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Directed time: organising the 1,265 hours

Ref: 3048
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%

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."

Additional sources and further reading

All articles on our website are answers to questions asked by our
members. They are published within three working days.
This question was asked by a deputy headteacher
 in a medium-size urban primary school in the south west
.



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