Is the directed time calculator free?

Yes. It is part of the timetable, which is on the free plan, and there is no card needed to start. One extra is on Pro: if your team calendars hold parents' and open evenings, Pro suggests them for your log in one tap. Adding them by hand is free and works the same way.

What counts as directed time?

The time your headteacher can direct you to be at work and available: teaching, PPA, duties, meetings and briefings, cover, and directed evenings such as parents' evenings and open evenings. Work you choose when and where to do, such as marking at home, is not directed time.

Where do the 1,265 hours and 10% come from?

The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2025. Paragraph 52.5 sets the minimum 10% PPA allocation, and paragraphs 51.5 and 51.6 set the 1,265 hours over 195 days, pro-rata for part-time staff. The calculator uses the same figures as our free public PPA and directed time calculator.

Does it work if I am part time?

Yes. Enter your contracted hours and the full-time equivalent, and the annual limit is scaled to your contract, so your total is measured against the right cap rather than the full-time one.

What happens at the end of the school year?

The count covers one academic year, 1 September to 31 July, and turns over on 1 August. A new year starts from zero rather than carrying last year's timetable and evenings forward, so September is a clean slate.

Can my school see my directed time?

No. Your contracted hours, your log and your totals are private to your account and are not shared by team membership or by timetable sharing. This is a record you keep for yourself.

Directed Time Calculator for Teachers

A directed time calculator that reads your real timetable

Most directed time calculators are a spreadsheet you fill in once and never open again. This one sits inside the timetable you already keep, so your teaching hours, your PPA and your 1,265 hours are counted from the week you actually work.

Included on the free plan · No card needed

Nobody hands you a running total

The limits are in the STPCD. Whether you are inside them is left to you to work out.

Directed time is the time your headteacher can direct you to work: teaching, PPA, duties, meetings and briefings, cover, parents' evenings and open evenings. The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document caps it at 1,265 hours a year for a full-time teacher, and guarantees at least 10% of your timetabled teaching time as planning, preparation and assessment. Both are real entitlements. Neither arrives as a number on a screen.

So most teachers either never check, or check once in September with a spreadsheet and a calculator, then let it drift as duties get added and a twilight appears in the calendar. By the time it matters, in a workload conversation or a union query, the evidence has to be reconstructed from memory and a paper planner.

Teacher Task Manager totals it from the timetable you have already entered. Every teaching period, every PPA period and every free period is already there, so the calculator opens with your real week in it. Add your contracted hours, log the evenings you attend as they happen, and your position against both limits is a button away for the whole year.

What the directed time calculator does

Counts what you already told it, then checks the two numbers that matter.

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Totals from your timetable

Your weekly teaching and PPA hours come straight from your timetable slots. Nothing to re-enter, and it updates as your timetable changes.

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The 10% PPA check

See your timetabled PPA as a percentage of your teaching time, checked against the statutory minimum, so a short allocation shows up early rather than in June.

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Your 1,265 hours, projected

Your weekly hours are projected across the directed year and set against the annual limit, so you can see where you are heading rather than where you have been.

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A log for the extras

Parents' evenings, open evenings and other directed sessions go in a personal log as you attend them, so your evenings count towards the total alongside the school day.

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Part-time, pro-rata

Enter your contracted hours against full time and the annual limit is scaled to your contract, so a part-time total is measured against a part-time cap.

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A nudge on your dashboard

If your PPA falls under the minimum or your projection passes the cap, a card appears on your home dashboard. The rest of the time it stays out of the way.

What it looks like

A full-time timetable, totalled and checked.

Directed time

2026 to 2027 · Full time

Your data

Teaching: 15h 50m a week
Timetabled PPA: 2h 30m a week
All directed: 24h a week
Directed weeks: 39
Contracted: 32.5 of 32.5h
Annual limit: 1,265h

Planning, preparation and assessment

Your timetabled PPA is 2h 30m a week, which is 15.8% of your teaching time.
The statutory minimum is 10%, or 1h 35m a week, so you are inside your entitlement.

Directed hours this year

24h a week projected across 39 directed weeks comes to 936 hours.
Plus 11h 30m logged for two parents' evenings and an open evening.
That is 947h 30m of your 1,265 hours, leaving 317h 30m.

Worked out in your browser from your own timetable. Nothing here is sent to a server or shared with your school.

Your hours stay yours

This is the one part of Teacher Task Manager that never leaves your device. The maths runs entirely in your browser, from your own timetable and a small private settings record holding your contracted hours and your evening log. No AI is involved and nothing is sent to our servers to be calculated.

The settings and the log are readable only by you. Teacher Task Manager lets you share a timetable with colleagues in a team, and directed time is deliberately outside that: sharing your timetable never shares your contracted hours, your log or your totals. Your school cannot see this, and neither can we.

You can read the full detail of what the app stores and who can reach it on our privacy policy, and what each AI feature sends on our AI and data transparency page.

Frequently asked questions

Is the directed time calculator free?: Yes. It is part of the timetable, which is on the free plan, and there is no card needed to start. One extra is on Pro: if your team calendars hold parents' and open evenings, Pro suggests them for your log in one tap. Adding them by hand is free and works the same way.
What counts as directed time?: The time your headteacher can direct you to be at work and available: teaching, PPA, duties, meetings and briefings, cover, and directed evenings such as parents' evenings and open evenings. Work you choose when and where to do, such as marking at home, is not directed time.
Where do the 1,265 hours and 10% come from?: The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) 2025. Paragraph 52.5 sets the minimum 10% PPA allocation, and paragraphs 51.5 and 51.6 set the 1,265 hours over 195 days, pro-rata for part-time staff. The calculator uses the same figures as our free public PPA and directed time calculator.
Does it work if I am part time?: Yes. Enter your contracted hours and the full-time equivalent, and the annual limit is scaled to your contract, so your total is measured against the right cap rather than the full-time one.
What happens at the end of the school year?: The count covers one academic year, 1 September to 31 July, and turns over on 1 August. A new year starts from zero rather than carrying last year's timetable and evenings forward, so September is a clean slate.
Can my school see my directed time?: No. Your contracted hours, your log and your totals are private to your account and are not shared by team membership or by timetable sharing. This is a record you keep for yourself.