QTAD Q&A
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 2, 28 March 2024, page 29.
How much playground duty should a full-time teacher do each week?
The better approach is “are teachers getting their basic entitlements to meal and rest pause breaks according to the award and certified agreement?”
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 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 that 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 or 350 minutes per week.
Teacher entitlement: 45 minutes + 10 minutes = 55 minutes (avg. per day) or 275 minutes per week.
Balance = 75 minutes of spare time a week, during which the teacher could do PGD.
In this example, this 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.
https://www.qtu.asn.au/bradmealbreaks
Are you accessing the correct non-contact time?
The following allocations are for full-time teachers per week:
Primary/special teacher: 150 minutes
Beginning teacher – primary/special: 210 minutes
Primary specialist teacher: 120 minutes non-contact + 130 minutes specialist preparation time, i.e. 250 minutes
Secondary teacher: 210 minutes
Beginning teacher – secondary: 280 minutes.
Permission to Teach
Teaching staff engaged through the Permission to Teach (PTT) registration provisions will also be provided with additional non-contact time funding during the PTT period. This does not exclude these teachers from their additional non-contact time entitlement when progressing to provisional registration.
Non-contact time is calculated on a pro-rata basis if you are working part-time. Refer to the QTU Timetabling guide to establish what your non-contact time entitlement is according to your fraction and sector you work.
http://www.qtu.asn.au/qtuguide-timetabling
During a recent lockdown at our school, I missed out on part of my NCT. Should this be repaid?
All classroom teachers are entitled to access NCT, and NCT lost due to planned school activities should be replaced/made up.
Planned school activities are those things that form part of the school calendar and are known, e.g. excursions, school camps, sports carnivals (swimming and athletics carnivals), school assemblies, graduations, QCS, exam blocks, practice fire drills and practice lockdowns.
However, unforeseen activities, such as evacuations, visits by Parliamentarians, critical responses (e.g. lockdowns) are not seen as planned school activities.
Additionally, sick leave, carer’s leave, student free days, professional development (where the teacher requests to attend rather than being required to attend by the school), industrial relations education leave and public holidays are not recognised as planned school activities, nor are they recognised as a way to repay lost NCT.