Directed time

[workworkworknofun]

I started at a new school and felt overwhelmed instantly, so I used the directed time calculators to work out what was going wrong. I have been directed to work nearly 100 hours over 1265 this year. I have raised it with my line manager and union rep. They are both saying any change this school year is unlikely. Should I accept that? What else can I do? Thank you.

If you're unhappy with your local rep, contact your branch rep, and then kick it up to regional if you're still unhappy.

Ensure you haven't included things like 'buffer time' if your school doesn't use that. Your break is directed time, your lunch isn't, even if you're assigned duty. Form isn't directed time.

Thank you. So 30mins form time every day isn't directed. I don't think that can be right, and the NEU website do include it. Lunch, I am directed to do duty but know I shouldn't be. So I have included that in my calculations.

Form time, break duty are directed time. You are entitled to a 30 min lunch break minimum and mustn't be directed to do a duty.

Well done for challenging.

This is correct. Form time absolutely is directed time? It isn't included in teaching time calculations for PPA but that is because PPA is 10% of teaching load. We don't count staff meetings in PPA calc but they are still directed time- form time is in the same category.

I understand the first response now. Does that mean that PPA can't be given during form time as well? I teach primary and believe that our teaching time is from when the kids come in, but I wonder if that's correct.

Op - Re. Lunch duty - you won't be able to count it as directed time because they can't make you give up your lunch break. Thirty minutes is a legal requirement for all jobs, not just a teacher thing.

OK, so two different issues. They need to pay me for lunch duties (75 hours a year), or remove them, and remove a further 20+ hours of time I have been directed to be on site over the 1265. Thank you all. I am wondering what time scale I should be looking at for these changes.

I suppose it depends if it's just you, or if it's the whole staff that are being directed over (there are times when it might not be everybody). Either way I'd absolutely expect change to be made during this school year and for the union to be all over that. If it were me I'd be going to the layer above whichever layer of union person you're at now, for as much as 20 hours. If it were two or three then they could just cancel a couple of meetings later in the school year so no drama, but 100 hours is ridiculous (assuming more than one DT calculator has been used to double check!).

You still have to have a 30 min lunch break so that could be provided in another slot near lunchtime (but in reality not sure how that would timetable). I have lunch breaks timetabled on me but the way we run our lunch session means I still get 30 mins unpaid break within the duty session, which is absolutely fine and legal.

I can't explain why I know because it's a bit outing but when doing a part time calculation I know our tutor time isn't included- it's worded as 'teaching time' rather than 'contact time'. However in secondary it's easy to see the difference because of the structure of the day, at primary you could argue teaching time is exactly the same as contact time (I guess?).

I was over my directed time by accident when I went part time and the head just suggested a couple of meetings and after school events I could miss, which corrected my time to the correct proportion. But my head is very pragmatic and fair, I know this isn't always the case....

Thanks all. The workload is really getting to me. I have been teaching a long time and don't like feeling like I can't keep up.

Union should be supporting you. Go to head of the branch of Union. They are not representing you.