Establish a school workload group
Example
School details
School name: Baylis Court School
Location: Slough
Phase: Secondary
Number of pupils: 900
Contact details: Email CEO Richard Kearsey at RKearsey@bayliscourttrust.co.uk
Impact and outcomes
Two examples of outcomes achieved by the school workload group at Baylis Court School were:
- the amount of data being gathered was reduced, and therefore the time being spent by staff inputting it without any detrimental impact on pupil outcomes
- staff have become more confident in the use of IT and feel they can work more efficiently
Background from Richard Kearsey, CEO
Baylis Court School set up a working group to address staff workload. This was following the involvement of the executive headteacher in the independent teacher workload review groups for data management.
Why we set up a workload group
School leaders recognised that they needed to better understand the workload of teaching staff. Leaders wanted to develop possible strategies that would reduce workload for teachers without increasing it for others.
The group was chaired by a senior leadership team (SLT) member to ensure that direct feedback was given to senior leaders of the school.
How we established our workload group
Decide on the purpose of the group
For example, to receive feedback on a termly basis about staff workload, and recommendations for colleagues and senior leadership to support staff to manage this.
Decide members of the group
Membership should be representative of staff, and include a range of experience, for example:
- newly qualified teachers (NQTs)
- teachers 2 or 3 years into teaching
- staff who have taught in at least one other school
- middle leaders – both pastoral and academic
- staff who have previously worked outside of teaching
- support staff
- union representatives
Identify priorities of the group
Identify priorities to support staff in managing workload, for example:
- time taken up by replying to e-mail and face-to-face requests for information
- further training on ‘remote access’ for staff
- perceived excessive marking burden
- relevance of some weekly CPD sessions for all staff
- lack of clarity about how staff are meant to spend their directed time
- the imbalance between all-staff meetings, department time and individual time
- scheduling of assessment weeks adjacent to other tasks that may cause more workload, such as book scrutinies every half term
- excessive volume of data entry required due to assessment changes
- teachers having to provide work for students removed from lessons
Develop an action plan
Develop an action plan and disseminate this to staff. Examples of actions:
- review the school’s draft teaching and learning calendar, to make recommendations to support reduction of ‘pressure points’
- produce a weekly staff bulletin, to better support communication with staff and reduce the number of meetings and separate emails
- implement relevant recommendations from the DfE, such as reducing the number of data collection points per academic year
- effective training for staff on use of IT systems
Staff working on these actions, for example, producing the bulletin, should be freed up from other tasks where appropriate.
Evaluate the impact of the group
Evaluate the ongoing impact of the group and share findings with staff.
You could group representatives to run an INSET session to feed back on the work and impact of the group and seek further recommendations.
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