Teachers should receive a 1.8% premium for not working from home

[noblegiraffe]

Interesting suggestion from the NFER who say the teacher recruitment crisis shows no sign of abating.

They suggest at minimum a 3.1% pay rise this year for teachers (govt recommendation is 1-2%) but interestingly, to make teaching competitive with other graduate jobs that allow some element of working from home, teachers should receive 1.8% extra on top of that.

I think commuting costs used to be a given for any job, but now it’s something employers are going to have to start thinking about paying for if they want people in the office.

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/press-releases/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-crisis-shows-no-signs-of-abating-new-report-reveals/

My school has made a big effort in the last couple of years to eliminate out of office hours emailing. If we send emails in the evening, we schedule-send them for the morning. I was a bit about it at the start but it has actually made a difference - where I used to have back and forth discussions with colleagues in the evenings about work stuff that really wasn't that urgent, that's now gone. I can focus on the work I need to do in the evening without worrying about an email arriving that will add something else to the to do list.

Whereas my school decided not to do what yours has done @noblegiraffe - we are "allowed" to send emails as and when we're working, but there's a disclaimer on them all about not expecting a reply outside of "normal working hours."

It's had the same effect - if I happen to be online at 9pm, I can send the email without faffing with the delay option (which weirdly doesn't work on my home laptop) but whoever is on the other end doesn't need to worry about what I might think if they don't reply immediately.

We have developed an annoying cc-ing problem thanks to a couple of staff, though. No, I don't care about the netball. Please don't email everyone about it.

When I was teaching, I rigged the school-supplied laptop so that I had to click on the school's tab to get emails; no banners, no notifications.

Excellent solution.

There was a general culture, including senior management, of not sending emails in the evening, and certainly the few that did, it did not expect a reply until the next day.

This week, for the first time, I have considered leaving teaching.

I work in a tiny school with mixed age classes. I found out how many children have put us as their first choice for reception in September and that 50%of them (4/8 )already have an EHCP.
While this is great that they are getting the support needed so early, it's probably that their needs are severe.
We have 2 children in our current reception class already with an EHCP and one of them is non verbal and in nappies. He has just been refused a place at his nearest SEN school as they say he doesn't fit the cohort and they can't meet his needs.
We can't either ....but that's ok apparently!

There are also 2 other children who may / may not have SEN but require significant support and interventions.
There are 5 members of staff in this class for 3 year groups (R, 1 and 2) and 22 children.

I teach year 3/4, with a shared TA across KS2, so in a couple of years I may have my own TA ( if we can recruit one as we tried recently and got 3 unsuitable applicants who only applied as they were made to by their work coach) but potentially also 6 children with EHCPs out of 15/16.

I am mentally exhausted - I am working so hard in the classroom to be inclusive and adapt the learning, have accessible enhanced provision etc (all of which takes lots of time) as well as plan and teach for the rest of my non SEN cohort already and I only have 3 children with SEN (no EHCPs) this year.
The thought of this (and the paperwork, meetings etc) potentially doubling - I just don't think I can.
I also spent my own money buying some bread and cheap cereal on my way into work yesterday as 2 children in school keep complaining of hunger and are having no breakfast.
Earlier this year I gave one my daughter's old coat and a pair of wellies.

All of this is wearing me down. Why would anyone choose to do it if they can earn more in an easier job? My own older children think it's mad that anyone would want to.

Meetings and the location of them really aren't the big issue in teaching!

When I was teaching it was a pain to have a staff meeting every single week - I think fortnightly would have sufficed - but being at home for it wouldn't have helped. In fact, I would have preferred to be in my classroom so that I could get on with planning and preparation.

My own older children think it's mad that anyone would want to.

And that's the big worry for the future , isn't it?

The current thread where people are posting their pay rises for this year where some people are posting above inflation pay rises along with bonuses certainly didn't get the memo that no one in the private sector gets any pay rise and teachers should be grateful for below-inflation ones.

Meetings and the location of them really aren't the big issue in teaching!

Absolutely-it’s more the point of meetings that should be emails (and emails that should frankly just be deleted and forgotten about!) but that’s a very small issue.

Pay, workload/PPA, Ofsted and funding for SEN are my issues.

The 'scheduled send' is important as it curbs insidious show-boating of late working and setting precedence through a late-night backdoor.

I work after DC go to bed, and always schedule emails for 7:00, as I know people check, and receiving an email sent at 02:06 can set an unhelpful expectation and comparison: "Well, Eve clearly doesn't mind pulling the odd all-nighter, so Mary should stop whingeing about not wanting to receive emails after 9pm..."

