Teachers taking on extra responsibilities – how should schools handle these?

Can we ask teachers to do some private tutoring?

In short, this depends on the teachers’ terms and conditions of employment.

Full-time teachers on ‘standard’ terms and conditions of employment must be available to work for 1,265 hours per year, which are to be allocated over the 195 days that a full-time teacher must be available for during the school year. 190 days of this are for teaching, and the remaining five days are for when the teacher can be required to do duties other than teaching.

This gives some limited flexibility to ask teachers to carry out tutoring duties within that standard framework, however, it is important to be mindful that often teachers work far more than the required hours and as such may well be reluctant to take on any additional duties.

In some cases, the contract of employment may impose an obligation on teachers to work such additional hours as are necessary for the full/proper performance of their duties. While schools may seek to rely on such a clause to ask teachers to undertake additional hours, it is likely that any such request would be met with resistance and possible union involvement.

How will this affect a teacher’s working hours?

It is important when considering asking staff to work additional hours that you are mindful of the cap on working hours imposed by the Working Time Regulations (WTR). The WTR states that unless teachers opt out, they will only be permitted to work an average of 48 hours per week (calculated over a 17-week reference period).

Schools should also ensure that teachers are required to make the school aware if they choose to do some private tuition outside of their teaching responsibilities in school. This will help the school ensure that teachers are getting the legally required rest breaks and may help in the monitoring of teachers working hours.

If we want to ask teachers to conduct tutoring, how do we pay them?

In terms of how teaching staff should be remunerated for taking on additional duties, The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document 2021 suggests TLR3 payments may be an appropriate way to reward teachers carrying out additional duties, including the provision of tutoring. This could be problematic, however, as to award a TLR3 is not necessarily reflective of the time spent on tutoring.

An alternative approach would be to create a separate contract to cover tutoring work, whereby the appropriate pay, hours and expectations can be clearly set out.