I'm SMT - tell me what would make your job easier or your workload reduce?

[Sandringhat]

So I would like to ask teachers what things could we do to make your job easier? I don't mean things your line manager should do, like support you with your tricky year 8s or order another printer.

I mean things that are out of your head of departments hands. Things that could make a difference to the overall school as a workplace, what schools have you worked at that did certain things brilliantly?

Stop asking for the same information in 12 different ways / formats.

Speak to other leaders so that you’re not all asking for stuff at the same time.

If you’re non teaching SLT offer to cover a lesson or two to help the teaching staff out.

A little kindness goes a long way.

Encourage union membership, especially to NQTs and trainees.

The thing about valuing experienced staff is so true.

Also value part timers. Flexible working is increasingly being seen as the way to keep people in teaching, yet at my school certainly you can expect a crap timetable, be excluded from promotion and be put in 5 million different classrooms. Oh, and you won’t know what’s going on because they don’t publish meeting minutes. You’re not going to keep people in teaching by treating them badly.

Seconded. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been in meetings where heads have talked about ‘our dynamic young staff’ ... it really really pisses me off. Particularly when I’ve done my best to support said staff.

When did that not having minutes thing start? It's so true!!

Get to know your staff. Ask them how their kids are; Remember what hobbies they do and take an interest; get to know their strengths and use them.
It's so easy and completely free and just feeling that you are acknowledge and respected makes all the difference with how much extra you put in to the job.

Read ‘The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Teacher’, especially the chapter about ‘hero teachers’ and marking.

Introduce self marking homework. Show My Homework is good for this.

Make all tech systems link up to some kind of central school system so most only require same user name and password and can share data (no need to duplicate data entry). SIMS is the best one i’ve Used.

Kill the ‘hero teacher’ culture. Overly praising the person who’s books are marked every lesson and who is up until 1am making whizzy PPs and displays creates a really toxic culture.

Agree to lots of these but especially:

Be visible in the corridors/classrooms - not to make staff feel as if they are being 'learning walked' but to let pupils see that you're interested in them and that you've got teachers' backs where needed

Value experienced staff

Centralise detentions

In addition:

Do your very best to avoid classes having multiple teachers and teachers having multiple rooms to teach in

Avoid having mock exams for the both GCSE and A level all at the same time, and be mindful that some subjects take substantially longer to mark than others

Reduce the amount of data entry points and never, ever, require people to submit several versions of the same data

Put a limit or cap on how much you expect your middle leaders to do with the time they have. Ensure they have a nominated member of admin staff they can delegate admin tasks too.

*to

Be present. Go to every concert/play/exhibition/parents evening etc and STAY TILL THE END. My previous AMAZING headteacher used to stay to the bitter end after every single school event, picking up rubbish, packing up the chairs and staging and sorting out the hall. Most recent head? Swanned in to watch 15 minutes of the school production, sitting on their phone throughout and then leaving through the fire escape before the interval. I was onsite clearing up alone until 8pm with no staff or SLT support.

Once you’re in SMT do not assume you’ve done the hard work now and it’s time to sit back and delegate. Be visible. Be supportive. Earn your salary.

Marking policies. They need to be constructive, not pointless multicoloured conversation bullshit.

Support your staff, don't make them worried about committing some imaginary faux pas which is the latest crime against humanity.

Trust your staff. They are professionals.

And understand the difference in subjects. English has a huge marking load. Science should involve shared classes so they can be taught by a specialist (so don't request every single book from every single teacher for scrutiny then complain that science have 3 times as many as any other department. Also don't have a fixed time period for marking frequency - 2 weeks might be 8 lessons for geography but it might be only 3 for science.)

Core subjects suffer a lot of hassle from the unwilling masses. Don't compare my bottom set with those 25 kids that chose to do (for e.g.) drama - apples and oranges.

You mention recognition lavenderbongo how would you prefer to be recognised?

Very true about the 'dynamic young staff' praise, Mrs X that's has been teaching 13 years that is consistently good and works hard should also be a hero that the younger teachers can aspire to be.

13 years!? That's a whippersnapper!!

I think I started being viewed as over the hill at 20 years.

Oh no I’ve been teaching 13 years and definitely feel old. And not valued. If you’re not a young ambitious teacher pushing for promotion, no one gives a shit about your career.

