1265 - A number that matters

Starting teaching in the 1990s, there were a range of things that you learnt quickly about the profession you had joined. Firstly, there was the importance of how you conducted yourself outside the school – there were the horror stories of what had befallen teachers on holiday or a night out. Secondly, there was the sheer level of graft in learning the craft in those early years, the stamina to mark set after set of books, the exhaustion from presenting all day long and the head of department that seemed to think they were running a kind of bushtucker trial and were interested to see whether you would pass it. Thirdly, there were school leaders who would bound into staff meetings with their latest brainwave (sometimes well planned and other times less so) and want to launch their initiative. As I navigated this minefield of competing priorities, there were the older members of staff who just gave wise counsel. They said stressed the importance of not missing your duties, the need to take the register (whatever else was going on), of learning your craft and refining your practice, of avoiding building expectations about responding to parental emails within moments of them being sent – some of this was just sage words born out of experience and others were reminders of the legal duties to which I was bound. No-one spoke to me about 1265, in many schools’ this number is misunderstood or ignored, yet it is a number that matters. You might not understand it and you certainly cant assume that your leadership team do, but it is a number that we all need to know.

State schools, and most academies, operate according to the School Teacher Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD). This document defines the legal contract between you and the school. The time that you have contracted to give the school is called ‘directed time’ because they are the hours where you are told (directed) what to do by your headteacher. This directed time is limited to 1265 hours per academic year (this is a limit and not a target). The 1265 hours must include the 190 (maximum) days on which you are expected to teach and the 5 non-teaching days (INSET) days. If you are a part-time teacher, then you should have a prorated equivalent of the 1265 that your full-time colleagues fulfil.

What is included in this directed time calculation?

It should include any compulsory or reasonable activity that you are being asked to do by the school. Your teaching time, your PPA time (10%), your supervisory duties, your management time, your appraisal time, your meetings, your parents’ evenings, registration time, assembly time, INSET are all rather obviously included in the total number of contracted hours. When a school calculates the hours that they are asking staff to fulfil they are to look for the worst-case scenario with a member of staff, they are not to look at the average case, as no-one should be working over the 1265 limit. However, there are things that a school might miss in the calculation, such as, buffer time (this is a ten minute period at the start and end of each school day when you are on site – and might even be given supervisory duties), trapped time (this is any gap between the end of the school day and the start of a meeting when you can’t go home) and your morning and afternoon breaks should also be included.

In addition, there are other factors: you should only have one parent consultation per year group per year; you should only have one meeting per week (including a parents’ evening) and this should not last for longer than one hour. While teachers on the leadership scale might be expected to attend additional meetings – this should be defined with an agreed limit on the quantity of these meetings.

If your school runs an open evening, then attendance at these evenings by staff is voluntary – but if they choose to attend then this should be included in their 1265 hours. Equally, all employees are entitled to a rest period of 11 hours in any 24-hour period (so a late evening might mean that the school has to close early or open late).

It must allow you to take a reasonable lunch between 12pm and 2pm and protect you from lunchtime meetings. It cannot include an allowance for cover (which can only be asked for on a rare and unplanned basis). It cannot include exam invigilation and it should specify the hours where you are expected to work outside of the school day reading and responding to emails (this helps to define when you can reasonably ‘switch off’).

How should this work in your school?

Many schools will have an NASUWT representative who should be aware of all these requirements and should regularly meet with the headteacher to help them support their staff. Before the start of the school year (ideally early in the Easter term), the school leadership team should provide all staff with their 1265 calculation and a copy of the school calendar (which is then fixed for the year). This calculation and calendar should be agreed with the union representatives (and staff) and must clearly identify when meetings, consultations and other activities are taking place. This allows staff to plan their lives and their working year. Once the directed time is fixed then it should not be changed during the year, without the change being in exceptional circumstances and with the agreement of staff and the trade unions.

Disaggregated INSET days must only be included with the agreement of staff and their union representatives (and might need an equality impact assessment). Gained time, for teachers released from teaching as a result of exam leave, is limited to the planning activities in the STPCD. The directed time should include 50 hours of contingency that is unallocated and can be used in emergency situations and the aim of both the union representatives and the school should be to drive down and improve the number of hours in the calculation.

If you are setting the 1265 calculation

1. Start with the intention to create a number below 1265 – and plan for the worst affected member of staff

2. Make sure there is a maximum of a single meeting per week (including a parent consultation evening) on the calendar

3. Make sure you have earmarked your 50 hours of contingency (for all that time responding to emails, those rare cover periods and those voluntary times when staff choose to provide revision sessions or attend results days)

4. What are the hours of a school day (include all teaching time, registration, breaks, PPA and assemblies) and then multiply this by the 190 days

5. Add in the buffer time of at least 20 minutes per day (10 minutes at the start and end of the day)

6. Add in the parents’ evenings (1 per year group) and include any trapped time before they start with a reasonable break at the end of buffer time

7. Add in any other staff meetings (including any trapped time before they start)

8. Add in any performance management meetings or other evening meetings (including trapped time)

9. Agree the number with the staff and trade unions and publish it alongside the calendar early in the Easter term (and before the start of the next school year).

The NASUWT campaign around 1265 is titled “It’s time for a limit”. When 1265 is carefully planned, then you have a tight organised clear expectation for staff who can arrange the many other aspects of their lives (including all their marking) around it. It helps headteachers’ to lead schools that have sustainable expectations on how everyone is working (including the leadership team). In days when recruitment and retention are more challenging, then these steps are a key part of a leadership. 1265 is a number that matters.