What Is PPA Time In UK Schools ?

If you’ve currently got a child who goes to school in the UK, there’s a good chance you know what PPA time is. In short, PPA time was introduced into UK schools back in September 2005 to allow teachers time within the school week for planning, preparation and assessment (PPA). Priot to the introduction of PPA time, teachers were expected to do all marking and lesson planning outside of school hours, often resulting in them having to work excessively long hours at evenings and weekends to carry out such tasks.

How Much Time Is Allocated?

As a general rule, teachers are allowed up to 10% of their scheduled teaching time per week as PPA time, allowing them to carry out marking and planning during school hours. As far as many are concerned, PPA time offers not only teachers the opportunity to carry out these tasks in school time but also allows the class to experience something a little different than usual, if only the teaching style of someone else.

Who Covers PPA Time?

The next question which many are likely to ask is, if a teacher is taking PPA time, who is teaching their class? In short, there are a number of options and in some instances, another teacher or perhaps the headteacher would teach a class, however one fantastic way to enhance a child’s learning is to bring in a PPA cover agency, such as Junior Jam. Such agencies offer everything from sports sessions through to drama, modern foreign languages and ICT based lesson cover, allowing kids to experience something different to what they’d normally get from their class teacher.

To many, the children benefit more than the teacher from PPA time, especially when the school makes the decision to bring in an external agency who can offer them the opportunity to learn new experiences that they perhaps wouldn’t normally get the chance to.