What hours does a Primary Teacher work?

Coles · 06-10-2011 4:51pm #1

Hi folks,

Can anyone tell me the typical hours that a full-time primary school teacher is expected to work? I've searched for the information but have had no luck.

Many thanks.

Lord TSC · 06-10-2011 6:31pm

9-3 is the typical school day. That's not taking into account the work done before and after class to set things up, but I'd imagine that extra work would be dependant on how much work a teacher is willing to put in...

Coles · 06-10-2011 6:48pm

Thanks for the reply.

30 hours per week? I would have thought that there were more hours than that in the contract.

Nead21 · 06-10-2011 8:14pm

Teachers usually arrive in at half 8 or so and finish at around half 3. Half hour for lunch is the norm I think.

Coles · 06-10-2011 8:19pm

Thanks Nead21.

It's amazing that it's not more explicit in the contract!

Nead21 · 06-10-2011 8:22pm

Why would it be?

Any qualified primary school teacher knows the expected hours when they are training.

Coles · 06-10-2011 8:45pm

I'm even more confused now.

Nead21 · 06-10-2011 9:02pm

Why is it confusing? Any qualified teacher knows that is expected of them and are made aware of this while they are training to be a teacher.

You asked how many hours a full time primary teacher works. Any trained primary teacher already knows what full time hours are. In my experience the only time the issues of hours comes up in a contract is when it is part-time hours.

Coles · 06-10-2011 9:27pm

Let's get this straight... the contract doesn't specify a minimum or a maximum number of hours that a primary teacher must work except that they are available to teach their class? The contract doesn't specify what if any additional time must be spent before or after the class in preparation of materials. The working day ends when the children leave the classroom and the teacher is no longer contractually obliged to work on the school premises, right?

I don't doubt for a minute that teachers don't do a heap of preparation work, but I'm only interested in the contract.

Edit: @Nead21, I really appreciate your replies to this thread.

implausible · 06-10-2011 10:00pm

Coles wrote: »

Let's get this straight... the contract doesn't specify a minimum or a maximum number of hours that a primary teacher must work except that they are available to teach their class? The contract doesn't specify what if any additional time must be spent before or after the class in preparation of materials. The working day ends when the children leave the classroom and the teacher is no longer contractually obliged to work on the school premises, right?

The minimum is obvious - school hours. What do you expect to see in a contract - prescribed hours of 'homework'? Some teachers sit in the classroom and all of their preparation and corrections there. Others bring it home with them. Do you think that the contract should specify the location of prep work?

byhookorbycrook · 06-10-2011 10:30pm

Many schools now provide some form of supervision before school starts so that may be included. Don't forget supervision work at breaks, Croke Park time @one hour minimum extra per week,where all teachers must work together for policy-making(and we are drowning on policies -not just subject areas , everything from a critical incident policy to a policy on mobile phones.)

School concerts,carol services,fundraisers,sacrament preparation such as enrolement services and ceremonies,extra curricular activities like training sports teams and taking them to matches all occur outside of school hours.

9-3 sounds great until you actually take paperwork into account. Each teacher must yearly plans for each subject area, fortnightly schemes of work, keep assessments on every child,records of differentiation and a monthly account of all work covered. That's before you ever correct 30 copies/workbooks/worksheets/projects/tests

clartharlear · 06-10-2011 10:44pm

It's not a strange question - this is something that is quantified in the UK, even if we don't in Ireland, yet anyway.

http://www.usethekey.org.uk/popular-articles/directed-time-organising-the-1-265-hours

1,258.5 hours of directed time, [plus] a teacher “must work such reasonable additional hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties”

Coles · 06-10-2011 10:45pm

Thanks for the replies.

With regards to supervision before class begins - how does that work? Does a teacher volunteer to do this or are they paid directly by parents or from fundraising?

And what about art classes or football practice in the afternoon? Can teachers charge pupils for this without infringing on their contract?

byhookorbycrook · 07-10-2011 12:05am

Coles wrote: »

With regards to supervision before class begins - how does that work? Does a teacher volunteer to do this or are they paid directly by parents or from fundraising?

And what about art classes or football practice in the afternoon? Can teachers charge pupils for this without infringing on their contract?

Supervision before school is supposed to be voluntary and parents certainly don't pay!!In our school, teachers are in the yard for ten mins before school starts, even though they are not contractually bound to do so.

Football/hurling /camogie/basketball teams in our school are trained by teachers and as we have school teams there is no charge for this, nor would a school be likely to pay someone.

Some of our teachers give French (we do German during school time) and gymnastic lessons (on top of what is done during schools hours for which there is no charge to parents) as a paid extra after school.Outside people also offer drama,traditional music and dance after school (again, on top of the time given to this by teachers during the school day.)

The DES takes a very dim view of charging for music/drama/art lessons given by teachers outside the school during school hours.

Coles · 07-10-2011 8:06am

But the teachers are not contractually obliged to provide those 10 or 15 minutes of supervision? Would it be unusual for the teachers not to provide this service?

And I suppose charging for teaching the school band for half an hour immediately after school is unusual too? Does this issue return to the core problem of what the contractual teaching hours are, or is it more an issue because the school band is regarded as an intrinsic part of the school (like the hurling team or football team), something that the teachers are expected to facilitate without remuneration?

Lord TSC · 07-10-2011 2:58pm

Its a non-issue though

If a teacher refused to work during school hours, contract or not, they probably wouldn't last long in the school.

implausible · 07-10-2011 6:21pm

It's the obsession with trying to specify hours for teachers to work and the absence of common sense that has left us with this Croke Park "do all your homework all together in school" nonsense. Why can't people wrap their head around the fact that you simply cannot do the job without preparing? We don't need to be made do it in school to keep Joe Public happy:rolleyes:

What hours does a Primary Teacher work?

Comments