QTAD Q&A
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 1, 17 February 2023, page no. 26
How much playground duty should a full-time teacher do each week?
There is no agreed maximum amount of time for playground duty set out in either the Teaching in State Education Award – State 2016 or the State School Teachers’ Certified Agreement 2022.
Schools should arrange the playground roster in a consultative way, with the support of the LCC. Teachers should not be unreasonably deployed to undertake playground duty (PGD) and should ensure that they receive their break entitlements.
Meal breaks (which are unpaid) must be of a minimum of 30 uninterrupted minutes per day, with full-time teachers accessing a total of 225 minutes per week. 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 (average per day)/275 minutes per week.
Balance = 75 minutes of spare time, which could be used for PGD.
In this example, a school has agreed to reduce their uninterrupted meal break to minimum 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 non-contact time am I entitled to?
Role | Entitlement |
Primary/special teacher (full-time) | 150 minutes per week |
Beginning teacher – primary/special (full-time) | 210 minutes per week |
Primary specialist teacher (full-time) | 120 minutes non-contact time + 130 minutes specialist preparation time = 250 minutes per week |
Secondary teacher (full-time) | 210 minutes per week |
Beginning teacher – secondary (full-time) | 280 minutes per week. |