Make a list of everything you do to improve wellbeing
Case study
School details
School name: Barr Beacon School
Location: Walsall, West Midlands
Phase: Secondary
Number of pupils: 1500
Contact details: Email David Lowbridge-Ellis MBE, Director of School Improvement at dlowbridgeellis@matrixacademytrust.co.uk
Impact and outcomes
Making a list of everything you do to reduce workload and improve wellbeing can help you:
- remind yourself of everything you’ve done already
- think about what else you could do
Background from David Lowbridge-Ellis MBE, Director of School Improvement
Our list helps us to see what we might do next. We’re always looking at policies and practices to see what our next step could be.
Teacher workload will not be sorted overnight, but making a list of what you already do is a good way to start.
Our list of what we do to reduce workload and improve wellbeing
Trust our teachers
Our teachers decide on the best approach for their pupils. They choose how to:
- adapt schemes of work
- give feedback to pupils
- plan lessons (we do not ask them to write lesson plans)
They also design our teaching and learning policies with us because they know what works best for different subjects.
We do not grade teachers’ lessons, or expect them to look busy or stay late.
Support professional development
We do not have a hierarchical approach to professional development, recognising that a senior leader can learn from an early career teacher (ECT) and vice versa. We:
- support teachers to complete NPQs
- fund teachers who want to achieve Chartered Status
- tailor professional development to staff needs
- ensure that any professional development finishes no later than 4:15pm and time off in lieu is given
- ensure that ECTs have comprehensive support such as regular meetups, dedicated mentors, coaching and study visits abroad
- support teachers at all levels to learn from each other, such as middle leaders shadowing senior leaders
- have a bespoke development package for second and third year teachers
Socialise and support one another
We:
- organise regular staff events outside school
- have a culture of peer-to-peer praise
Look after staff health
We offer free flu jabs and health checks in school.
Protect staff time
We:
- do not have meetings just because they’re in the calendar
- we use meetings to talk about the curriculum and how we’ll organise, plan and schedule it
- take something away if something new is introduced
- avoid unnecessary data entry
- make sure data is never entered twice and we do not record data that we will not use
- streamline all our systems and processes where possible
- have a central media team who make lesson resources, such as videos
- mark only for the benefits of pupils - not for observers, parents and carers
We do not expect teachers to:
- respond to emails outside of school hours
- email or phone parents and carers – our administrative team does this
- write written reports for parents and carers
- spend more than an hour when giving feedback on any class or set of books or essays
- cover more than one lesson every half term
- teach more than 22 out of 25 periods per week
Seek staff feedback
We ask staff to provide feedback regularly through surveys.
Staff can talk to the senior leadership team (SLT) about any concern, no matter how small.
Reduce behavior management workload
The SLT help to prevent behavioural issues coming up in class by running lunch duty.
We have a rota system to ensure that pupils always see a familiar face and no cover is required. A familiar face better represents the school’s expectations for behaviour.
All staff reinforce our high expectations of behaviour, and we use sections consistently so that pupils accept them.
Support teachers to progress up the pay scale
We support teachers to progress up the pay scale if they’ve done all they can to improve pupil outcomes.
We also support teachers to move further up the pay scale between their third and fourth year of teaching where appropriate.
We tailor performance management to the individual’s development needs.
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