If you are a teacher - what can/should SMT do to motivate you?

[WishIwasanastronaut]

Just that really. Motivation at my school is at an all time low.
10% of the staff seem to do 90% of the work.
Being stricter on the teachers who take the piss is obviously one way of tackling the issue but I'm more interested in how to reward those that go above and beyond the daily grid.
Any ideas?

I think, in teaching, everyone just needs to be a bit kinder to each other. The fast pace in schools these days means colleagues barely get to say two words to each other.

In briefings, we used to celebrate colleagues' good news, such as marriages, new babies and achievements outside of school. That seems to have all gone, and it's a shame.

I think appraisal should be a two-way street. We should appraise SMT.

Cake is not sellotape or perhaps gripfill to mend the cracks. We have been through a very high number of Head Teachers recently and those who provide cakes do not have my respect. I can't eat shop bought cake anyway and luckily so can't our very good current head. Ok cake rant over. Staff need to feel valued and supported professionally. Even the most experienced members of staff sometimes are not performing at their best, take time to find out why. do you want me to start on the high heels rant now?

If we run a club for 2 terms, we are given a day off in lieu somewhere else in the year. It's a small reward, but an invaluable one as it gives you the opportunity to go to a friend's wedding/take a long weekend away/see your own child's school play etc. etc.

I agree with Iggi that people who put in extra hours should be rewarded with time out to catch up in other areas.

If you run a lunch club at my school you get a free school dinner.

I worked at an 'outstanding' school with low morale. They were always handing out questionnaires and they had a cake Friday once a month. Everyone liked the cake but it made zero difference to morale!

There is lots that could be done to raise teachers' morale. Absolutely all of it would be ways of reducing the admin/data collection/endless initiatives/ accounting for your work which grinds teachers down and prevents them from doing the important parts of their job. Unfortunately SMTs are unable or unwilling to address any of that. So they give you cake instead.

'How can we improve morale?' is usually shorthand for 'How can we make teachers put up and shut up, while we pile even more crap on them?'

Agreed with the cake. It's shorthand for 'we know you've had a hard term and don't ever have time for a wee let alone time for sitting down in the staffroom but have some we feel like we ought to do something.'

A day release is a great but expensive idea.

We have to upload all our planning on to a shared drive. It's crap.

Well, it would help if you applied the same attitude to the staff as to the children. You know, praise and encouragement, two stars and a wish, recognition when they are tryiing very hard but need support. Sticking to the rules and not inventing new challenges every time someone mamnages to do everything they are supposed to.
if OFSTED observed a sequence of lessons where the class were offtask, messing about and crossing boundaries with little learning going on, they'd be targeting the teacher and the SLT, asking WTF is going wrong. Not the children. That's the visible consequence of failure further up the line.
If your staff are unmotivated and doing the minimum, ask yourselves why people are taking the piss and why they don't feel an engaged member of the workforce.
How many of your SLT are actual teachers taking a share of the load? Seen to be doing so?

Lots of people jumping to conclusions here:
Everyone gets free lunch and breakfast every day if the want it plus as much fruit as they like and mineral water
Lesson plans do not have to be uploaded. Our MT planning is still in development so the current minimum requirement is 6 x 1 side of a4 sheets stating essential objectives to be covered and ways of assessment per year.
No SMT walks - ever.
1 obs per year.
Small classes (approx 10-12 usually, max 20) so not too much marking.
No behavioural problems.

Thank for the ideas of how to motivate all staff and deal with slackers. I have been asked specifically for ideas on how to reward the minority who do more than they are expected to. In other sectors, they would be given a kind of bonus but that can't work in teaching as we can't measure it.

How to deal with slackers?
Use the systems that are in place already: lesson observations, data scrutiny, performance managements, learning walks, support plans and then competency.
It's no good trying to think of shiney trinkets to rewards those going above and beyond, what will help them more and boost their morale is knowing it's not always just down to them and that the SLT is making those hard decisions that justify them having the SLT posts. Which include reminding staff what the expectations are and holding them to account.
How is your current stance benefiting the pupils? It isn't, IMO.

Are you a state school? The numbers seem incredibly low.

WHY can't you give bonuses? isn't that what the new PM structure was supposed to be for - rewarding excellence? or is that the part of it that, like many HTs it seems, you don't believe in?

In primary you often work in teams to share planning and resources, if someone doesn't pull their weight that does mean someone else carrying them and more as these things need to be done, of course people need to be held to account of someone else is doing their job for them, and it's amazing have far a simple acknowledgement that you are going a good job goes , most teachers I know generally just want to do exactly that !

How new is this school if you don't have schemes of work yet? Is it a free school?

