It’s been over two years since the government released three reports on reducing teacher workload, covering data management, planning and marking. Yet many teachers are still reporting that they work under policies and practices that fly in the face of said reports’ recommendations. The prison doors are open, but it seems many are scared to leave.
The importance of getting this right is clear. Huge teacher workloads make a sensible work-life balance impossible to maintain. As well as clearly putting a teacher’s wellbeing at risk, this must ultimately impact the wellbeing of the children we teach – after all, how can they thrive when they’re having to spend their days with an overworked, stressed, and in the worst cases, unstable adult?
We know from experience that when colleagues around us are struggling in that negative spiral it can be hard to maintain our own wellbeing, even as adults. On the flip side, no one can deny that good quality teaching requires effort, dedication, and yes, some work in the evenings if it’s going to be done well. The trick seems to be maintaining one’s happiness whilst getting through the inevitable workload. But how?
For most teachers, wellbeing isn’t simply about the school offering one-off ‘wellbeing sessions’ on INSET days. It’s about achievable workloads focussed on the real purpose of our job. Ask your staff the question ‘Why do you teach?’ and the answer is sure to be something along the lines of, ‘To make a positive difference to children’s lives.’
Once that big ‘Why’ is in place, the systems and processes of the school should be compared against it – is all this marking in differently coloured pens actually making a difference, or is it for show? Do these half-termly data drops make a difference to the children, or are they for micromanagement’s sake? Is the difference big enough to justify the workload?
The workload teachers find onerous is that which doesn’t serve their core purpose, but instead seeks to ‘box tick’. Strip away that fluff, and what we’d be left with is the high-impact core that brings satisfaction, rather than stress.
Having been brought up in an overzealous cloud of high-stakes accountability, many teachers will cling to the hours they work as protection from criticism – and who can blame them? They might face a barrage of criticism from SLT, parents and media on a daily basis, but at least no one can say they don’t work hard. Transparency of expectation is key to breaking down this tendency for (dare I say) self-martyrdom among teachers.
Some schools have demonstrated their commitment to wellbeing by creating ‘workload charters’, which clearly outline their commitment to, and expectations of, their staff. These serve as useful myth-busters, and challenge notions such as presentee-ism and outdated expectations in terms of assessment, planning, leading clubs and more.
Leaders need to lead by example too. What time are you leaving? Is your workload focussed your core purpose? Are you sending emails at midnight? It’s not easy, but an open dialogue and reflection on those difficulties with staff can stimulate the debate, humanise you as a leader and give them an opportunity to provide solutions too.
Too often, leaders can be isolated by a desire to protect staff – but opening up that world and not becoming a cautionary tale yourself might be the way to begin to improving wellbeing in your school.
Lucy Starbuck Braidley is a primary school teacher and subject leader for English and PE.
