Many schools are now going to great lengths to minimise workload for staff, including strategies such as centralised teaching resources, marking and feedback policies emphasising the benefits of whole-class feedback, live-marking, and self-assessment, and sensible timetabling and calendar planning that avoids surges in workload and reduces pressure on staff at pinch points during the year.
A clear school vision with regularly reviewed and shared priorities can help staff to prioritise. A visible staffing structure, where staff know their roles, responsibilities and the limits of their authority also has huge benefits in preventing unnecessary time wasted in getting decisions made and enabling much faster progress.
While school leadership teams have a responsibility for monitoring staff workload and also for reviewing policies and procedures that support both effective practice and sensible workload, every member of staff also has responsibility for managing their own situation.
Despite schools adopting many of the strategies listed, it will probably come as no surprise to you to learn that tackling workload and improving work/life balance is one of the most common issues that lead staff to sign up to coaching. It is usually worth starting by unpicking the context – what the reality of the individual’s personal situation is.
What is your current situation?
What are your typical working hours? What time do you typically arrive to and leave from school each day? How many additional hours (and when) are you working at home during the evenings and weekends? What are you typically doing during these times? What impact is this having on your effectiveness and morale in school? What impact is this having on your personal, family and social life? What are your thoughts and feelings on this? If nothing changes, what will happen?
Ultimately, is this current working practice sustainable? For many staff that I support across different schools, the answer is no.
Many teachers and leaders tell me that they perceive their role as a stepping-stone before burn-out sets in and until they figure out what that elusive, more manageable role is.
SecEd Supplement: Early career teachers – Forming healthy habits: This article was first published in SecEd’s recent 20-page supplement for early career teachers. The free pdf download offers advice, tips and ideas to help new teachers survive and thrive at the chalkface. Themes include pedagogy, workload control, wellbeing, mentoring, professional conduct, and general advice. Download it here!
What’s the real issue?
Sadly, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and issues around workload are multi-factorial. Some factors are perhaps out of your control but there are always things you can do to improve your situation. To illustrate, the following are all real examples of staff who have signed up for coaching to achieve “work/life balance”. The underlying issues driving their high workload are all different but in every case the member of staff was able to dramatically improve their situation without any change in school policy or procedure.
- Andrew is a recently qualified teacher and is working a huge number of hours outside of school to get his lessons planned to a really high standard. He is hopeful things will improve in the future once everything is prepared and this work habit won’t stick, but his current working practice is having a significant and negative impact on his personal life.
- Brian is home by 5:30pm every day and never does any work during the evenings and weekends. However, he is not managing behaviour well in school. His stress response to the constant conflict is exhausting him and he is not able to enjoy things he loves outside of school.
- Christine is working all hours possible. This is driven by personal issues she is having outside of school and she is using work as a distraction.
- Debbie is a new leader. She is over-compensating for her lack of confidence (and perceived lack of effectiveness leading her team) by spending more time on the paperwork side of her role that she feels she can do well.
- Elizabeth really struggles to switch off from work. She is often ruminating and worrying over work issues during evenings and weekends. She is constantly checking her work emails while she is at home or when socialising.
- Frances feels constantly overwhelmed with work and she rarely seems to get on top of all the tasks that pile up on a daily basis.
- Georgina suffers from “teacher guilt”. She is so used to working long hours, she is worried what “they” might think if she works less at night or leaves school early occasionally.
Do any of these scenarios resonate with you? These themes of perfectionism, stress, anxiety, wellbeing and confidence could be an article in themselves – but more importantly they can be overcome with appropriate coaching, mentoring or CPD. What support is available that you can take advantage of? Have you spoken to your mentor in the first instance?
Alternatively, Education Support offers free immediate and confidential support with a qualified counsellor for any member of staff within the education sector. It also offers online resources to support with anxiety, stress, burn-out, working life, depression, bereavement or grief (see further information).
What is your ideal situation?
If you want to make changes to your working practice, it may help to consider the following:
- What specifically do you want to change?
