Are you allowed to leave campus for lunch or during planning time? If so, what is the procedure? It it frowned upon? Just curious how it is at different schools.
Lunchtime yes but many days you only have 20 minutes so you're not going anywhere. Planning time, no. We have a book to sign out and back in in the office
Our Employment Standards legislation, provincial labour laws and negotiated Collective Agreements all provide for employees (teachers) to have a 40 minutes uninterrupted lunch free from any job related duties, eg., supervision or meetings.
An employee can leave the building.
I am sure policies vary from building to building, district to district regarding how employees enter or leave buildings. Many require people to sign in and out of the building for emergency safety purposes eg fire.
Planning time or preparation time is negotiated into the Collective Agreement to provide teacher directed time for planning lessons and preparing materials, meeting with parents and co-workers etc.
It is not free time.
Teachers do not leave the building during prep time for personal reasons.
All that said, there are exceptions to every rule and most principals I worked for were quite understanding.
but rarely do because it is too short and there is nowhere to really go. I can run an quick errand if necessary.
Plan time/conference time is as the PP described. I could leave then if it was a short emergency thing, I think. I wouldn't make a habit of it. In either case, I have to check out with the office or my SpEd Director's secretary.
Back when I worked in the schools, lunch yes, planning time, unless I was being sent or got permission to purchase something for school/work purposes using a purchase order, then no.
And I've been able to purchase school supplies, a room heater, etc. during school hours before. It was when I didn't have students at the time (since I was a pull-out style special ed teacher at the time).
Gosh, no! People do, but it's frowned upon. Ordering it for delivery is probably preferred. We only get about 25 minutes for lunch technically and it's NOT duty free! Argh.
There is no time to leave at lunch. It is only 20 minutes. We can leave during planning if we really need to, but it’s not something we are supposed to do regularly. We have several regularly-scheduled meetings during planning time.
yes, we can go and pick something up. Wow. Two choices - McDonalds or Subway.
One teacher was leaving during her planning time and had been doing it for a while (at least over a year, maybe longer) then one of her students got sick at a special and she got in trouble for it. She's so clueless though, I wouldn't put it past her to start doing it again. Nice woman. Not a clue.
We can leave during lunch. For awhile, my team and I had lunch and planning back to back so we really had time to go somewhere. In all honesty I don't miss that because it wasn't good for either my wallet or my waistline!
Last year we got a new P and she started making us sign out when we left. She said it was for safety (if there ended up being an emergency, they need to know who is in the building) but we weren't sure at first, so everyone stayed in for awhile! Eventually we figured out that she doesn't seem to care and people started going out again.
This year I've really only gone out on PD days/work days or if I've forgotten my lunch. Panera also delivers, and we've done that a couple of times. We also have a pizza place that we use to celebrate birthdays on my team.
No one has ever said that we're not allowed to leave during planning, but most people don't. I have done that if I need to drop something at the post office- with my tutoring group running until 5, I can't get there within their open hours otherwise.
I don’t think it is not allowed, but I live in a rural area and there isn’t much with a close range, so mostly no one does. We sometimes run home for science supplies, or to check on an animal. Our newest p said for us to sign out using the computer, but I am not about to do so. We don’t sign on and out daily, so I am not signing out saying I left if I never signed in saying I was ther in the first place.
I do stope and either let the office know, just in case, or let my grade level know so they can take my kids if, for some reason I don’t return in time. Never happened, but you never know.
Contractually we have a 30-minute duty free lunch, so we can leave campus. I suppose we’re not technically “supposed” to leave during planning time, but we have a small grocery store literally next door. It has a coffee station and teachers often walk over for a few minutes to get a cup. I suppose if people missed meetings/were late to pick up kids from specials it would be a problem, but no one wants the privilege taken away so we’re good about it.
My old school, you had to sign out in the office. Lunch was 30 minutes, but we were 5 minutes away from 6 fast food restaurants and a grocery store. It was great. Saved my lunch on more than one occasion.
New school, you can leave and don't have to sign out. Still only five minutes away from a handful of restaurants. I haven't done it yet this year because I can never seem to get the full 30 minutes, what with the student behaviors. I'm always dealing with someone's tantrum.
I don't think there are any rules against leaving for planning time, but I've never done it so I don't know.
We can only sign out for lunch. I rarely ever leave, and plan ahead when I do. Sometimes I just need to get away for 10 minutes, so I go grab something at Taco Bell.
We can leave for lunch, we have to sign out. But there's nothing around - we're very rural. There's a gas station that has some food. I never go there.
A few of the staff members live nearby and eat their lunch at home every day.
If something comes up and you need to leave during your planning time, you have to ask for permission. One teacher appears to have gotten permission to leave for the yr.
I never have, but 2 teachers do it routinely. A lot of people joked that 1 was going home to smoke a joint when stressed. That teacher was pretty open about how she smoked pot on the wkends.
The other has dogs she needs to let out.
It would be a big problem though if they did not get back on time.
I'm an adult, and a professional, and I expect to be treated as such. I'm "allowed" to leave the campus whenever I am not in direct charge of children. Other professionals are allowed to leave the office during their personal time! We only have about 20 minutes for lunch, so that's generally not happening. We pack our lunches and order Door Dash once in awhile. I normally don't leave during prep time, but on a couple of occasions I have, once when I had a tire that needed to be checked and once when I needed to go pick up a prescription when we were going to be working past the time the pharmacy closed. I always sign out and sign in and make sure I have a back-up plan in place in case I run late getting back to school (which has never happened).
Emily26
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02-01-2019, 01:09 PM
