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Do you have any examples of how teachers’ directed time is organised? In this article we outline the regulations in the STPCD and link to directed time budgets from two local authorities and a branch of the NUT. We also include the findings of the 2009 teachers’ workload survey.

Contents

1. 1  1,265 hours of directed time
2. 2  Sample directed time budgets
3. 3  2009 teachers’ workload survey
4. 4  ATL policy on directed time budgets
5. 5  Additional sources and further reading

1,265 hours of directed time

The School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2009 sets out the working time arrangements for teachers. Paragraph 74.4 on page 129 says:

A teacher employed full-time must be available to perform such duties at such times and such places as may be specified by the headteacher ... for 1,265 hours in any school year, those hours to be allocated reasonably throughout those days in the school year on which the teacher is required to be available for work.

Paragraph 74.13 says that in addition to the 1,265 hours of directed time, a teacher “must work such reasonable additional hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties”, particularly:

• Planning and preparing courses and lessons
• Assessing, recording and reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils

However, paragraph 74.14 says:

The employer must not determine how many of the additional hours ... must be worked or when these hours must be worked.

STPCD 2009, Teachernet, see pages 129-131 (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/14150/STPCD%202009.pdf

Sample directed time budgets

Sample time budget for a primary classroom teacher: 

The way in which the time is allocated ... will vary between schools

East Sussex County Council has a policy and procedure for teachers’ directed time that includes an example of a directed time budget for a full-time primary school classroom teacher without a teaching and learning responsibility (TLR). It says:

Please note this is simply an example. The way in which the time is allocated for different aspects of a teacher’s working day will vary between schools. It is important that the issue is given careful consideration and that the total directed hours, including contingency time, does not exceed 1,265 hours.

The annual time budget is summarised below:

Activity	Time budget	Hours per year
Registration	½ hour x 190 days	95
Mid-session break	¼ hour x 190 days	47½
Teaching time	20 hours per week	760
Planning, preparation and assessment (PPA)	2½ hours per week	95
INSET days	5 hours x 5 days	25
Supervisory duties	½ hour x 190 days	95
Parents’ meetings and open evenings	3 hours x 4 days	12
Staff meetings	1 hour x 38 days	38
Performance management meeting	1 x 1 hour	1
Other duties, e.g. individual pupil issues	25 mins x 190 days	80 hours 10 mins

There appears to be a slight discrepancy in the final figure listed; however the total is approximately 1,248 hours. The document says a cushion of contingency time has been left for unplanned events.

Policy and procedure for teachers’ directed time - 1265 hours, East Sussex County Council, see page 6 (Adobe pdf file)
https://czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/schoolpersonnel/payandconditions/workingtime/Documents/working_time.pdf

Sample directed time budget for teachers and middle leaders

Derby City Council has a one-page exemplar that sets out the allocation of directed time for teachers and middle leaders.

The time budget falls short of 1,265 hours by 71 hours for teachers and 61 hours for middle leaders. The document says:

This should allow additional time for lesson planning, report writing, development planning and results analysis.

Meeting pattern 2009-2010, Derby City Council (Word doc file)
http://www.derby.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B4F44194-8569-4D50-89CC-7298A631F158/0/Directedtimeexemplar1.doc

Sample directed time budget from a union

The Lancashire branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has an example of a directed time budget. It is summarised below:

Activity	Hours
190 school days	1108
5 INSET days	30
Staff, team, departmental meetings etc.	38
Other meetings	19
Meetings with parents	10
Reports and assessment	20
Special events	20
Total	1245

The guidance says:

It is advisable to leave a cushion for any unexpected situation ...

You will note that this does not total 1,265 hours. It is advisable to leave a cushion for any unexpected situation with which a school would be expected to cope.

Directed time, Lancashire NUT
http://www.lancashirenut.org.uk/show_campaigns.php?ec_id=29

2009 teachers’ workload survey

The 2009 teachers’ workload survey provides independently collected data on the hours and working patterns of 1,572 randomly selected teachers in maintained primary, secondary and special schools in England and Wales.

Total hours worked

Table 3 on page 9 of the report shows the average total hours worked by classroom teachers in 2009. We have calculated the ‘hours per year’ by multiplying the ‘hours per week’ by 39:

Type of school	Average hours per week	Average hours per year
Primary	51.2	1996.8
Secondary	50.4	1965.6
Special	42.8	1669.2

Distribution of hours worked

Table 6 on page 15 shows how the average hours worked by classroom teachers each week are distributed between tasks:

Task	Primary: hours	Primary: percentage	Secondary: hours	Secondary: percentage	Special: hours	Special: percentage
All	51.2	100%	50.4	100%	42.8	100%
Teaching	16.7	32.6%	18.8	37.4%	15.4	36.0%
PPA	16.4	32.1%	16	31.7%	11.1	25.9%
Non-teaching pupil/parent contact	5.8	11.4%	6.6	13.1%	5.8	13.6%
School/staff management	3.6	7.0%	3.3	6.5%	3.8	8.8%
Administrative support	4.8	9.3%	2.4	4.8%	2.8	6.5%
Individual/professional activity	2.8	5.5%	2.4	4.7%	2.7	6.4%
Other activities	1.1	2.1%	1.0	1.9%	1.2	2.8%

Teachers’ Workloads Diary Survey 2009, Department of Education, see pages 9 and 15 (Adobe pdf file)
http://publications.education.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RR159.pdf

ATL policy on directed time budgets

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has a policy that says "there should be a requirement for headteachers to publish a directed time budget for every teacher."

Teachers' working time, ATL
http://www.atl.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/policies/working-time.asp