Teachers demand 20-hour week limit for lessons

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) called for new limits on working hours amid concerns school staff are facing “totally unsustainable” workloads.

In some cases, teachers are left with little time to eat, talk, think or even go to the toilet, the NUT’s annual conference in Liverpool heard.

Delegates at the conference backed a decision by the NUT’s executive to draw up a draft contract setting out a 35-hour working week for teachers.

This include 20 hours of “pupil contact time” – the equivalent to four hours a day in the classroom, as well as 10 hours for lesson planning, preparation and assessment, and five hours for “non-contact duties” such as staff meetings, parents’ evenings and logging pupils’ results.

Speaking during the debate Christopher Denson said teachers are telling the union that “workload levels are totally unsustainable”.

The Coventry representative claimed that official figures from 2010 show that a primary classroom teacher works 50.2 hours a week on average, while a secondary school teacher works an average of 49.9 hours.

“The same data tells us that four in five teachers have worked all through a night to catch up with work and spend every single term-time Sunday catching up with lessons,” Mr Denson said.

He added: “It’s essential that we act to ensure that what’s already NUT policy – a maximum working week of 35 hours – becomes a reality for teachers.”

Richard Rose, an NUT member from Cambridgeshire, said teachers were “fed up” with arriving at school at quarter to eight in the morning, and most staying until half past six in the evening. During that time, there is no time to eat, there’s no time to talk, there’s no time to think, there’s no time to chat, there’s not even time to go to the toilet in many cases.

“And after a day’s work, what do you do when you get home? Do you relax? I am sure you all know, there’s another two, three, four hours’ work. The number of emails you get after midnight – people sending each other plans and data and targets and things like that – is incredible.”

Delegates at the conference passed a resolution calling on the NUT to support requests from groups seeking to stage strike action in individual schools over workload.