Wait til you've done 20...

Be more flexible with gained time once exam classes have left, allowing early starts and finishes for example. It means staff are more likely to exam mark, and undertake other cpd activities that they wouldn't usually have time for.

Don't jump on the latest educational fad and insist it is the only way to teach a good lesson.

Do offer a range of cpd activities that are open to all. Do encourage everyone to contribute, as mentioned upthread.

One school I worked at had post it's put into pigeon holes with a lovely note for a few staff every now and then from certain heads of faculty. Things like, thanks for all your extra efforts covering absences in your department. Often tied to a chocolate bar. Really nice to be appreciated.

I think a lot of what has been said here boils down to remembering what it's like to be a full time classroom teacher with 30 different kids hitting your classroom every 50 minutes. IF 5 out of 6 lessons taught that's 15o kids a day not counting form time duties ext. More on a full teaching day. I have been that teacher and been on the SLT. It's very easy to implement some new initiative if you only have one class a day then keep on top of your marking by going to your office afterwards and marking to school policy in school time. Spare a thought for the teacher who has 6 lessons like that today ...and the same tomorrow. No time in the school day for marking. Those 6 sets of books have to be marked after school ...every day..If a set of 30 books takes 45 minutes...eg one and a half minutes a book ...4 hours a night ...every night! Finish say 3.15. Meeting begins 3.30 ...finishes 5 oclock. grab coffee. start marking. Do even 3 hours ...8 O'clock and no planning done. No wonder staff are struggling...and this is doing the basics. Where's the work life balance? And that's one day with 4 more days marking building up and SLT expecting young staff to run trips clubs ext and take on further responsibilities. Sorry for the rant. Many a long day since I was a young teacher and so much more expected of them now yet when I was on SLT some colleagues seemed to have forgotten what this type of work load can do. Teaching is a great profession but so many are leaving it burnt out after a few years. Best advice I can give op is acknowledge the work load, give more praise than criticism and keep an eye out for burn out. Great that you are asking...so many SLT forget what a full teaching time table can be like these days.

Another one here for centralising detentions and not expecting individual teachers to chase up non-attendance.

Self marking homework is an absolute godsend - immediate feedback for the kids and reduced marking for the teacher. You get bonus points if you buy in a package like kerboodle or set aside significant inset time to allow departments to create shared SMHW self marking tasks.

If you can possibly afford it, allow staff to purchase and use decent textbooks in their lessons. Since I moved in to teaching I've never understood why there are so many teachers up and down the country essentially writing their own by 'creating resources'. It's workload intensive and should only be done to supplement a decent textbook.

And a couple that aren't workload related:

Don't assume that everyone wants to move in to management. Teachers who actively choose to stay in the classroom for a long time are often fantastic resources - they've seen most fads come and go and have no particular axe to grind or vested interest in supporting the latest 'learning styles' nonsense.

Don't hire cheap NQTs to replace experienced retirees and simply demand they get the same results. They are cheap for a reason. It is another thing that is very peculiar to teaching - in most industries it is accepted that experience is valuable and (generally) people get better at their jobs over time.

Let me give you an exmaple of what not to do : don't add two ad hoc non calendared meetings into two consecutive weeks with Open Evenings.... that kind of thing....!

Sandringhat - I would just like a simple “Thank you” or “Good job”. Not in front of anyone else but just a simple Thanks or we’ll done for ... makes a huge difference. It just feels like someone has noticed what you’ve been doing. It makes me want to do more! Very similar to the Kids really 😊
My current SLT moans a lot about what they have to do - but fails to notice what us middle managers also have to do.
I feel a bit isolated and unappreciated- and I love my job! (Can you tell it’s only a week until the end of term here?)

These are all so helpful, thank you for taking the time to reply.

I feel my school already does a lot of these, our marking policy, I believe, is fair with two in depth forms of marking a term, and we explicitly say not to triple mark.

We have show my homework and the students complete the homework on iPads so that has helped workload a lot.

We thank staff in our staff meetings and pick out individuals, but I think we could do more.

All SMT in my school teach a lot, often 10-12 hours a week, so we definitely haven't forgotten what it's like in the classroom.

Nonetheless, we still have a few unhappy staff and I wish there was a way of making everyone happy.