“You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”
Walter Hagen
Here’s a very short (well, as short as possible), overview of how teachers’ terms and conditions should work out in your day to day working life.
The working year
Teachers in Northern Ireland are contracted (and paid) to work for 1265 hours each year.
While this is the minimum required for a teacher to fulfil their contractual duties, it is also the maximum number of hours that a Principal can direct any teacher to work.
This is spread over 195 “reasonably contiguous” days, of which between 185 and 190 will involve contact time (teaching children.)
No teacher in Primary / Special education should have more than 25 hours of contact time each week, or 23.5 hours of contact time each week in post-primary. This includes all cover during a week.
All teachers are entitled to a break of 30 minutes every day between 12pm and 2pm. This is unpaid, and can be taken wherever the staff member chooses.
What about all the other work at home, weekends, etc?
Teachers in Northern Ireland cannot be directed to work for more than 1265 hours in any one year. However there are a few situations in which teachers will choose to do work outside of that time. This “free labour” is slowly getting reduced and clarified as it is the principal cause of workload issues for teachers.
Parents’ evenings, open days, etc.
Parent-Teacher conferences, open days, subject fairs, etc are all directed time and must be accounted for in the DTB.
Extra-curricular activities
It is acknowledged by employer side and teacher representatives that any other activities carried out by teachers (for example, games, clubs, music, drama, trips) outside of the 1265 hours are entirely voluntary. (TNC 2024/2 5.2)
Teachers cannot be pressured or directed to give up their free time in this way, and no teacher should be disadvantaged if they choose not to engage with these activities.
If a teacher is directed to do any of these activities by a Principal or their delegated senior leader, or by a Principal-approved school policy, then it becomes directed time, and must come out of that teacher’s 1265 hours.
With regard to trips away, there is a clause for teachers to negotiate with Principals time from the 1265 to offset some of their time on the trip. (TNC 2024/2 5.3) Note – many teaching unions advise members not to participate in trips for legal protection reasons.
Staff running activities at lunch time themselves (i.e. on a voluntary basis) are not paid for these activities and they do not count as Directed Time.
If staff are asked to do additional supervision / duty at lunch time, this must be paid for on a separate contract.
PPA at home
While it continues to be accepted that teachers will occasionally have to work in their own time at home, this has been considerably clarified and limited. Under the latest agreements most PPA should be done during the 1265 hours of directed time, in particular during the ring-fenced 10% of PPA that all teachers are entitled to.
The practice of teachers planning, preparing and assessing their day to day lessons in their own time is now “not considered satisfactory” by all TNC stakeholders – including DE, employers, and Principal representatives. (TNC 2024/2 5.6)
In order to reduce and eliminate the need for PPA outside of contracted hours, teachers are entitled to a minimum of 10% ring-fenced PPA time for their day to day lessons (short-medium term planning) and Principals are instructed not to “erode” this time with other demands.
Therefore planning, preparing and assessing daily lessons outside of the 1265 hours is (a) entirely up to the teacher to choose to do and (b) should be the exception not the rule.
No other work activities should be done by teachers at home – they are entitled to sufficient time to discharge their professional during their 1265 hours.
What should be categorised in DTBs?
Start of the school day
Schools will have a formal “start time” for the day, which cannot be changed without consultation and agreement. The Directed Time budget clock starts at this time. If a teacher comes in before that time they are working voluntarily, and it isn’t added to the DTB.
Registration can be either “supervision” or “contact time”. Supervision means the teacher just takes an accurate roll and ensures that students are supervised and safe. Anything other than this – e.g. reading out announcements, showing videos, pastoral work, etc – is considered contact time.
The reason this is important is that primary / special teachers are limited to 25 hours of contact (including cover slots) per week, and 23.5 hours of contact for post-primary teachers.
“Break time” in the morning is Directed Time, and should be in the Directed Time budget for every day there are students on site, even if not every break time is used for duties (i.e. because of a rota system.)
As a result break detentions do not need separate inclusion in DTBs.
After school duties, such as detentions, must be included in the Directed Time budget (and associated with a calendar of when particular staff are on detention duty.)
Similarly time for bus duties or early morning duties must be included in the DTB, although unlike break time duties only the time expected of a staff member needs to be added to the DTB. Note – bus duty timings should be realistic and based on how long the duty actually takes.
If bus duties run over for whatever reason, staff members should record this as a use of their contingency time.
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