Australia's Science Forum

Do other school labs have policies/rules about the number of experiments that can be done in a week?
I work alone 18 hours per week and have about 17 experiments ordered for the next 2 weeks including 4 VCE Chem/Biol SACs. I sent out a letter to the science teachers saying I was fully booked until April, and copped some serious backlash from a couple!

There is another thread on this subject. And from want I can remember NO limit, are you DoE school or private? I try and find the thread for you Sarah B

Thanks Labbie! It's a small private (Christian) school.

Hi Sarah, Do please read the thread Urgent help needed. How many teachers do you have? also how many students? Do the teachers help them shelves to equipment, or is it locked away.

Thank you. I'll have a read
We have 5 different teachers.covering 2 classes each of years 7-10 (roughly 20 per class) plus Physics, Chemistry and Biology for year 11/12.
Teachers can access equipment but tend not to!

That's good that the teachers do not help them selves. Work Health & Safety plays a big role in our line of work. Most schools have 24 hours notice for equipment which includes solutions made up by us. Is your head teacher able to help, or even on your side? Do you risk access for ordering? Sorry all these question, Oh Sarah I do feel your pain, but with 18 hours per week, one can only do your best. Have you been at the school a while?

Are you in a position to ask for pre-approved overtime for next week?

I think it is hard for people in NSW to comment as it seems we work in systems with different expectations.
In NSW teachers order pracs and we provide the equipment and chemicals etc. There is no expectation (in most schools) that we set up pracs. If the pracs need to be tested out, it is usually done by the teacher, unless they ask me really nicely and I have time! Teachers return used and dirty equipment to the prep room and we clean it up. I'm not sure if your teachers are expecting you to do more than this.

Seventeen pracs, including what I assume are research projects for Bio in eighteen hours a week is a big workload but would not be unusual north of the border.

However, if you are feeling overwhelmed you need to talk to your supervisor now. Maybe you can get some overtime for next week (as Rosalie suggested) or some extra help. Feeling over loaded with no control over your work situation is a serious WHS issue (as Labbie says). Victorian laws, like NSW, now clearly state that psychosocial hazards that affect staff wellbeing MUST be controlled. i.e. these hazards are to be treated like any other WHS hazard.

Like I said, hard for me to judge your workload due to different expectations in different schools and systems. If your teachers expect more from you than just getting the pracs out, could you ask them to do a bit more over the next couple of weeks? Tell them you will still get their pracs out and clean up but that's as far as you can go.

Ultimately, you must talk to your supervisor.

I also work alone in a private (Christian) school. Admittedly I work four days, but teachers are basically allowed to book as many pracs as they want. My worst this year has been 14 in a week, but I was very clear that any pracs needed at least a weeks notice, otherwise they basically couldn't do it. If you are only working 18 hours, maybe you could tell them 2 weeks? That way the only thing stopping them doing a prac is their own poor planning, and you get enough time to organise and prioritize your workload.

We are a Vic Gov school, teachers can order however many they want. Our most was 22 on 1 day. We avergae 5 pracs/day. I have a rule that teachers need to book 1 week notice for old/repeat pracs, 2 weeks notice for new or developing pracs. We are lucky enough to have the room and so many trollys/tubs to set stuff up as they come in and off they go, our teachers ('most') are good at following the rules also. Our students clean most of their general labware in the classroom, so less clean up for us.

I would have a sit down with your head of Science and have a chat about it. You either need more time or ask for a casual staff member, you can out it that systms and pracs will suffer if you don't get the help needed.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate your advice and will have some discussions about maybe getting some additional support. I worked out our "Service Factor" as described in the LTAV guidelines, and it's only 0.406, some do need to improve that.

It's not great to hear that most of you are working very hard, too, but helps me to see I'm not struggling alone - being the only one of your kind at a school, its hard to know what's normal! Sorry if I sounded really whiney.

Labbie, in response to your questions, yes I do the risk assessments and have been here 10 years. The school was a lot smaller when I started (on 7 hours per week) so we have come a long way since then.Things are always hectic but this year is a perfect storm with a few new and inexperienced teachers, and a new set of textbooks - so every prac is starting from scratch.

Sarah B, I find that there are really busy weeks when the prep room ends up looking like a cyclone hit and then there are quiet weeks when I can catch up and put things away. The teachers should be doing the risk assessments themselves and you should only be doing the risk assessment for the work you are doing to prepare the pracs. Perhaps you are too kind and doing too much preparation? How much effort do you put into each prac? When it is busy, I generally throw everything into a tub (or two) and that's it. The teachers then dish it out among the students. If I've had to make up a new concentration of a chemical and don't have time to transfer to droppers, I send out the big bottle and some disposable pipettes and the teacher can pour a small amount into a beaker and then distribute from that. I'm wondering if your expectations on yourself to have everything perfect for the teachers might be too high? Take a deep breath and just plod along one prac at a time. The quiet weeks will come again!

Looking forward to quieter days!

I just worked out our service factor and it's 0.324 - no wonder we feel like we're run off our feet!!
Looking forward to the school holidays!!!!!!

0.324! Eek!

Hopefully my bosses don't see this.
I work in a small by Tasmanian standards college (Years 11 and 12 only) and if I worked out my service factor correctly it does not start with a 0, and even if I include 2 subjects that run in the science block that aren't strictly science then it still does not start with a 0. The only way it starts with a 0, is if I include the 2 subjects we aren't running this year and the 2 subjects that are strictly science.

cactus155 wrote: ↑13 Apr 2023, 13:40 Hopefully my bosses don't see this.
I work in a small by Tasmanian standards college (Years 11 and 12 only) and if I worked out my service factor correctly it does not start with a 0, and even if I include 2 subjects that run in the science block that aren't strictly science then it still does not start with a 0. The only way it starts with a 0, is if I include the 2 subjects we aren't running this year and the 2 subjects that are strictly science.

I know of your school, and I think they'd be content knowing they're coverage is more than adequate.
As long as you're not bored, take the win.

I just worked out our service factor (after figuring out what that was!) and it is 0.248! Although I do feel very busy (says me spending time here! ), I can't see it would need to be as high as 0.8. I would have nothing to do! And it's kind of my fault I am so busy as I was employed at 3 days a week and now they want to increase to 4 or 5 days but I have said no to this. It would be nice if they employed someone else on the other days though.

elaruu wrote: ↑08 May 2023, 13:24 I just worked out our service factor (after figuring out what that was!) and it is 0.248! Although I do feel very busy (says me spending time here! ), I can't see it would need to be as high as 0.8. I would have nothing to do! And it's kind of my fault I am so busy as I was employed at 3 days a week and now they want to increase to 4 or 5 days but I have said no to this. It would be nice if they employed someone else on the other days though.

Have you suggested it ?

Vaguely. I think it was kind of dismissed as too hard. I'm thinking about leaving this job soon though, so I think if they had to replace me they would replace with someone 5 days per week.