Teachers and flexible working - thoughts?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/dec/21/uk-teachers-should-be-allowed-to-work-from-home-education-secretary-says

I think this sounds like a good idea but it will have any impact on children's education? How will it be managed?

Really? Are you a teacher? I've worked in a few schools across two counties and it's been the case in all of them. Several other posters on this thread have said they also already take their PPA from home.

I'm sure midwives have plenty of paperwork they could complete from home.

It's really not that hard to understand.

Tutor time first thing (8.35) and after period 6 (3.40) so being able to go home for 50minutes and then come back in would be useless. Don’t think I am alone in this.

Though a did have a U6 tutor group one year and so have some flexibility during exam season.

It won't work in secondary, with 3 separate and random hours of non contact throughout the working week. If I'm free at half 11, but teaching at half 12, I'm not going anywhere. There's tutor group at the start of the day, a duty at the end to stop arriving later on site or leaving earlier.

I get it shouldn't impact pupils' lessons, and Bridget Phillipson has said it's not about cutting contact time. But it should be, by having more staff. That is more flexible and workload reducing.

I teach a core subject, with a TLR, and still have 5 different classes I'm responsible for. That's 150 kids' work to mark, five parents evenings, five X data drops and forecasts each half term, 150 reports, 5 units to plan for at a time, and the associated numbers of additional needs to cater to, liaise with SENCo about, contact parents for.....

90% teaching with 10% given over to planning those lessons well, preparing resources, assessing work and giving feedback and everything else that comes with the job is ridiculous.

Yes, I've been a full time secondary teacher for 21 teachers, in 4 schools. Most of my friends are teachers, they have never it.
Not a thing in my daughter's high school either.
We're in NW England.

There are so few non-contact hours throughout the course of the week that this isn't exactly a massive initiative. Over the last 16 years, two schools I've worked in have had no problem with people going off site for any reason during non-contact hours, and only one had a strict "you must be on site at all times" policy.

Also, wondering whether working from home up to 3 hrs a week would be productive/feasible- does this imply that teachers don't currently do at least double this at home every week! 🤣🤣

secondary near us did introduce 4 day week for full time pay, It cost a fair amount because obviously they had to over-staff and to make the timetable work everyone had to agree to teach a second subject I think. There is a trust advertising near me that is doing one day at home a fortnight as well.

Im SENCO so have a lot of non-contact time but I’m expected to be on site, tbh a huge amount of this is spent dealing with kids who are dysregulated, if I’m out it’s a nightmare when I get back.

I spend my PPA planning then printing off all the stuff for the next 2 weeks. No way I'd be able to do that at home thanks to the stupid amount of sheets I need to photocopy.

The limit we could say for many jobs. I was forced to step back as a legal aid solicitor as 90 hour weeks I could no longer do.

However, our wonderful small school has three teachers per 1-2,3-5,6-7 all part time and all work from home.

So they do a day each per week in class, then a day at home for two weeks, then a long week every three weeks with the extra day and a half, Scotland.

The children absolutely understand the system, in fact get cross if it changes due to anything like a family crisis.

The quality of teaching is exceptional, they work as a team.

I have no issue with making life easier for anyone in a practical way if possible

Being able to take PPA at home made a huge difference to me. I love my afternoon away from school. I get much more done than I ever did in school.

Don't know why people are reacting so strongly to this! Surely it just means that ppa can be taken at home, which lots of teachers already do. Big fuss over nothing!

Even more laziness?
If you're a teacher you need to get out of your school, if this is your experience. I've worked in a number of schools and laziness isn't something I'd ever flag as problematic in any of them. Working too many hours, not taking enough breaks, giving too much of themselves - these are the problems that I see that lead to wider problems in education.

That's okay. No one is suggesting you'll have to take PPA at home! They're not going to frogmarch you out of the building.

Ah I'm primary. Obviously it's much easier to be off site if it's for a 2.5 hour chunk. Its so normal to me I'm genuinely surprised this is news. I don't even have wrap around care in place for my child on a PPA afternoon as it's a given I'll do a half day teaching and then pick him up at half 3.

Might be useful for Senior Leaders who can stay at home and ignore all behaviour problems whilst competing all their important work.

I'm not a teacher. But I know they have protected time for planning and preparation. So what's the issue with this? Presumably there will be some changes in working/teaching arrangements so that this can be taken as a proper focused block of time (half-day a week, or day a fortnight etc etc).

Why are people resistant to this? If it brings people into the profession or helps retention it can only be a good thing. Why shouldn't they have access to hybrid working if it doesn't damage actual teaching activity?

@RedRosie people are resistant to it because there's is a pervasive myth that teachers don't work hard enough and anything that makes their lives easier should be discouraged.

You appear to have chosen to ignore the phrase 'in some staff'. There are some staff in every school that do the bare minimum. Please don't be disingenuous.

Teachers still refer to ‘free periods’. What they actually are is PPA periods.

In my primary, teacher have one full day out every two weeks for PPA. They take this from home. Lessons are covered by specialist teachers.

I’d love this - particularly the specialist teachers.
Our PPA is covered by HLTAs and we have to plan and mark it which is a pain in the bum as our HLTAs need a lot of spoon feeding so you have to include ask this child this if he responds this then ask this if he responds that then say that. It is very time consuming to try and preempt all those micro decisions you make during the course of a lesson.
I know you are not supposed to plan for your PPA but when we raised this with SLT we were told we get 3 hrs a week when we are only entitled to 2 and a 1/4 to allow for this extra planning so stop moaning.

The only objection I have is that it's a sop and a distraction and I seriously doubt it will make much or indeed any difference to recruitment and retention. Allowing you to do one small chunk of your excessive workload in a different location may be slightly more convenient for some teachers but it does not solve the problem of excessive workload. (Or obviously the problems of underfunding or behaviour problems or increasing numbers of students with SEN or unrealistic accountability or any of the other things wrong with the school system these days.)

I think most of us who have lasted more than a year or two in UK state education have already taken a pay cut in order to work "part time". It's the only reliable way to get the hours in term time down to 40 ish pw. 50 if it's an open evening/parents' evening/marking deadline week.

I find the "flexible working" proposal laughable. Nothing about teaching is flexible, on the employer's side anyway!

This is not a moan about my actual employer, who are very decent.

That is just your school. My school don’t make me do this. Choose schools wisely!

Pythag. I used to work for a better school but it was taken over by an academy trust. Choice in teaching contracts is very limited. I work for a big trust that has multiple schools in my area. Moving outside of your current school is also v difficult if you are on UPS as salaries are no longer portable.