IPPN

Published: 28 February 2011

There has been a lot of discussion among Principals on the implementation of the extra hours that arose from the Croke Park Agreement.  We have received a lot of phone calls to the IPPN Support Office looking for guidance on the use of this time, which we are referring to here as ‘whole school hours’. The following points are intended to answer the wide range of questions we received, and hopefully they may be of help to you in your consultations with staff, and your input to the Board of Management’s decision on its use.

Consultation & Decision
• The hours agreed under the Croke Park Agreement are best used to provide professional time for the full teaching staff together
• Your role as Principal is to consult with staff. This can be done collectively at a meeting or individually or both
• Having consulted with your teaching colleagues, you must then prepare the advice that you will give to your Board of Management
• The final decision on how the agreed whole school hours are used rests with your Board of Management
• The use of these whole school hours can be reviewed from year to year.  However, it is prudent to begin using the time to derive optimum professional value for the whole school.  It may be difficult to achieve this in years to come if a precedent is set whereby it is used to accommodate  individual or fragmented needs
• It is important to acknowledge that most teachers have been engaged in professional work outside of school hours for many years.  In the case of many Principals, the number of hours worked has been double the official contracted 5 hours 40 minutes contact time per day.  The whole school hours agreed under the Croke Park Agreement are not extra to that which is already happening; the Agreement does however require that one hour per week is worked collectively.  If this concept is explained clearly, most teachers will see that it is no more than putting a structure to their existing non-contact professional time, which brings obvious benefits to all
• Over the years, Principals have identified the absence of uninterrupted structured whole school hours with teachers as an ongoing challenge.  This problem has affected both Administrative and Teaching Principals.  Depending on staff goodwill is simply not good enough.  It is extremely difficult to find time to discuss, develop and document school policies and curriculum plans without impinging on either children, parents or staff 
• The whole school hour which is now required of all teachers and Principals is a key opportunity to deal with important school business which requires whole staff involvement.  Having the full teaching staff together for this purpose is vital. 
• It is advisable to review your school’s policy on teachers availing of EPV days to avoid conflicting dates.

Implementation
IPPN recommends that these whole school hours be used to:

• Facilitate staff meetings where the focus is on teaching and learning matters
• Provide opportunities for staff professional development - stress management, team building, ICT in the curriculum etc.
• Bring all teachers together (in the case of large schools – groups of teachers) for the purpose of joint planning, updating school policies and/or whole-school curriculum plans
• Review and develop appropriate forms of assessment for all children in the school including recording and communication of assessment data with parents
• Engage in carrying out self-evaluation as part of an ongoing programme of improvement.

Examples of how the additional 37 whole school hours may be scheduled:

• 1 hour per week for 37 weeks
• A block of 2 hours per fortnight
• A full day (6 hours) prior to the beginning of each term
• Various combinations of the above

When considering using one or two hours after school, consideration should be given to the length of time that it takes for all the children to leave the premises and for teachers to reassemble. 

Common Questions:

1. Can some of the whole school hours be used for after school activities (e.g. sport)?
These whole school hours should not be used to account for voluntary work carried out by teachers.

2. Can a teacher’s individual planning, corrections, report-writing be used to make up some of the extra hours?
No. This time is intended to have an impact on the whole school.  Individual planning and reporting during non contact time have always been a requirement of teachers.

3. Can these whole school hours be used for before & after school supervision?
We recognise that all schools have their own unique circumstances which may require some of this time to be used to address certain needs that are unique to the school.  If supervision before and/or after school hours is a requirement of the Board of Management, a portion of the extra time can be allocated to supervision.  One of the risks of providing Before & After School Supervision is that children will turn up for school even earlier when it becomes known that they are supervised.

4. Can time spent preparing children for religious ceremonies be included?
No. Religion is not part of the official curriculum and time spent by teachers in preparing children for religious sacraments is part of their commitment to working in a school with a religious patronage.

5. Can a planning day in August be included?
The Croke Park Agreement requires that schools will have worked 18 whole school hours by the end of June 2011.  Additional whole school hours worked in August prior to re-opening in September will apply to the 2011/2012 school year.

6. Can a teacher opt out?
There is no opt-out clause for teachers.  Teachers who are not members of the INTO are also obliged to comply with the agreement.  Refusal to do so will become a disciplinary matter for the BoM under Section 24 (3) of the Education Act 1998.

Special Needs Assistants
• It is our understanding that the unions representing SNAs (IMPACT & SIPTU) are still clarifying elements of the Croke Park Agreement.  Some elements such as greater flexibility regarding movement of SNAs within the school to cover urgent situations have been agreed.  We are not aware of any agreement regarding the ‘extra hour’ being applied to the role of the SNA as of yet.