The Working Time Agreement (WTA) clarifies a teacher’s working hours. It applies to contracted teachers, other than those paid on the leadership pay scale, employed by the Department.

A full-time teacher’s individual and collective work should be capable of being undertaken within a 35-hour working week with these hours distributed as shown in the question ‘What is meant by contact time/personal time/collegiate time?’ below.

For a full-time teacher, the hours are distributed as:

• a maximum of 22.5 hours timetabled contact time;

• 7.5 hours personal time, incorporates planning, preparation and assessment; and

• 5 hours collegiate activities.

Pro rata arrangements apply for part-time teachers. A part-time teacher working one day a week would work 4.5 hours timetabled contact time, 1.5 hours personal time and 1 hour collegiate activities.

Where schools currently allocate a reduction in timetabled contact time for TLR post holders, they should continue to do so at the same level, in line with the principles of the WTA.

Timetabled contact time is the time a teacher is timetabled to teach in front of a class, undertaking registrations and assemblies. It also includes undertaking team teaching, one-to-one or small group sessions where this is timetabled, e.g. teachers in the Music Service, or any other activity where pupils are timetabled to be taught during the school day. It also includes travel time other than the first and last journey to/from work at the start/end of the day.

Personal time is the time for:

• planning and preparing courses/lessons/pupil targets;

• setting and marking internal work;

• internal moderation;

• continuous assessment and giving feedback.

This will normally be within the school day, but could be allocated outside of it depending on the assignment of collegiate time. Personal time within the school day may be taken off site with the prior agreement of the headteacher.

Collegiate time is for all other activities. The exact composition of collegiate time will be decided locally, but will include things like meetings, report writing, etc. Examples are provided in Appendix 1 of the WTA. There is also an example agreement at Appendix 3 of the WTA. The WTA can be found on our Isle of Man page (on the right/below).

The school calendar should be compiled in such a way as to ensure that workload is evenly distributed throughout the school year.

However, there may be individual weeks where the hours are over or under 35 hours, but these should be clearly identified and minimised. Where this does occur the total number of hours worked across the academic year should still remain in accordance with the WTA.

If a teacher is under their 22.5 hours timetabled contact time, the use of the available balance should be planned and utilised for other teaching activities, such as:

• 1-to-1 support related to teaching and learning;

• small group work in-class support;

• team teaching;

• transition activities;

• travel time (other than first and last journey to/from work at start/end of the day).

The Working Time Agreement recommends schools keep a contingency and do not allocate all of the hours available to allow it to respond to short-notice operational pressures and meet the needs of any unplanned circumstances.

Yes, a full-time teacher is required to attend five INSET days or the equivalent number of twilight hours. Part-time teachers are required to attend these on a pro rata basis.

An INSET day is 5.5 hours in length. However, schools should arrange for INSET days to be organised in a way that makes effective use of the time and maximises learning.

A twilight session may be up to half the length of an INSET day in length.

However, as a twilight session forms part of the INSET day requirement, it is in addition to a normal working day. Schools should therefore ensure that twilight sessions are organised in a way that maximises learning.

Each school should also ensure teachers have a suitable break between finishing their normal activities that day and before starting a twilight session and the length of the break should be part of the discussions on the collegiate time calendar.

The time spent teaching or in registrations and assemblies is all included in ‘timetabled contact time’. It also includes undertaking:

• one-to-one or small group sessions related to teaching and learning;

• small group work;

• in-class support;

• team teaching;

• travel time (other than first and last journey to/from work at start/end of the day).

Yes, registration, tutor time and assemblies should be included in timetabled contact time.

Travel time between school sites for work is included in contact time, excluding the first and last journey to/from and home to/from work, i.e. commuting).

