What is your school doing to genuinely reduce teacher workload? Try this simple questionnaire…
With state-school budgets at breaking point, it’s an even harder task for headteachers to reduce teacher workload if headcount is stretched. You can download the self-review document here or just tackle a set of summarised and pointed questions below.
Silly Concepts: Yes or No?
- Do you have to attend more than 2 meetings each week?
- Does your line-manager allocate an opportunity for staff to complete tasks within the meeting time?
- Does your school have a dedicated member of support staff to help prepare resources for teacher training sessions?
- When completing reports or data entry, has any leader estimated the time required to complete the task (for the teacher who teaches the most pupils)?
- Are teachers asked to cover lessons for planned absences?
- Does your school centralise detentions? Does your school discourage Saturday sessions for teaching staff?
- Does your school allow teachers to offer verbal feedback – with no record collection/evidence?
- Has your school abandoned homework timetables? They rarely work, let’s face it …
- Does your school offer a 2-week half-term break?
- And finally something more abstract: If one timetabled period is worth approximately £2k per year, per teacher, how much impact (vs. value) do your staff meetings have?
We all know some schools are operating under a tough set of circumstances. However, if all schools can abandon some silly workload concepts, we can start to reduce high-stakes accountability and help stop teachers leaving the profession prematurely.
Get in touch if you need some support.
Hi,
I would like to request that you post on the subject of neglect and at what point does taking students ‘progress’ into a teachers hands does it become so. Let’s face it, when you’re at your limit, there are no more hours to give, you’re as efficient as a programmed robot and your Head demands more, you have to take and record progress into your own hands. I feel that this is as much neglect as not planning lessons at all.
Another thing, how will not expelling pupils stop them from moving into crime? Aren’t there specialist centres they can go with specialist teachers to deal with their extreme behaviour? Clearly, the years of destruction they cause in schools is enough to say the school is an inappropriate environment for them?
Every child matters, so why are there so many general blankets?
When I used to go on about ready to learn, I was referring to them not having the maturity and should re-enter education when they realise it’s benefits later on – no waste, win
Trial Blanket – expulsion alternative
Put a group to work, pay them per performance and save their learning entitlement until they are ready to learn. Win X 10 sphere
Where to start?