
Workload and working time
The purpose of this advice is to summarise teachers’ conditions of service, as set out in the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).
Directed time is when teachers are directed by their head teacher to be at work and available for work. Find out more on how to win on directed time in your workplace.
As education continues to be impacted by coronavirus, ensuring all National Education Union members have agreed and negotiated directed time calendars becomes even more important. Using our resources below work with other NEU members in your workplace to make sure you’re not working above your #DirectedTime.
Directed time is when teachers are directed by their head teacher to be at work and available for work. This is a maximum of 1,265 hours per academic year, spread over 195 days, and schools are advised to allow a contingency to cover unexpected events (though these should be rare and subject to consultation with staff). Directed Time has not been removed or suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pupil year is a maximum of 190 days, but there are 5 inset days. The hours for those inset days count towards the 1265.
The following must be part of directed time:
The full list is in sections 51 & 52 of the 2019 School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD).
All schools should have a calendar of the activities which make up teachers’ directed time – published in the summer term for the next academic year and consulted on with staff via trade unions.
NEU reps/members should ask their head or leadership team for the directed time calendars for both individuals and departments. The school’s calculation of directed time during the summer term if it has not been provided and ensure staff are consulted before it is implemented.
The aim of our bargaining calendar is to support you to work together with members at your school to improve working conditions, identifying one key issue per term.
A directed time calendar is important to ensure teachers’ hours are reasonable and is standard practice within the profession. Head teachers also find directed time calendars help with resourcing and ensuring staff wellbeing.
We hope this booklet is useful to you and your members and that together you can use this to help you Winning at Work. You can share your stories with us via campaigns@neu.org.uk . Use the poster when you call a meeting.
Your first point of contact for advice and support from the union should be your National Education Union workplace representative.
If you don't know who that is, contact your branch or district. You can get contact details by telling us which local authority you work in: