Student teacher being used as PPA cover for other classes. Is this OK?

Just wondering what the rules are on this sort of thing.

While I can understand your class class teacher leaving the classroom to give you responsibility of the whole class. I find it hard to believe that it would be OK for a school to make a friend cover another class, especially if they are in the middle of working with their own class/focus group.

This also applies to the whole PPA 10% of the teaching week, where my friend has been given no opportunity.

It's the last day of school tomorrow at that placement. Knowing the deputy head, they will most likely ask him to cover another random class again. Would it be wrong for him to suggest that he should have at least the morning/afternoon off in terms of PPA.

Surely if it is his last day it is better to suck it up and not rock the boat?

I can't imagine it'd make that much difference to his overall review. They will have provided negative feedback.

Hearing stuff about how he's been taken out of his own class (that is doing PE) to cover another class that is doing PE sounds awfully suspect. Raising this as a concern would basically mean rendering this school's judgement of him as a student teacher void hopefully.

Well if you think it is dodge, I would report it to your training provider!

On my first placement I ended up with 100% contact time with the children, teaching an entire 90 children strong year group in one go (I'm training in primary so the year groups are smaller) and not having PPA for two weeks.

Granted, it was tiring and I possibly should have said something to my training provider. But I was very conscious that I am student teacher and I need to prove myself, if that means being the school's back up teacher for a few weeks then so be it - they'll have better views of me as a result of it because I've PROVED myself to be versatile and flexible etc.

My opinion would be to not rock the boat, especially not for 2.5hrs on his last day - it may come off as petty. I certainly wouldn't be making any "demands." Consider it good experience with a variety of pupils and solid evidence of being hardworking.

Yeah it does seem like quite a future students ended up in the same position as you by the sounds of it.

Guess looking at it from the positive perspective is quite handy. Just need to make sure you don't get burnt out from it all from the get-a-go. Teaching at the full timetable does provide a good insight to the workload, but at the same time, it also makes it quite hard to reflect back on the course?

Did you not burn out?