Most schools have employed a mixture of strategies from these two categories in order to release PPA time for teaching staff.

1. Maximising the existing teaching resource

   Teachers in most secondary schools and some primary schools are not timetabled to teach every lesson of the week. Where non-contact time falls within the timetabled teaching day it can provide an excellent opportunity to provide PPA time.

   Activities carried out during these periods, other than PPA, should be assessed to evaluate whether they are a good use of teachers' time.

   Activities that can potentially be reallocated, reduced or discarded to release time for PPA include: administration, pastoral care, training and coaching, parent liaison and working with other organisations.

   For more detailed discussion of the way in which existing non-contact time can be released for PPA, download the WAMG Planning, preparation and assessment strategies: overview and toolkit from the right-hand side of this page.

2. Timetabling additional resource

   When schools do not have enough non-contact time available in their existing timetables to provide all teachers with the minimum 10 per cent guaranteed PPA time, and/or they want to enhance their curriculum, the second option is to deploy additional staff to release their teachers.

   Additional school staff strategies may involve the deployment of higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs), instructors, specialist staff or other teachers.

   The key considerations for schools that are deploying additional staff to release PPA time are discussed in more detail in Planning, preparation and assessment strategies: overview and toolkit.