P/T Ratio, Secondary staff retirements

Prof252

Any information?


1. Does the retirement of a colleague not in my subject area spell good news for me in securing a long-term position in my school? i.e. does it reveal a healthier P/T ratio for the school?

2. If I have been required solidly for the last 3 consecutive years to teach French, will the possible P/T changes still threaten my position in the future, i.e. June?

Much appreciated folks

mazda2

It depends. Is your school over quota? Mine is and three staff recently announced they plan on retiring in Jan, and we were told they will not be replaced next year as we are over quota.

Prof252

To the best of my knowledge we will be on target after the retirement(s). We're relatively 'healthy'. I don't have a CID yet, just wondering in our current state if I'm under threat.

rainbowtrout

It's impossible to say, every school is different. I would say without knowing any details of your school that if you have been employed there for the last 3 years that it is unlikely to change next year if you are needed for French and no one else is available to teach your hours.

As for the retirements, well regardless of if the school is over or under quota, if say one of the teachers teaches Home Economics and is the only Home Ec teacher in the school then that teacher will have to be replaced. If it's a more common subject like English then a shuffle about on the timetable between other English teachers might be possible.

Prof252

Those comments sound rather solid, Rainbowtrout. That is how it appears to be panning out. Yes, there is no one available to teach my subject French, I was the last in the door to my department and it's all entirely my own timetable.

The other retirements are mainly in the areas of science and it has been confirmed that they are NOT being replaced, thus as you stated a reshuffle of the timetable/staff allocation is to follow at the end of this school year.

With every year I'm moving further from the door, but in the current climate they are tiny steps. It's a case of trying to keep the wolf from the door and often senior colleagues simply don't possess quite the same information as one finds among peers and on boards.ie., and understandably so.

If I'm correct, do the imminent changes to the P/T ratio mainly affect unfortunate NQTs ?

Any info on this topic and temp teachers is always appreciated

rainbowtrout

Changes to the PT ratio will normally only effect the part time teachers on staff as their's are the only hours that are flexible. It can affect some part time teachers more than others.

We had a situation in my school about 8 years ago where the three schools in the town amalgamated. Normally under those conditions schools are allowed to retain all of their staff for the first year mainly because it's not possible to combine third and sixth year groups as they are too far into their courses, subject blocks in choice subjects probably don't match etc.

So we had 8 maths/irish/english classes running in LC the year we amalgamated even though the classes were small because it was too late to combine them. Of course this didn't apply the following year and there was a massive surplus and we had to lose teachers. One or two retired and we ended up losing 3 teachers who were on full hours. We had a situation where we had about 10 part time staff but 4 of those were the only teachers of their subjects (Art, Music, German, Home Ec), two teachers were each 16 years EPT ( back in the days before CIDs existed) so they weren't going to be left go so that only left three others who were there longer than the teachers with the minority subjects but because there were permanent staff to cover their subjects they were left go.

I would have lost my job that year too, had I been part time, as I was only in the door, but I was made permanent when I started so I was safe. But it meant that we had 8 permanent science teachers which is ridiculous for a school of 400.

The only way realistically that you could be displaced based on what you've said is if a permanent teacher was redeployed to your school to teach French. However if it hasn't happened at this stage when the big cuts were made last year I can't see it happening this year. Also I think principals were allowed to hang on to teachers going into their fourth year, i.e. lose newer staff first.

On the odd occasion you'll find a permanent/CID member of staff redeployed simply because all the part timers are needed because of their subjects and there is a surplus in the permanencies subject wise.

Prof252

Now, that's an interesting combination re the amalgamation. I haven't heard of something as complex, tricky and indeed unforeseen as that before. You indeed did well out of it.

Thanks for the opinions on the CID thread also. That thread is perhaps more to the core for me as it relates to my contract. And you're correct, I escaped along with another colleague the dreaded 'R' last June so I hope to be safe heading into year 4 next Sept.

help/advice is great, keep it coming!