It has been agreed that if a teacher has some time available within the 22.5 hours timetabled contact time, as a result of gained time, for teaching activities which can be timetabled and would not fall under the ‘rarely cover’ provisions set out in the WTA and the terms and conditions for teachers, the time can be used, for example, for the following teaching activities:

• 1-to-1 support related to teaching and learning;

• small group work in-class support;

• team teaching in support of another teacher;

• transition activities.

No, a Working Time Agreement is agreed at school level and apply to all teachers at the school covered by the WTA.

This is the time for:

• planning and preparing courses/lessons/target setting;

• setting and marking internal work;

• internal moderation;

• continuous assessment and giving feedback.

Yes, the Working Time Agreement makes it clear that not all tasks require a teacher to be on school premises, but teachers intending to be out of school during the pupil day must request permission in advance from their line manager according to the established procedures at their school.

Headteachers have a duty of care for all staff and children and must ensure the school runs safely and effectively. Therefore, when considering a request to work away from school, headteachers will need to take into account:

• the importance of morning and afternoon registration;

• the need to avoid a direct impact on safety and emergency procedures and to be able to account for every child;

• a pastoral or safeguarding crisis/emergency/medical emergency;

• where calendared events may already impact on staff presence;

• unexpected staff absence.

Agreeing requests wherever possible does not set a precedent for future requests.

Formal assessment, such as external examinations or report writing, forms part of collegiate time.

Time developing a new course forms part of personal time. Additional time can also be made available, if required, by individual circumstances or workload and can be negotiated on an individual basis.

‘Collegiate activities’ encompasses a range of activities, including the time spent at meetings, marking or moderating external exams, undertaking break duties. etc.

Collegiate time will be planned in advance and spread out evenly, where possible, throughout the academic year. The WTA sets out that there is an allocation of 5 hours of collegiate activity per week. There may be occasions where this weekly allocation needs to be varied, but the WTA also stipulates an upper limit of eight hours collegiate time in any one week.

In addition, it is recommended that schools do not allocate all the remaining collegiate time and retain some time as a contingency. This will provide the school with flexibility to respond to short-notice operational pressures and to meet the needs of any unplanned circumstances.

Adopting this approach will also allow, where necessary, for any unforeseen formal meetings to be scheduled or arranged from within this contingency and not from class contact time or personal time.

In terms of collegiate time, teachers will be available for meetings and other allocated collective activities during the 35-hour working week as set out in the individual school calendar.

Individual teachers will use their professional judgement in relation to the prioritisation of tasks. In exercising their professional judgement, teachers will be required to take account of priorities determined at school and department level.

Yes, undertaking a break duty is part of collegiate time and is part of additional pupil supervision.

This is part of collegiate time and comes under the heading of additional pupil supervision.

The two additional non-pupil contact days are for teachers to invest in their own professional development in line with the Professional Development Framework (PDF).

These two days are outside term time and teachers are free to use their professional judgement on how to utilise this time and there is no requirement for a teacher to evidence CPD activity undertaken in these two days.

However, if a teacher wishes to use them for PDF activities, they are free to do so.

In accordance with the Professional Development Framework, time spent for professional development meetings and any associated documentation is part of collegiate time.

The working time for a part-time teacher is calculated pro rata, including pro rata INSET days, and is set out in each teacher’s written statement of employment particulars.

To help ensure that part-time teachers can achieve this, schools are encouraged to organise the collegiate time calendar to allow part-time staff to participate on their normal working days as much as possible, e.g. by varying the day for staff meetings.

If it is not possible to fulfil the part-time teachers pro rata working time on their normal working days, the headteacher will need to agree a plan with the part-time teacher, taking into account their individual circumstances, to ensure the part-time teacher meets their pro rata contractual requirements.

All teachers, including part-time teachers are required to report to parents and be available for meetings with parents to discuss progress or other issues. The collegiate time calendar should be organised, where possible, to allow part-time staff to participate on their normal working days.

