Posted by smudgum

In our school, all the children gather for one hour a week for an assembly by management. This “gives” them six hours of the staff’s non-contact time. I am unhappy, as we have only one specialist in to cover the rest. More importantly, the heart and community feel has gone. I never see any children who are not in my class except when on line duty. I miss celebrating their successes, which only management sees. Our boss tells us everyone is doing it, so are theyyou?

Posted by ermaelnije

We have an upper school and infant assembly every two weeks - we don’t have to stay but this does not come out of our non-contact time - just a bonus. We also have hymn practice, again a bonus.

Posted by Archimedes

Only two or three of our staff have their non-contact time during assembly. They could attend assembly if they wanted.

Posted by mimi12

We have a member of staff who covers 100 minutes of our non-contact time and a visiting specialist who does the other 50 minutes. We have assembly for 45 minutes every week. Sometimes we have to stay, sometimes not, but it is not included in non-contact time. Our head tries not to give anyone non-contact time when assembly is on, so no one complains about missing out on the extra bonus time!!!!!!

Posted by Christopher Curtis

At my secondary college in Victoria, assemblies are once a term. Any teacher attending in a free period had it counted as an extra. Teachers typically had 18 free periods a fortnight, and extras were limited to 21 a year. Primary schools are different.

Posted by carol75

We have two 50-minute blocks covered by a specialist (artmusicPE) and one 50-minute block by management. Like smudgum, I miss seeing the successes being celebrated and I don’t feel as connected to other children as I was. Another bugbear some staff have is that we accompany the kids to assembly and can’t leave until the support staff arrive; if assembly runs short the kids are sent back early. Also, when a teacher is absent, the management team is covering the class (no money for short-term supply), so assembly has to be cancelled and there is no way to ”`get back” your time. There must be a better way to do it.

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