Originally published in Education Quarterly, Issue 19 2026
I have been allocated a ‘Meadowbank’ in term 4 as a form of cover. What is a ‘Meadowbank’ and how many can I be given?
A ‘Meadowbank’ is a year 12 relieving period. Sub-clause 2.69 of the Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024 states: “‘Year 12 Relieving Period’ means a relieving period required to be undertaken by a teacher when that school teacher has been relieved of their timetabled year 12 face-to-face teaching duties after year 12 students leave school in term 4 to sit for the HSC.”
Clause 16.7 states: “A principal may require all teachers with year 12 classes to take, from the time year 12 students leave to sit for their HSC exams in term 4, up to 50 per cent of their timetable load of year 12 classes as year 12 relieving periods. As far as possible, periods will be allocated to a teacher in the same faculty as that of the absent teacher.”
Federation maintains that Meadowbank extras can only be used to replace teachers who are absent and should fall in the period(s) that the teacher was timetabled on a HSC class.
Members should negotiate the best implementation of the Award on Meadowbank extras with their principal. Clearly, the principal has discretion. This discretion could extend, for example, from a circumstance where no Meadowbank extras are issued prior to HSC examinations commencing, to no Meadowbank extras being issued until after the last year 12 examination has been held in the subjects taught by the teacher or to no Meadowbank extras being issued at all.
One final point needs to be made: The general guidelines that apply to the issuing of extras do not apply to the distribution of Meadowbank extras.
My school has an integrated sports program. Can I be forced into taking additional teaching time instead of sport supervision?
An integrated school sports program does not automatically mean you can be required to coach or supervise sport or have your teaching load increased.
Members working in schools with integrated sport arrangements should be familiar with their entitlements under the Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024, particularly those relating to maximum teaching time, sport supervision and workload.
A common misconception is that sport supervision and teaching time can simply be combined into a single allocation of time and distributed through a timetable. However, clause 16 of Award specifies otherwise.
In the Award:
- teaching time and sport supervision are treated as distinct components of a secondary teacher’s workload
- maximum teaching loads are defined
- specific arrangements relating to sport supervision are outlined.
Importantly, clause 16.6 provides that a teacher may be allocated alternate face-to-face teaching duties in lieu of sport supervision or to undertake sports supervision on weekends “with the agreement of each teacher”.
If your teaching time and your sport supervision were intended to be the same thing, then there would be no need for a provision that allows for arrangements in lieu, with the agreement of the teacher concerned. Integrated sport is ultimately a timetabling model — it does not remove the Award provisions relating to teaching loads or sport supervision.
Can I be forced into taking additional teaching time instead of sport supervision?
I have been asked to be a support person for a performance meeting. What is my role and responsibility?
A support person’s role is to ensure that the views of the staff member asked to attend a meeting about their performance are heard, to help them focus their responses and to clarify information. The role is an important procedural fairness safeguard for the member.
A staff member asked to attend a meeting to discuss concerns about their performance or during formal meetings in an improvement program should be offered the opportunity to bring a support person to the meeting. In this context, the support person is not an advocate.
The role of a support person is to:
- provide emotional and practical support to the staff member
- provide advice to the staff member about their rights and entitlements
- clarify the process or proceedings to the staff member, when necessary
- hold private conversations with the staff member, as needed
- take notes for the staff member, when necessary.
Federation’s new guidance for responding to harmful behaviour suggests three kinds of incident reporting. Why should I report work health and safety issues in more than one way?
The systems for recording and acting on work health and safety (WHS) issues reported by teachers in schools each serve different purposes. The three kinds of reports ensure that your school’s records of student behaviour are maintained and can be used to support actions, that the Department of Education is informed and that the school’s WHS Hazard Register is updated.
Using all these reporting tools allows the full range of procedural and consultative measures to be more readily enacted when resolving issues or assisting with escalation, where needed. It should be noted that when making these multiple reports, the information related to the WHS issue/s doesn’t have to be modified too much — as long as the information is appropriate for each. For example, an entry into Sentral (or other recording system) detailing repeated threatening behaviour directed at a teacher, which is used to support a school’s behaviour management procedures, can also be used to report threatening behaviour as a psychosocial hazard via the online Incident Support and Hotline. The Hotline report will be triaged by the Department’s Health, Safety and Staff Wellbeing Directorate staff and appropriate advice and support should be provided, but this will not always go to school-level actions. The same Incident Report can then be used as the basis for, or as an attachment to, a WHS Hazard Report form. When completed, provide it to the principal and the school’s Health and Safety Representative (if you have one) and/or the school’s WHS Committee. Once a WHS hazard is notified at the school level, school level actions need to be taken to address the risks presented by the hazard — regardless of whether the hazard is physical, psychological or related to infrastructure or behaviour. While it can be argued that an incident of threatening behaviour should already be considered a WHS hazard at the school level, using the Department’s WHS Hazard Report form ensures that this occurs.
