TEACHERS CONDITIONS OF SERVICE: DIRECTED TIME

The Department's attention has been drawn to questions raised about Directed Time as specified in the Teachers Pay and Conditions of Service Agreement.

The purpose of this circular letter is to dispel any doubts that there may be about the interpretation of the terms that a teacher shall be available for work on 195 days a year and shall be available to perform duties for 1265 hours per year, as incorporated in Paragraphs 9, 10 and 11(a) and (b) of the Agreement.

The content of these paragraphs has been enshrined in the Teachers' (Terms and Conditions of Employment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 - Schedule 3, Paragraph 4(a) and (b).

School Development Days

Whenever granted a school may take up to five additional closures (referred to as School Development Days or SDDs) for the purposes of school improvement and school/staff development.

Where a school decides not to use all or some of the 5 available SDDs, it must be open as normal to pupils on these days.

Directed Time

In Belvoir Park Primary School a teacher is under a contractual obligation to be available for work on 195 days a year. The teacher is to be available to perform such duties at such times and such places, as may reasonably be specified by the principal, for 1265 hours in any year.

The following information will clarify the regulations for staff:

·        To be exclusive of time spent off school premises in preparing and marking lessons and time spent travelling to and from the place of work.

·        190 days are days on which a teacher may be required to teach pupils in addition to carrying out other duties such as curriculum and pastoral management, attending meetings, supervision etc. 

·        The Principal will specify and reasonably allocate the duties to be performed, together with the times and the places where these duties will be carried out. 

·        Directed time should not be more than 32.5 hours per week.

All tasks and duties, which are performed under the direction of the Principal, count towards the 1265 total.  A teacher may not be required to teach, as distinct from supervise children, in a formal situation for more than 25 hours per week in a primary school.

The Nursery will have modifications to accommodate separate legislation in relation to supervision and offsite duties.

Morning Breaks

·        Morning breaks count as directed time. 

·        A small proportion of staff might be on duty on a rota basis.

·        In an emergency, staff will be expected to respond and clearly they are available for work at such a time.

INSET DAYS

The remaining 5 days are allocated for in-service training and issues relating to performance management, including professional development activities.

·        Deployment of the five non-contact or INSET days, some of which can, subject to staff agreement, take place in ‘twilight sessions’ after school. 

·        A session beginning at the end of a school day at 3.30pm which continues until 6pm or beyond could count as half a day’s INSET. 

·        Time spent in these sessions will accrue and score against the 1265 hours.

·        The teachers involved in these sessions cannot be required to attend on all of the five non-contact days if such a requirement would mean exceeding the 1265 hours limit.

Carrying out the Professional Duties of Teachers

·        A teacher is required to work, ‘such reasonable additional hours as may be needed to enable him/her to discharge effectively their professional duties’. 

·        The amount of time for professional duties beyond the 1265 hours of directed time is decided by the teacher and not the Principal or Governors. 

·        The teacher also decides the number of additional hours necessary and where and when such duties will be performed. The lunch break cannot be included in the 1265 hours of directed time.

Work/Life Balance

All teachers are entitled to a work/life balance and a reasonable workload that allows time to pursue activities outside work.

·        The Principal will therefore have regard to teachers’ work/life balance and exercise a duty to maintain, for each teacher, a reasonable balance between work carried out in school and home life.

·        Every teacher does additional hours undirected in terms of marking and preparation, as part of her or their professional duties.

·        The total number of hours worked must not exceed 48 in any one week.

Attendance at Meetings/INSET: Part-Time Teachers

The working hours of part-time teachers will be taken into account in terms of attendance at activities outside the classroom, such as staff meetings and INSET, on days when they do not normally work, to ensure that attendance is only required pro-rata of their working hours.

·        It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that effective liaison takes place.

·        The Principal will ensure that they rotate meetings so that part-time teachers have the opportunity of attending, and only seek teachers’ attendance in meetings on non-working days via negotiation and agreement.

·        For professional development reasons, part-time teachers will be offered the opportunity to attend all INSET days, including those which take place on days when they do not normally teach. 

·        Where they agree to do so, they will receive additional pay or time off. 

·        Whenever possible the interviews with parents will be held the night before a holiday or INSET day.

·        After school activities will be directed on a rotational basis, as required, to meet the needs of the school.

·        If a staff member has a requirement to leave school before the end of directed-time they will be able to seek permission from the principal at the earliest opportunity.

·        All requests will be dependent on the needs of the school and it should not be presumed that a request will be automatically granted. However, all requests will be treated sympathetically in line with the ethos of the school.

·        Monday will be allocated to Staff & INSET meetings.

·        Key Stage meetings will be organised by the Head of learning or H.O.D in conjunction with the principal. These meetings will be monthly and held on a Thursday after school.

·        Nursery Staff will attend Monday staff meetings but INSET & offsite duties are at the discretion of the H.O.D after consultation with the principal.

On occasions it has been difficult to establish who is onsite at the end of the school day. Consequently, all staff will complete an attendance sheet to assist with the monitoring of this policy and to enable the staff to comply with good practice in Health & Safety.

Directed-Time Commitments