QTAD Q&A
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 127 No 1, 11 February 2022, page no.25
How much playground duty should a full-time teacher do each week?
There is no agreed maximum amount of time for playground duty (PGD) set out in the Teaching in State Education Award – State 2016 or State School Teachers’ Certified Agreement 2019.
Schools should arrange the playground roster in a consultative way with the support of the local consultative committee (LCC). Teachers should not be unreasonably deployed to undertake playground duty and should ensure that they receive their break entitlements.
Meal breaks must be for a minimum of 30 uninterrupted minutes per day, with full-time teachers accessing a total of 225 minutes per week of unpaid meal breaks. In addition, teachers are entitled to a 10-minute paid rest/pause break each day, which counts towards rostered duty time. This should be provided in a break separate to the time allocated for the uninterrupted meal break and cannot be averaged across the week.
For example:
Meal break times: 40 minutes + 30 minutes = 70 minutes per day/350 minutes per week.
Teacher entitlement: 45 minutes + 10 minutes = 55 minutes (avg. per day)/275 minutes per week.
Balance = 75 minutes of spare time which teacher could be used for PGD.
In this example, this school has agreed to reduce the uninterrupted meal break to a minimum of 30 minutes per day through the LCC. Therefore, a full-time teacher working at this school must receive one 30-minute uninterrupted meal break and one 10-minute rest pause in opposite breaks daily as a minimum, and will receive at least 275 minutes across the week.
Further reading: https://www.qtu.asn.au/bradmealbreaks
What is the maximum number of students teachers can have in their class?
As per the certified agreement, years one to three and years 11 to 12 should have a maximum of 25 students per teacher and years four to ten a maximum number of 28 students.
Classes in excess of these maximum target sizes should only occur in exceptional circumstances. Where there is the possibility of class sizes in excess of these targets, the class arrangements shall be the subject of a timely, collaborative and consultative process with staff through the local consultative committee (LCC) in schools required to have one, in accordance with the consultative principles contained in the certified agreement.
Where composite classes exist across cohorts, the class size target would be that of the lower cohort, e.g. years three/four should have a maximum of 25 students.
Further reading: https://www.qtu.asn.au/unpackingclasssizeca2019