Perhaps staff are demotivated because they were hired with promises of an exciting vision and they got an SMT who don't know what they are doing and have been left to get on with it without clear guidance? I can't imagine a school where the teachers are regularly bunking off lessons and aren't on strict capability.

Or maybe you just hired the wrong people?

Is it possible to give them an afternoon off? A full time teacher with their own children may appreciate doing something simple like picking their own children up from school.

We are jumping to conclusions by not assuming that everyone gets a free lunch and breakfast?
This is not a school as most of us one here would recognise a school. I think if it's as cushy as you say and there are still staff problems you need to bring an outside person in to evaluate what the heck is going on. Very odd scenario.

I am talking about those that do not plan engaging lessons, rather get kids to copy from photocopied sheets; those who are often off sick but aren't really sick; those who are not punctual; leave their lesson for long periods of time; use iPads/iPhones for work unrelated things in the classroom; those who do not upload their paperwork/share their planning etc.

If you know this is going on then it's down to you to stop it:

No leaving classrooms
No phones or iPads in classrooms (by the way, how do you know they're misusing them?)
Pull up the tardy, every time
Don't know how you know they're not really sick
If it's rule to upload paperwork, then call them on it.

How hard can this be?

I still think you just need to sack some.

It's. Private school right?
If so I don't give a toss

Wow - sounds like your school has great working conditions compared with normal state schools. It is odd then that you have all these slackers. A school like that should expect to get a great field of candidates for teaching posts. I worked in a private school for 10 years. It was great, although the classes weren't as tiny as yours. Staff morale was good and there weren't any slackers that I was aware of. Although there had been some problems with older members of staff who had been at the school fir donkeys' years and dug their heels in over changes.

So the question is, why do you have a load of people not pulling their weight? Were they crap to start with, or are they taking the mickey because there is something seriously wrong with the way they are being treated or the way the school is run? I would have thought that a decent SMT who knows their staff would be able to find that out.

I'm quite surprised about the comments re planning. I've been teaching for many years but still plan all my lessons and would expect my staff to do the same (primary). I also check teachers' planning regularly as it tells me a lot about what is going on in the classrooms. Sublect leaders are also expected to have an overview of planning for their subjects.

I still remember that when I was a young teacher, the deputy head teacher acknowledged something I had gone out of my way to do. I was very chuffed that it had been acknowledged and I still remember her comment 20 years later!

Sounds like people have to do too much shit - uploading exam stats etc is an admin job not a teaching job. Honestly - you don't sound like great SLT. The "above and beyond" should not be an expectation. If staff do these things, then a simple thank you will suffice.

We have a new HT at my school. The one think he's done which makes a difference, compared to the old HT is that he is constantly out and about, chatting to kids and teachers - if I'm on duty, he'll come over and say hi, ask about specific things (how did the practical exam go? What's the latest with that 6th form project) etc etc. He's interested and we feel valued and therefore morale has improved. He's never bought cake, but he's told us, collectively, that we're doing a great job.

Perhaps if you just think back to when YOU were a lowly classroom teacher, then you'll come up with something. TBH, you sound a bit arrogant. Surely if you're SLT now, you've been a main scale teacher at some point?

Just so you know, if you decide to get rid of those who are taking the piss, there'll be an avalanche of decent hardworking teachers from the state sector who'd take up those posts at the drop of a hat.

Not necessarily. I wouldn't teach in an independent school for anything. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

I've been teaching 10 years. I plan my lessons, but if anyone asked to see my planning they'd have to look at a few words tapped into my iPad probably the day before, or the lesson before if I have PPA. Something like 'solve eqns unknowns both sides pg 63'

If management wanted more than that, or more in advance then I'd be planning for the look of it and for their benefit, which would be a waste of my time.

pud I plan all my lessons too! I don't share my planning with smt though, or upload it to a central database. I just have it written in my own planner. If anyone needs to know what I'm doing they can look at the sow we use.

I have a feeling this is one of the differences between primary and secondary though.

I agree with your comment on acknowledgement. Whilst all these ideas for extra pay, time off etc are nice, I don't see them as necessary. Being recognised for what you do well means a lot to most people, and is such a simple thing.

I organised an annual trip abroad for years. One deputy head hadn't even realised it was my trip - I realised from a comment she made that she thought my hod organised it. I still remember how pissed off I was that my hard work went unnoticed. I know it sounds petty, bit I think it's just human nature to want a little recognition at times. Just a thank you in passing can make the world of difference.

Agree with Noble My planning says stuff like "Brecht 3" or "Peer assess work in progress" - if I was to write out in detail, it would be for the benefit of someone other than me or the kids and therefore would be a waste of my time. Uploading it to somewhere would be one step too far (two actually)