Where it hasn’t been possible to organise the collegiate time calendar to accommodate parents’ evenings on a part-timer’s normal working day, part-time teachers can be requested to attend parents evening on a non-working day. However, if they are unable to attend, they must make appropriate arrangements to contact with parents.

Where it is agreed that in order to meet their obligation to make appropriate arrangements for contact with parents it is necessary for a part-time teacher to work additional hours, above their pro rata contractual requirement, to hold their parents meetings, they will be paid for the additional hours worked at their usual rate of pay.

The Agreement provides that personal time is taken in meaningful blocks of time of not less than 30 minutes and routinely taken weekly.

However, the Agreement also provides for some flexibility to be adopted, e.g. for teachers to manage their workload, and so a different frequency for personal time can be adopted where this is beneficial to the teacher and the school.

The school calendar differentiates between 188 pupil contact days and 7 non-pupil contact days. As a part-time teacher, your written statement of employment particulars, sets out the pro rata days that you are contractually required to work and the pro rata number of INSET/non-pupil days that you must attend.

The WTA sets out that when constructing the school collegiate calendar, schools should, wherever possible, organise it so that part-time staff are able to participate on their normal working days. It is recognised that a school’s calendar may not be able to accommodate all its part-time teachers’ working patterns.

Where it is not possible for a part-time teacher to fulfil their pro rata contractual obligations on their normal working days, the headteacher will need to agree a plan with the part-time teacher to ensure that they meet these obligations whilst taking into account their individual circumstances.

It should be noted that attendance at an INSET/twilight does not count towards the number of pupil contact days.

Bank holidays are not working days.

As a part-time teacher, your written statement of employment particulars sets out both the pro rata number of days that you are contractually required to work and the number of INSET/non-pupil days that you must attend.

At the start of each academic year, the WTA states that a headteacher and teacher will need to agree which days the part-time teacher will work to meet their contractual requirements.

It should be noted, if a bank holiday falls on a day that a teacher would normally work, this does not count towards this contractual obligation.

No, early careers teachers have 20 hours timetabled contact time in the first year and 21 hours in the second year, rather than the full 22.5 hours.

Yes, the Working Time Agreement applies to all contracted teachers.

Cover is captured in contact time. No teacher will be required to provide cover above 22.5 hours timetabled contact limit.

No, but if there was an emergency situation that had arisen, it would not be unreasonable to expect a teacher to undertake cover even if, in doing so, the maximum contact limit for that week may be exceeded. Such instances, by their very nature, should be extremely rare.

Where such a circumstance arises, the headteacher should ensure that the time is made up to the teacher at the earliest mutually agreed opportunity.

The WTA does not apply to ad hoc supply arrangements other than where a supply teacher is booked for five sequential working days or longer in the same school covering for the same teacher. In these circumstances, the WTA would apply as for the substantive member of staff whose duties they are providing cover for.

These activities are voluntary and outside the scope of the Working Time Agreement, e.g. Duke of Edinburgh, weekend sports fixtures, residential school trips, etc.

Schools should though bear in mind major extracurricular events, such as Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, and, where possible, factor this into the calendar by not having parents evenings, major assessments, etc. at the same time.

There will not be any formal records other than the school calendar and the agreement of collegiate time.

There is no expectation on individual teachers to keep a record, but you may wish to do so.

The headteacher will share the school’s calendar showing the Working Time for the following academic year with all teachers at the school, following consultation with the teachers and any school-based trade union or professional association representatives in the school.

No.

Where there are problems in managing workload and this is supported by evidence, the teacher should seek advice and support from their line manager.

It may be deemed necessary to discuss it with the headteacher, which might mean that duties are prioritised to the extent that some are not completed by the teacher.

Such issues could potentially arise if:

• an individual teacher has a large number of pupil reports to complete, perhaps being the sole teacher of a subject;

• a teacher has a significantly heavy upper school commitment in a subject which uses a large amount of time for internal exam work;

• coursework submissions, e.g. BTEC, which are often of a time-limited nature.