Work Requirements — Teachers

Introduction

The Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 contains a commitment to support all employees to fulfil their responsibilities in the professional contexts in which they work in order to increase the educational attainment of all Victorian children. The Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 also provides for the local management of teacher work within reasonable and transparent statewide parameters that recognise the changing nature of work organisation in schools. Within these parameters which are set out below, each school will decide how best to deploy teachers to deliver quality education.

Class size, preparation and high quality content, correction and assessment are major factors impacting on improving instructional practice. Teachers should have the opportunity to perform all of their duties within a reasonable timeframe and have fair and reasonable conditions and students should have ready access to their teachers. In this context, the work allocated to a teacher should, as far as practicable, provide for an equitable distribution of work across all teachers in the school.

Teaching and learning is a complex process and numerous factors contribute to this process including:

• face-to-face teaching,
• preparation, planning, assessment, meetings, student supervision, reporting and organizational duties,
• the implementation of government education initiatives and curriculum development,
• class size, curriculum mix, range of ability and age of students, individual needs of the students, complexity of health needs, behavioural presentations, resources available and facilities,
• structured school activities such as parent teacher meetings, school camps, concerts, excursions, parent information session and after school sport,
• the mentoring of classroom teachers at salary range 1 in their first 12 months of teaching
• student management including wellbeing and mental health; and
• engagement with parents/carers

The Victorian Government Schools Agreement 2022 provides for:

• the provision of 30 hours per week for teachers with face-to-face teaching scheduled at the maximum, to undertake the work directly related to the teaching and learning program of their class or classes with the remaining 8 hours available for other activities (such as yard duty, meetings, other duties and lunch). This provision will apply pro rata to teachers employed part-time
• each teacher to be released from their scheduled duties, including face-to-face teaching for 3 Professional Practice Days in 2022, 2 Professional Practice Days in 2023 and 1 Professional Practice Day in 2024 and subsequent school years (pro rata for a teacher employed part time) to focus on the improved delivery of high quality teaching and learning. The work undertaken on these days will be consistent with Departmental and school priorities and selected from the following areas — planning, preparation, assessment of student learning, collaboration, curriculum development, relevant professional development and peer observation including feedback and reflection

Where it is proposed to vary the duties of existing staff, local consultation will need to occur within the context of the terms and conditions of employment of the staff affected by the proposed variation.

The duties of a position may be redesigned on vacancy or by agreement with the incumbent or when establishing new positions or working arrangements within the school’s overall workforce plan. When doing so, a principal will need to ensure that the work value level of a position is appropriate given the duties to be performed.