QTAD Q&A
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 , 21 July 2023, page no.23
Should I be expected to plan lessons if I am on sick leave?
No. There is no official DoE policy or legal requirement to provide lesson plans if you are on sick leave. The Union is of the view that each case of teacher absence needs to be considered in context. The QTU/DET joint statement on planning outlines that, dependent upon the circumstances, it could be appropriate for school leaders to ask a teacher to provide a planning overview for the teacher who will replace them while on leave. This could be a yearly, term, or unit plan, depending on how schools develop their whole-school planning.
However, teachers are not required to provide detailed, differentiated lesson plans. It is important to note that the provision of planning may not be possible, dependent upon the nature of the illness, and teachers should not be pressured to do so. Schools should not establish a local "school-based policy" that requires planning to be sent to the school in the case of an absence due to illness. As there is no such statewide policy or agreement to do so, it is not appropriate to develop local policies that introduce a standard that does not apply to all employees across the state.
As a teacher on sick leave, participating in marking/assessment should be on a voluntary basis at your discretion. You cannot be compelled to undertake such tasks while on sick leave.
Am I required to provide planning prior to long service leave?
A teacher on long service leave is not expected to provide detailed, individual lesson planning for the replacement teacher/s covering the class.
The school will generally have centrally located unit planning documents which have been developed at the school level. These documents show the medium, or long-term plan of what is to be covered for each class, outlined in term or unit overviews. Schools can provide this level of planning to the replacement teacher to inform them of the work to be covered.
In most instances, individual teachers use these termly overviews as the basis of their more detailed, personal, weekly, and daily planning. If they have done that work in advance of their leave, and they are comfortable with sharing their personal planning, this might be provided to the school. This is at the teacher’s discretion.
Long service leave is granted by the department as a respite from work, and as such there should not be any workload intensification in the lead up to accessing this type of leave. The department will only grant long service leave in blocks of five days or more so that teachers can be replaced with teachers on a contract. It is reasonable for the contract teacher to do their own preparation for the time they are on contract.