Network meetings

jenmac: Can we be forced to go to these - does it depend on school working time agreement? What about evening events?

grunwald: I think if they’re part of the school’s agreed work plan for PTs or faculty heads, attendance would be required. If they are twilight meetings outwith the agreed 35-hour week structure, they are surely voluntary.

jenmac: I am not a faculty head or PT. Our department “rotates” it, so we all have to go to one. Just wondering what other folk do. I have worked in other schools in the same authority where no one attended. The faculty head always used to go on behalf of the department.

grunwald: If you are in a subject department, your PT should go. If you are in a faculty (say, art or music), are you being asked to go as a music specialist because your FH is a dramatist to trade? They might have you on the old “collegiate responsibility” malarkey.

Dominie: Network meetings are voluntary. They may form part of your 35- hour CPD portfolio, but if you have other CPD pencilled in, you can legitimately tell your line manager to take a hike. Your CPD portfolio should be discussed and agreed with your line manager as part of your professional review. I did this with my colleagues at the end of last term.

www.tes.co.ukscotland.