allocated time.

Formal assessments; schools should ensure sufficient time is allocated for teachers to carryout formal assessments (including work required for National Qualifications). All subject teachers should be encouraged to quantify the workload demanded by SQA early on in the school year and the school should make arrangements to identify measures and adequate time required to manage this workload within the WTA.

Monitoring and Tracking; the school should ensure that tracking and monitoring systems prevent the duplication of teacher input and should be capable of generating a report to parents. It is sufficient for teachers to track and monitor all pupils twice a year. Recording systems that collect information but do not add to teaching and learning should be discontinued.

Parent meetings; the school should ensure there is only one meeting per year group in the course of the year. The parent meeting should be managed not to coincide with the reporting process as parent teacher dialogue is crucial in supporting learning.

Reporting to Parents; schools should ensure that all reports are meaningful and do not include educational jargon. Where schools provide computer generated reports it is not necessary to produce any other report to parents. Where teachers are required to produce subject reports the time allocated within the WTA will determine the length of the report (after monitoring and tracking time has been accounted for). If a teacher teaches a number of classes within a year group the report submitted will be far less than another colleague with a limited number or a single class. The school needs to manage the parental expectation in terms of engagement within the school.

Administrative and non-teaching duties; schools should ensure that tasks that do not require the skill and expertise of a teacher should be undertaken by support staff. This includes bulk photocopying, filing, ordering of materials and equipment, arranging meetings, and duplication required in completing risk assessments and accident report forms. Tasks which do not require the professional expertise of a teacher should not be undertaken.

IT Systems; schools should ensure IT systems are ‘fit for purpose’ and are a good use of teacher time. Teachers should be encouraged to use statement banks and other time saving systems to complete reports.

E-mail Communication; schools should ensure that an email communication policy is in place that focuses on the passing of essential information and requires limited responses. It is unreasonable to expect teachers to send, read and respond to emails with unrealistically tight deadlines, or during evenings, weekends and holiday periods. The email system cannot replace professional dialogue and should not be seen as a substitute.

School Improvement Plans; all development work should have an allocated time resource within the WTA. All new initiatives or policies must have a workload impact-assessment and agreed with the recognised unions within the school before implementation.

Temporary Responsibilities; teachers undertaking temporary responsibilities are entitled to be paid after undertaking the responsibility after 20 days (backdated to day 1). However, teachers who take additional responsibilities without payment are doing so on a voluntary basis and should be taken only on a limited basis. All offers of additional voluntary responsibilities can be declined.