Know your Agreement: Meetings limits

Clause 59.1 (b)

Fewer meetings, more efficiently run. Every educator wants that. And this Agreement delivers the means for that outcome through the 30+8 workload model.

Under the ’30 + 8 model’ for teacher workloads, the full-time week is divided into 30 hours for scheduled class time and associated teacher-led work, and 8 hours for employer-directed tasks (including 2.5 hours of mandated lunch breaks).

Three of these employer-directed hours can fall outside the normal 7-hour ‘attendance time’, and up to two of these hours can be used for meetings – but no more than one hour on any day unless otherwise agreed at the Consultative Committee.

The remaining third hour can be used for other purposes, such as before- and after-school duties or student supervision, collaborative learning, PD, directed planning, or compliance training.

Importantly, teachers retain the right to be absent when they don’t have duties or scheduled meetings. So, they can choose where and when they do unscheduled work.

It’s worth remembering that the Consultative Committee must be given the opportunity in Term 4 to make recommendations around the efficient use of staff meeting times for the following year.

30+8 in action

Schools adhering to 30+8 have already reported that unnecessary meetings are being dropped, and others run much more efficiently, saving all involved priceless time. Schools approaching the new workload arrangements with a positive, collaborative attitude have happier staff – who are keener to stay at their school during a teacher shortage – and better workload management.

Adam Bremner, from the Victorian Catholic Primary Council and St Brigid's School, Gisborne, said “We must put a limit on it and a border on our day and say how much we can actually achieve in one day and what things are valuable. And the valuable things are the ones that actually benefit the students, they’re the things were really going to enhance and keep. And the things that aren’t as valuable we can leave behind.”

He says the Agreement will “prioritise what we do well - which is education”.