Purpose
The Teachers’ Agreement (2020) covers a whole range of areas including teachers’ Pay, Workload, Inspections and Health & Wellbeing. It also reminds us that each teacher should have a Directed Time Budget, so it is the professional duty of principals in all schools to ensure a Directed Time Budget is prepared for each teacher which gives due regard to their individual responsibilities. The Principal should make arrangements to ensure that teachers are consulted in relation to their Directed Time Budgets. However, teachers do not have freedom to decide for themselves how they allocate their time.
Furthermore, the Workload Agreement of 2011 reminds us that "The time budget should be distributed prior to the commencement of the teaching year." (Workload Agreement TNC 2011/8 Appendix III paragraph 1.3)
Resource
An online resource for school principals designed to support the development of Directed Time Budgets, can be accessed by clicking on this link.
The resource is a Sway, a quick reference intended as an introduction to the key messages of the time budget process.
At the end of the Sway you will find further support materials comprising of:
- PowerPoint - a detailed professional learning resource to support discussion, encourage reflection and clarify understanding of the time budget process;
- Checklist - to enable a review of planning;
- Directed Time Budget questions that principals have asked, together with answers.
- Key reference documents.