Planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time - non-contact time away from pupils during a teacher’s timetabled week - is a statutory entitlement for all teachers who work under the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), which most teachers in state schools do.

This prized time out of the classroom isn’t just nice to have; it is vital for hard-working teachers, giving them an opportunity to take stock and prepare. If it is interrupted, denied or cancelled, that can mean the difference between a moderately stressful week and one that feels almost impossible.

But if you take a glance at the threads about PPA on any teachers’ online forum, you will see posts about PPA being squeezed or implemented in such a way that it loses its purpose.

What is going wrong? And more importantly, what can we do about it?

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The entitlement for PPA time first came into force in September 2005. I was a learning support assistant at the time and suddenly found myself sat before a class of 30 children, having to think of something for them to do while the deputy head ran around the school with a clipboard, trying to work out who was covering who.

Back then, many schools just weren’t ready for PPA time. Plenty of leaders didn’t really understand it. Perhaps this remains the case. Nevertheless, its introduction gave planning the status it deserves and acknowledged the fact that teachers cannot be expected to teach well unless they are given the time to prepare for lessons within their working week.

What is PPA time?

PPA time is a minimum requirement of 10 per cent of a teacher’s timetabled week. For a full-time class teacher, this corresponds to around two and a half hours per week, which in most cases means one morning or afternoon a week out of class.

All schools run PPA time in different ways. Some leaders organise it so that teachers get exactly their minimum allocation, and not a minute more, while other schools have the resources, or indeed inclination for more generous timetabling.

For teachers with extra responsibilities, like subject leadership, there should be additional non-contact time that is separate from class teachers’ PPA time.

Headteachers cannot direct teachers to use their PPA time in any particular way. However, teachers need to be in school for its duration, unless otherwise agreed, as PPA time counts towards the overall accumulation of 1,265 hours of directed time per year for a full-time teacher. All of this is enshrined in the statutory STPCD.

Now, it all sounds very straightforward. So, what is happening in those schools where PPA time is being squeezed?

The problem is a perfect storm of increasing workload and shrinking school budgets. As school budgets get smaller and smaller, it is perhaps no surprise that PPA time is suffering. But, as more and more work is getting piled onto teachers, these reductions are happening at a time when the oasis of PPA time is needed more than ever.

As leaders grapple with their ever-decreasing budgets, providing adequate cover for PPA can be less of a priority and many teachers across the country are faced with uncertainty each week regarding this minimum time away from their pupils.

Lost PPA time 

Several teachers on forums have described careless approaches taken to PPA. In some schools, if a PPA cover teacher calls in sick, class teachers are routinely asked to go back into class to cover, without that time given being given back to them, because leaders are unwilling to pay for additional cover. This is simply seen as “bad luck”, rather than what it really is: missed statutory time out that leaders are required to find cover for - even if that means stepping in and covering it themselves.

Other teachers describe how their PPA time is given in separate half-hour slots across the week (the minimum amount a PPA slot can be under the STPCD). By the time teachers leave class for a PPA session and set themselves up, the session has turned into a rushed 20 minutes, where little is achieved.

Some teachers also explain how leaders ask them to plan and resource the lessons that cover their own PPA time, when the guidance on this is clear: rather than add to workload, PPA time should decrease it by 10 per cent overall.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are also numerous stories on teachers’ forums about meetings with parents or other professionals being regularly scheduled during teachers’ PPA time. One school even appears to deliberately book teachers on courses on their PPA days, without “paying back” this time, and several others use PPA time for performance management meetings and appraisals, ignoring the statutory STPCD guidelines, which clearly state that “a teacher must not be required to carry out any other duties during the teacher’s PPA time”.

How to save PPA time

What can be done to stop this from happening?

Leaders need to recognise the true value of PPA time and the responsibility that they have to protect it. It seems plain to me that the happiest teachers - who feel more on top of their workload and less stressed than their peers - are employed under headteachers who respect and understand their need for time.

Well-planned PPA time can provide a valuable opportunity for teachers to work together in year groups; for new and inexperienced teachers to plan with more seasoned colleagues; and for the workload of preparing resources to be shared.

Most teachers will tell you that PPA time only puts a small dent in the hours it takes to prepare, plan and assess lessons. Certainly, the time before and after school, including weekends, is still taken up with these tasks. But every little helps. And if research is anything to go by, the planning of lessons is at the heart of good teaching; when a teacher gets this right, then teaching becomes much more effective.

That alone should be enough for school leaders to recognise the value of PPA time. And there are some simple solutions to the problem, too. For instance, I know of schools who contract qualified teachers to plan, resource and cover lessons by hiring specialist teachers for non-core subjects like PE, French or music, so that these are timetabled into the school week as regular cover for PPA time.

Yes, cost is an issue. But teachers are a school’s most valuable resource. As schools face increasing pressure to achieve results, leaders would do well to remember that and to protect the essential time teachers need to be able to do their jobs properly.

The writer is a primary teacher in London.

Further reading

• Statutory guidance on school teachers’ pay and conditions
• How I got my life back from teaching
• Why every new teacher should be collaboratively planning