I have seen the 'caveated' sign-offs: "I work the hours that suit me but do not expect...", but I think they too set an unhelpful expectation. We shouldn't normalise a ridiculous and harmful culture of out of hours working.

I actually prefer out of hours emails as I can read them bit by bit and decide when to reply.

There is nothing worse than arriving at work, settling down, beginning to prep my stuff for the day - and an avalanche of emails appearing at 8am.

I don't think when they arrive is the issue - it's the volume of irrelevant communication, most of which is during the school day,

Having swapped sides between the caveat signatures and schedule send at different times, to the point I'm amazed there's not splinters in my backside, I've decided culture makes a huge difference.

One of my teams had a lot of part time workers and people with young children. The culture was nice and leaders were very good in their modelling eg. Leaders would schedule send and it meant everyone else could do what suited them.

In other environments I've seen both strategies have unintended consequences and on reflection it's because the culture was wrong.

I think 'I don't expect a response' isn't enough to stop people responding. Because I also work late at night so if I see an email from someone who is clearly happy to send emails late at night, the expectation is that they then won't bat an eyelid at receiving a response, so why shouldn't I respond if they've sent one?

Scheduled send just clears that all away.

But again, all that is fiddling while Rome burns.

But again, all that is fiddling while Rome burns.
I can think of a lot of things that come into that category.

It's something that can actually be done, tbf, and does help. Unlike a lot of things that are in the hands of government, not schools.

I don't care when people send emails. I don't think it's a recruitment strategy either.

I think you work in the early mornings rather than the evenings?

No, not a recruitment strategy. Telling people that their evening work won't be interrupted by emails will raise the issue of evening work.

I'm in a lot of email groups at school due to the nature of my role. The really annoying thing is the number of emails to the group which get replied to by someone saying "can someone deal with this?"

9 times out of 10, I'm teaching, so the first I know about it is when it gets to break or whatever, and now I have 20 emails to wade through, all of which are variations on "someone needs to deal with this".

I send emails anytime between 5am and 8pm, and over weekends. I have colleagues who have small children who send their replies after their kids are in bed. Out of hours emails are not the issue at my school. It's the pointless "chatter" during the day.

Yes, I do. Therefore, don't want a load of emails then.

The vast majority of my emails come while I am teaching. Most of them say 'Ian is wearing trainers/ has anyone seen Gladys?/interminably long email explaining a meeting/ the toilets are locked due to flooding/Ian has lost his blazer/ Gladys has been found/ don't forget to do your pointless data eight different ways'

Yes, I do. Therefore, don't want a load of emails then.

Same for those who work in the evenings...

My school seems to be better at emails than others. The only person who can send all-staff emails is the head, I hear in other schools you get all-staff emails saying stuff like 'does anyone want to sponsor me to skydive?' Or loads of stuff about kids you don't teach.

What they are not good at is the expectation that teachers phone home at the drop of a hat. Set by people who have an office, a phone, and free periods in which to make phone calls. Everyone else has to make their phone calls from the one department phone at the end of the day, in the same room where other people are trying to hold work discussions. This expectation has crept up and up over the years.

What is a real issue with 'we need to tackle workload by removing unproductive tasks' workload bodies is that we are in a situation where we need to tackle workload by removing tasks that are considered productive.

We need to be able to say no to things like second sets of mocks. Endless contact with parents. Y11 revision sessions. But on a wider societal level, all the propping up of the lack of SEN provision. All the propping up of the lack of mental health provision.

And there are people who will really object to this.

See the recent thread complaining about how some schools don't do written reports anymore.

We need to be able to say no to things like second sets of mocks. Endless contact with parents. Y11 revision sessions. But on a wider societal level, all the propping up of the lack of SEN provision. All the propping up of the lack of mental health provision.

Some of these things my school doesn't do:

No second sets of mocks.
No compulsory revision sessions.
Our email addresses are guessable but not routinely provided to parents.
We only do written reports for y11 upwards.

But we have students whose needs are too profound for Special Schools, and kids routinely failed by CAMHS.

Hmmm... I think everyone who schedule send seems to think 8 am onwards is a free for all so I think the porblem is bigger in the morning than the evening because people who arrive at work also send them unscheduled then. I tend to only get maybe 4 or 5 emails after about 4 pm. I can get perhaps 30 to 40 between 7.30 and 8.15.

Another huge addition to workload is being asked to provide work for all the school refusers, ill kids, suspended kids (who never complete it but it is a legal requirement) etc etc. Email at 11 am with request to provide a lesson to send home by 2pm was the worst of yesterday's. Erm, I'm solidly teaching then; this is not possible.

Interestingly, we don't set work for ill kids or school refusers. Policy is that we put all work on teams anyway, so if they want it, it's there.