Gained Time

It’s the final half term¹! Think back to September and how long ago that was, and yet simultaneously just like yesterday. Bloody time, messing with our heads and our sense of things – who needs Doctor Who?

Anyway, now, in secondary schools², the exams are in full swing and when you look at your timetable, something weird happens. Your year 11 lessons are still there, as are your year 13 ones³, but there aren’t students in – or at least, there’s nowhere near as many as there should be – and so now you have what is optimistically referred to as ‘gained time’.

According to the NASUWT, this is what should happen:

“During gained time, teachers are only required to undertake activities from the list below, which were previously listed in Section 4 of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document:

• developing/revising departmental/subject curriculum materials, schemes of work, lesson plans and policies in preparation for the new academic year. This may include identifying appropriate members’ materials for use by supply staff and/or cover supervisors;
• assisting colleagues in appropriate planned team teaching activities;
• taking groups of pupils to provide additional learning support;
• supporting selected pupils with coursework;
• undertaking planned activities with pupils transferring between year groups or from primary schools;
• where the school has a policy for all staff to release them for continuing professional development (CPD) during school sessions, gained time may be used⁴.”

The NEU has the exact same list, which I’m sure will be news to many teachers right now. See what actually happens is something like this:

You have a year 11 lesson period 1, and yay, they are in their maths exam. This is great news, because they have been little fuckers all year and now you get a free hour to actually sort some things out whilst they sweat and work hard⁵ in an exam hall. That scheme of work that bugged you earlier this year and desperately needs updating is finally going to get some love. You might actually be able to see the surface of your desk soon. Karma is finally smiling at you. Except…

You ‘ve just made a cup of tea, and are really looking forward to drinking it whilst its actually hot, hopefully with a chocolate hobnob⁷ or two, when the cover person⁸ appears in your door, clutching a piece of paper and bearing an awkward smile. See, Hazel⁹ is poorly/has a sick child/broke a nail and isn’t coming in today. Cover is really tight, so could you, please¹⁰, cover her lesson. You’ll get paid back the time¹¹. You mention you have a scheme of work to rewrite, but you get told you can take it with you and do it there ‘once the students have settled’¹². You arrive at the lesson to see it’s essentially your year 9 class who you have period 2. Oh, and they’ve made you cry at least twice since Easter. Day One of ‘gained time’ and not only are you are already behind in the task your head of department has assigned you, you are having a really shit time pretending you know how to conjugate a verb and what a split diagraph¹³ is.

Same thing happens Day Two, and now you are being punished because you have:

a) Made the mistake of turning up

b) been basically competent at your job.

You can say no, of course, but if you don’t do it, then who will? Your colleague down the corridor, who will invariably be told you said no. What happens if everyone says no? What happens to the class then?

I have absolutely no idea, because I’ve never seen it happen. Teaching revolves around a lot of good will: the 1265 hours isn’t enough to cover your planning, preparation and assessment time in addition to your usual teaching load, so of course teachers do more than they are contracted to. They have to – the job isn’t doable without those extra hours.

Maybe we should keep time sheets and bill the government for overtime as soon as we exceed 1265 hours. I wonder how long would it take for your average hard working teacher to pass that guideline? In a recent government survey¹⁴, teachers reported working an average of 52.4 hours work per week. If we assume that’s true (and why wouldn’t we – over 10,000 people took part in the survey), then over the 40 week year, that’s 2096 hours, which fact fans is a little over 1265 hours. That’s approximately 65% increase to be precise¹⁵ and happens roughly in week 24 of the year. What the actual fuck? That’s late February. Imagine if every teacher stopped working then: who would teach the kids? Run the clubs? Mark the work? Plan the lessons? Take the fucking register?

And people wonder why teachers are leaving the profession!

Which brings me back to gained time. Look at the list of things it is meant to be used for. Look at what it’s actually used for. Then remember the most powerful word in teaching¹⁶:

No.

Until next time.

1. You sung that to the tune of The Final Countdown didn’t you? Admit it, we’re all friends here… ↩︎
2. Apologies to our primary colleagues. You might want to stop reading this before it makes your blood boil! ↩︎
3. And if you read my previous blog about rolling the timetable up early, you might actually have blanks where year 7 should be. ↩︎
4. For schools in England anyway: NASUWT | Gained Time (England) ↩︎
5. For some, this definition of hard work is ‘put your head on the desk and catch up with some sleep’. ↩︎
6. Photo found here, so please get in touch for correct accreditation: Happy Teacher Stock Photos, Images and Backgrounds for Free Download ↩︎
7. Still hoping someone from McVitie’s will read this and decide to sponsor it! ↩︎
8. Professional bastard. ↩︎
9. Other names are available. ↩︎
10. This word is usually missing. ↩︎
11. This is a lie. ↩︎
12. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ↩︎
13. That was the last time I helped my son with his primary school homework. I’ve written six books and I still don’t know what it is. ↩︎
14. Working lives of teachers and leaders: wave 2 summary report – GOV.UK ↩︎
15. My mathematician colleagues will be shuddering at the words ‘approximately’ and ‘precise’ appearing in the same sentence. ↩︎
16. And pretty much any other situation or job to be honest. ↩︎