Teachers in Northern Ireland work under a contract sometimes referred to as the “Jordanstown Agreement,” negotiated in 1987, with an important amendment in 1988.
This sets out the responsibilities of a teacher in NI schools, but it also gives detailed information about the number of hours per year a teacher can be directed to work by their Principal. In Northern Ireland, this totals 1265 hours.
This is called “directed time.”
Many teachers think directed time is the time they are asked to spend on the school premises after students have left. Staff meetings, departmental time, twilight moderation, etc, are often thought of as staff directed time. But this is not the case:
“Directed Time means time spent on any activity which the Principal has determined that a teacher shall undertake.”
Education Authority Guidance on Directed Time Budgets
Practically this refers to the Professional Duties of a teacher, which are detailed here. Note – the Principal can ask teachers to do other reasonable tasks as part of their directed time, so the list isn’t the Ten Commandments of teaching duties. That said, it’s also not a card collection game, and no teacher can be expected to do all the tasks in their day to day duties.
The directed time expectations for each teacher have to be laid out in a time budget, which should be individual to each member of staff, and given out prior to the first teaching day.
All of the 1265 contracted hours that a teacher is required to be on the premises (minus lunch) must be accounted for within the directed time budget.
NASUWT guidance
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