Individual schools do not have the resources to deal with all WHS hazards . If actions taken after hazard reporting do not reduce the risks as far as is reasonably practicable, members can escalate the matter through the Department’s WHS Issue Resolution Procedure. Doing this is not controversial, as it is a requirement of the Work Health and Safety Act and follows the Department’s WHS procedures, which state issue/s “must” proceed to WHS Issue Resolution if they cannot be resolved at the school level, taking the matter beyond the resources of the individual school and accessing the full resources of the Department.
References
- Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024
- Can I be forced into taking additional teaching time instead of sport supervision?
- Role of the support person in performance meetings (NSW Government)
- Procedures for addressing teacher efficiency for permanent teachers (full time and part time), executive staff and principals (TR10)
Questions are answered by:
- Sam Clay, Deputy Secretary (Research, Industrial and Professional Support)
- Damian Purins, Work Health and Safety Officer
- Guy McDermott, City Organiser
Have you got any questions for us?
Email journal@nswtf.org.au.
Originally published in Education Quarterly, Issue 18 2026
Are school assemblies counted as teaching time?
School assemblies are counted as teaching time and teachers are required to attend assemblies, in accordance with the Department’s Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet.
I am a beginning teacher currently teaching on a casual basis. If I get a 12-month engagement as a temporary teacher or a permanent appointment, am I entitled to additional release?
As a temporary teacher you are eligible for two hours of additional release time through Beginning Temporary Teacher Support Funding when all of the following apply:
- are employed in your first, consecutive four-term, full-time temporary engagement within a calendar year
- are approved in SAP by 5pm on 1 March in the year of engagement have not yet achieved accreditation at Proficient Teacher level at the date you commence the temporary engagement
- have cumulative past experience with the Department of equivalent to, or less than, two years of full-time experience, excluding all casual experience. The additional release is intended for you to work collaboratively with your supervising teachers and/or mentor to develop your practice and work towards your accreditation at Proficient Teacher level. Teacher classifications not currently eligible for the entitlement are:
- casual teachers
- counsellors, home school liaison officers, teaching or non-teaching executives or principals
- teachers who previously received any Beginning Teacher Support Funding
- temporary teachers who are employed for less than four consecutive terms in a calendar year.
If you meet the criteria and are not receiving Beginning Temporary Teacher Support funding, please contact your Organiser or Federation’s Professional Support section.
My allocation of supervision duties seems discriminatory. What are the guidelines?
Principals must plan rostered supervision duties in consultation with teachers (see Determination 1 of 2026). Supervision duties must be allocated in a fair and equitable manner. The principal must take into account a teacher’s family, work and care responsibilities among other factors.
I am a secondary teacher. Does roll call count as part of teaching time?
In secondary schools, a standalone roll call of 10 minutes or less is not counted as teaching time in accordance with the Department’s Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet.
However, when a school incorporates roll call into a reading, pastoral care or other education program, the time scheduled to deliver the program and mark the roll is counted as teaching time.
Is it true that all I have to do is ask for a Health and Safety Representative (HSR) and we get one?
The Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation only requires one worker to formally request that a HSR be elected to start a mandatory process (within 14 days) that would generally lead to at least one HSR being elected. The Department publishes clear information about the process — search for “HSR election” when logged into the Department Portal and then follow the link to Work Health and Safety Consultation Procedure. TAFE has similar information available. You do not need to ask anyone’s permission to formally request that a HSR be elected. It is a right provided to all workers in NSW under the WHS Act.
My principal asked if we want a Health and Safety Representative (HSR) or a Work Health and Safety (WHS) Committee. Can we have both? And what would be the benefits of having a HSR?
Yes, you can have both! In fact, one of the best models is to have a HSR and a WHS Committee. HSRs have the power to investigate matters, seek resolutions to issues and to escalate matters to SafeWork NSW if they cannot be resolved. HSRs can represent all the workers on a site (including the principal, who is also a worker as defined by the Act) in WHS matters. Federation’s long-standing position is that in most schools and TAFE campuses, members would be best represented in WHS matters by electing a HSR and having an active WHS Committee.
In regard to my employment status, what’s the difference between an engagement, a contract and a permanent appointment?
In NSW public schools, teacher employment on a temporary basis is known as an engagement rather than a contract. Temporary engagements may cease early only under specific circumstances with a notice period of four weeks. Teachers are encouraged to seek advice if they are informed that their temporary engagement will cease.
The Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award clearly defines the employment categories that determine how teachers are engaged as a casual or temporary teacher.
Temporary engagements are for a period of four weeks or more on a fulltime basis, or two terms or more on a part-time basis.
Permanent appointment refers to placement of a permanent teacher in a Department of Education school. Permanent teachers may be transferred from one position to another in accordance with the
Staffing Agreement.
