You might have been given a breakdown of your 1265 hours – or maybe even asked if you have seen one – but what are the 1265 hours? And what is ‘directed time’?
To find the answer, we have to look at some documents produced by the Department of Education…
All local authority schools in England and Wales follow the framework set out in the School teachers’ pay and conditions document.
This document is a long one (86 pages!) but inside you get a complete guide to what teachers can, and can’t, be asked to do in schools. Plus – all the pay scales too.
Inside this document you can find an explanation of directed time on page 48:
“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 1265 hours allocated reasonably throughout those days in the school year on which the teacher is required to be available for work”.
So far, so clear – but, there are some extra important details.
How does directed time work for part-time teachers?
Part-time teachers can be directed for an “appropriate proportion” of the 1265 hours. This means teachers who work a 70% timetable will be directed for 70% of 1265 (885.5 hours).
However – the school calendar isn’t always neat and tidy. What about when events that are ‘directed time’ take place on a part-time teacher’s non-working day?
In these cases, the school and teacher have to come to an agreement. The document says “Part-time teachers cannot be required to work or attend non-pupil days, or parts of days, on days they do not normally work”.
However, it also adds that this doesn’t rule out part-time teachers coming in on their ‘off’ days, and says it “should, however, be open to a teacher to attend non-pupil days or work on other days by mutual agreement with the headteacher”.
What about teachers who are senior leaders?
Only classroom teachers and middle leaders (i.e. TLR holders) are covered by the 1265 hours directed time rule.
The working conditions document says that “headteachers, deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers, teachers on the pay range for leading practitioners” are excluded from the rule.
This means that they can be directed to work by the headteacher outside of the 1265 hours.
What about academies?
Although many academies do follow the rules in the pay and working conditions document, they are for maintained and local authority schools.
If a school has converted to an academy, then the current members of staff are covered by the pre-existing conditions they agreed to when their contracts started. However, all new staff may be asked to sign different pay and working conditions.
However, you may find despite having the freedom to set their own rules, many academies still follow the same working conditions as local authority schools.
Does this mean teachers only work 1265 hours a year?
Although teachers can only be directed to work for 1265 hours, that does not mean teachers only work 1265 hours a year. In fact, the total number of working hours is left undefined.
The working conditions document says:
“In addition to the [1265] hours a teacher is required to be available for work…a teacher must work such reasonable additional hours as may be necessary to enable the effective discharge of the teacher’s professional duties, including in particular planning and preparing courses and lessons; and assessing, monitoring, recording and reporting on the learning needs, progress and achievements of assigned pupils.”
However, where and when you do this work is down to the teacher, and beyond the 1265 hours, the document says headteachers “must not determine” where the teacher is when those extra hours of work are completed.