- In an ideal world, what would your working day or week look like?
- How would you like to feel? It can help to think about your wider commitments – the school run, date night, if you want to go to the gym twice a week, etc.
- Would this new work-life be sustainable for you in the long term? How would you feel living this life?
Map-out your week
One strategy many staff have found to be useful is to design a detailed printable weekly planner grid on an A4 page. Start with your teaching timetable. Add in all your lessons and your PPA. Add in any other regular responsibilities such as form time, duties, faculty and pastoral meetings, mentoring or coaching, lunch or after-school clubs, line-management meetings, and any other regular expectations such as regular learning walks or on-call duties.
This should give you a fairly robust overview of actual remaining time you have available to do all the other “work” we need to do to function effectively as teachers.
Next consider all the daily and weekly jobs that you need to get done, such as checking emails, setting, marking, and rewarding homework, setting work for excluded students, reading weekly notices, submitting any planning sheets for practical subjects, planning and preparing for lessons, marking etc.
Where in your working day can you allocate a chunk of time to get each of these tasks done? Some staff opt to put in a chunk of time before school, others chunk one or two blocks of time after school.
It is also worth planning for the unexpected. Something always comes up in teaching – can you allocate time for this to prevent being caught off guard and feeling resentful when that “can you just...” job inevitably comes your way?
Be realistic – this strategy is to help you get into some good habits and think more purposefully about how you are working.
Anyone in teaching knows that there are natural ebbs and flows in the year. I suggest applying the 80:20 rule: if you can maintain your desired working hours the majority (80%) of the time, it then becomes easier to accept when you do need to stay late for the occasional parents’ evening or when 90 mock exams need marking.
Prioritise
The weekly map provides a strong starting point, the next step is to keep on top of the magic porridge pot of jobs that need doing. The staff that seem to be most effective at this often keep updated “to-do” lists. Some use notebooks and enjoy the pure joy of crossing tasks off when they are done, others use spreadsheets on which you can RAG tasks according to priority, rank according to date and “hide” rather than delete when done.
To help with managing your time and reduce any ruminating over when you will actually get chance to do each task, write each job that needs doing on one of your blank “work” times on your timetable.
If you can’t fit all your tasks on your weekly schedule then now is a good time to review. Which jobs are an absolute priority, and which can wait? Do what needs to be done then “trim the fat”. If you are struggling, ask yourself what the impact of non-completion would be, decide from there.
Is your workload dictated by your desire to be perfect (something unachievable) or from school expectations? Speak to your line manager if your workload seems genuinely unachievable.
Your detailed timetable and priority list are a great visual way for them to appreciate your issue at a glance and trouble-shoot with you.
It is worth remembering that leadership teams can only be responsive to workload concerns if you share your issues and concerns with them – they are not mind-readers! What lines of communication do you have to allow for responsive leadership? Line management, faculty meetings, wellbeing drop-ins, coaching, mentoring?
What’s the bigger picture?
What is all this work for? People with a strong sense of purpose or clear career aspirations tend to have a better sense of why they are doing what they are doing and tend to enjoy work more too. What got you into teaching in the first place? What still drives you in teaching? What positive difference do you want to make?
If you were loving what you did every day at work, what would you be doing, who are you working with and where? If you imagine yourself at the end of your career, what would you like your legacy to be?
The balance between work life and personal life is always going to be a challenge when you work full-time. It might be more helpful to think less about the “balance” and more about how you achieve greater satisfaction in each of these areas of your life. Perhaps a coach could help!
- Helen Webb is a science teacher at Orchard Mead Academy in Leicester. She is a professional coach and ITT co-ordinator. Visit https://helenfwebb.wordpress.com follow her @helenfwebb and read her articles at http://bit.ly/seced-webb
Further information & resources
- Education Support: For help or advice on any issue facing those working in education, contact the free 24-hour helpline on 08000 562 561 or for support, visit www.educationsupport.org.uk