Questions are answered by:
- Anthony Brereton, Officer attached to Casual Teachers
- Sam Clay, Deputy Secretary (Research, Industrial and Professional Support)
- Damian Purins, Work Health and Safety Officer
References
- Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet
- Determination 1 of 2026
- Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award
Originally published in Education Quarterly, Issue 17 2026
What are my hours of duty?
Hours of duty are defined and specified by Determination 1 of 2026 — Attendance and Supervision, and
clarified in the Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet (2026). Both are available in the Teachers’ work section in the Member Portal.
The factsheet goes into further detail about consultation in developing the school supervision plan, conditions deemed reasonable for requiring a teacher to be on duty beyond the school day and what is deemed reasonable notice.
Members are advised to carefully read the Determination and factsheet and seek clarification from their Organiser or Professional Support, if any issues are encountered.
I am a primary teacher. How many hours am I required to teach face-to-face each week?
The Department’s Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet states that a primary school teacher may be required to teach face-to-face for 4 hours and 45 minutes each day.
“Over a week this equates to 21 hours and 45 minutes face-to-face teaching time per week for a full-time teacher, excluding RFF time,” the factsheet states.
Will I go back down the pay scale if I have an extended break in my teaching as a casual or temporary teacher?
No. Any teacher who is being paid a lower rate as a result of a break in service should contact Federation for advice on 1300 654 367.
If you gain work as a temporary teacher, you should be placed on the same band of the salary scale as you were on for your previous permanent or permanent part-time teaching position with the Department.
Backpay for salary determinations will only apply when made:
- within six months of receiving an
approval to teach; - within six months of becoming
permanent; or - for teaching service since approval
to teach was granted, or between
periods of employment with the
Department, from your date
of application.
There could be limited provision to recognise relevant industry experience in fields other than teaching, particularly where the teacher has been in a Department retraining scheme.
The Department does not recognise some overseas teaching experience.
Reference: Salary determination
Three new students have just enrolled in my class. How many students can I be asked to teach?
The Staffing Agreement 2024–2029 states: “Class sizes will be planned generally on the following
basis and will have regard to the needs of the school.”
Primary schools and primary departments of central schools
- Statewide average class sizes are 20 in kindergarten, 22 in year 1 and 24 in year 2
- No class need exceed 30 students for years 3–6
High schools and secondary departments of central schools
Years 7–10: The principal, in consultation with staff, is responsible for determining actual class sizes based on the curriculum needs of the school, student needs, community expectations, and the expertise of the teachers. Principals also take account of work health and safety issues when forming classes.
No class need exceed 30 students.
Practical classes years 7–10:
- The organisation of industrial technology, agriculture and visual arts on the basis that no class need exceed 20 students
- The organisation of food technology and textiles technology in years 7–10 on the basis that no class need exceed 24 students
- The organisation of technology (mandatory) classes in years 7–8 and design and technology (elective) classes in years 7–10 on the basis that no class need exceed 22 students
When forming classes, principals of secondary schools also take into account the following advice:
Years 11-12: No class need exceed 24 students.
Other schools: Class sizes not listed above will be determined by the principal in accordance with formulae current as at the commencement of this agreement.
If you have concerns after reading the information above, please contact your Federation Organiser or Professional Support on 1300 654 367.
A nearby school has an elected Health and Safety Representative (HSR) who has helped to sort out an issue with their staffroom facilities. Why doesn’t my school have an HSR?
Your school is not unusual. Despite the HSR position being created in NSW as part of the Work Health and Safety Act in 2011 for all workplaces, only around 8 per cent of public schools have an HSR. It may be a surprise, but the reason that most schools and TAFEs do not have an HSR is that the workers have not requested one.
What are the face-to-face teaching hours for a high school teacher?
The Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet states the Award provisions as follows:
Teachers (other than teachers in training, head teachers and deputy principals in high schools) may be required to teach the following periods (or their time equivalent):
| Classification | Teaching periods per week | Periods per week, as determined by the principal, for sport (refer to subclause 16.6) |
| Teachers in high schools | 28 | Up to 3 |
| Head teachers in high schools | 22 | Up to 3 |
| Deputy principals in high schools | 14 | Up to 3 |
A ‘period’ in a high or central school is defined in Clause 2.42 of the schools Award as a 40-minute teaching period.
Where schools have operational arrangements such as periods of a one-hour duration, cyclical timetables etc., the time equivalent or average number of minutes over the week, fortnight or cycle length must remain the same.
For information relating to teaching high school classes outside normal school hours, in lieu of duties, alternate periods and sport allocation please refer to Clauses 15–17 of the Award, which can be accessed at Awards and determinations.
Questions are answered by:
- Anthony Brereton, Officer attached to Casual Teachers
- Sam Clay, Deputy Secretary (Research, Industrial and Professional Support)
- Damian Purins, Work Health and Safety Officer
References
Teachers’ work section in the Member Portal
Attendance and Student Supervision factsheet
Salary determination
Staffing Agreement 2024–2029