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Standby Teachers would like to thank you for entering the Busy Bees Boxes competition!
Busy Bees Boxes is a campaign run by Standby Teachers to ‘’encourage schools to establish a fruit and vegetable patch or maintain an existing one’’. The initial letter sent to all schools across the county prompted considerable interest. A wide variety of schools entered, ranging from town schools to rural village schools and big schools to smaller schools. After months of garden preparation, planting and pruning the Busy Bees Boxes representative visited all the participating schools - and she had her work cut out! The competition was strong and this was evident when judging the competition. Having taken photos of all the gardens and interviewed the gardening clubs the winning quartet has been decided.

 

First place prize of £300 of RHS vouchers goes to . . .
. . . Addingham Primary Gardening Club! The year 2000 saw the gradual development of the school garden, eventually flourishing into an established garden in 2009. Since then Mrs Wallbank, Mrs Gregory and Mrs De Ath have lead the Garden Club to develop the garden into what it is today. Pupils at the school take in turns throughout the year to tend to the garden and harvest the crops. After school and lunch break are the key times in the day when the garden is a hive of activity – heavily attended by the girls! The garden focuses on traditional gardening methods producing a traditional crop of strawberries, parsnips and onions, amongst other things! The garden is well supported by local charities and trusts and the recently the school were proud winners in a local gardening show when they won first prize in the Scarecrow category! Congratulations Addingham Primary Gardening Club for winning first prize in the Busy Bees Competition!

 

Second place prize of £200 of RHS vouchers goes to. . .
. . . Parkwood Primary Gardening Club! Mr Thorpe has headed up the Gardening Club of year 2, 3 and 4 pupils for many years. This year has proved to be a particularly fruitful as the club have scooped second prize in the Busy Bees competition. The children working in the garden appearing to truly enjoy the being outside and getting really stuck in! Their yield of beetroot, radish, potatoes and apples (amongst other things) has stood out to the judges as not only looking appetising but tasting delicious too! Congratulations Parkwood School Gardening Club!

 

Joint third place prize of £100 each of RHS vouchers goes to. . .
. . . Ben Rhydding Primary School and Lister Primary School
Thank you for sticking your wellies on and getting growing, well done everyone for taking part!

Standby Teachers is very proud of their new look website! Launched at the beginning of October 2011 it’s hoped it will take the company, their schools and teachers in to the new term with confidence and ease.

 

Many new features have been added to the website. For example you need never miss out on the latest newsletter or current offer. Everything will be online! Details of the Loyalty Scheme are also available and our ‘new’ Recommend a School or Teacher scheme.

 

A new ‘teacher area’ is on its way offering a multitude of functions - so watch this space!

 

Yet fear not! It’s not all change! The websites original functions still remain; enabling schools to confirm bookings online, check booking history and leave feedback.

 

Standby Teachers always appreciates your feedback be it positive or negative, it’s all constructive!

 

Please contact us via email miranda@standbyteachers.com or chat with your consultant.

 

​The Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) are designed to ensure that agency workers receive equal treatment to that of permanent employees performing the same duties (comparable worker). The regulations have two stages; ‘rights from day one’ and ‘rights after 12 weeks’. These regulations come into force in the UK on 1st October 2011.

As a school your responsibilities are to ensure the following;

Once an agency worker starts working with your organisation they are entitled to the following:

 

These benefits are not compulsory, yet if they are already provided to permanent staff members, temporary staff must benefit too.

In addition, pregnant agency workers who have completed 12 weeks qualifying period will be entitled to paid time off for ante natal appointments.

Local Education Authority run schools are bound by the ‘Schools Teachers Pay and Conditions Document’ which require them to pay to scale (this does not cover teaching assistants or those who are employed to carry out specified work under paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Education (Specified Work and Registration) England Regulations 2003). This means that they are required to make sure that a teacher receives at least the pro rata amount for their pay scale.

 

Academies, Free Schools and Independent Schools are not bound by these conditions and are not required to confirm to these conditions, therefore we need to request the information regarding pay and conditions for each placement.