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?

Agree with Lavender.
A 30 second email to a member of staff instead of ignoring something they've done or taking it for granted goes a long way.

I wish there was a way of making everyone happy.

I don’t think this is possible, and I’m not sure it’s something that should be chased. Definitely look at whether what you are asking of staff is unreasonable, but the job is hard and stressful by its nature and you can’t get rid of that entirely, just make it feel more worthwhile.

I just saw on twitter one of those ‘inspirational’ postcards that normally make me feel nauseous, but it actually struck true ‘people who feel appreciated will always do more than is expected’. My best HoD always was positive about his team, always saying what a good job we were doing, appreciative of individual effort and was generally excited about teaching. It encouraged people to try new things, go the extra mile, and when he asked for something, people were more willing to do it as they felt kindly disposed towards him.

I’ve also worked in a place with terribly low morale. The attitude from above seemed to be that teachers were piss-takers who needed to be monitored at all times otherwise they would slack off, even though we were all working our arses off, as teachers do. SLT seemed to spend their time monitoring whether teachers were on time to lessons, setting enough homework, doing learning walks to check up on teachers (not the kids), complaining that teachers were sending difficult kids out (creating work for SLT). When in meetings they said ‘thank you for your hard work’ it felt insincere and perfunctory. When they bought cakes for the staffroom, it felt like they recognised morale was low and had read that people liked cake so thought that would do it. What it actually did was brought staff to the staffroom to bitch about SLT over cake. If you did anything extra like organise a trip, do a club, no one said anything. Goodwill ran out, people stopped doing extras and started begrudging doing everything. It’s like when you’ve lost a class and you ask them to do some work and it’s all rolling eyes and muttered FFS, even though asking them to do work is perfectly reasonable.

Have to be honest OP. I dodn't think 10 hours teaching a week is a lot ! Obviously I wouldn't expect a head to do much , if any, teaching : but many of the SLT at our school do in the region of 15 hours a week.

10 hours a week means you have probably forgotten what it is like not to have a free period, and what it is like to have a full day and form class.

I am not suggesting SLT do not fill their time!

Communication.

If you want us to do something, tell us in enough time to do it.

Don’t, for example, tell our Head of Faculty who then takes time to pass it to a department head, who then takes time (usually at the next department meeting) to pass it to the ‘teachers’, giving us usually a day to action the request. All staff are your equal colleagues, so please respect us by telling us directly in plenty of time.

This goes for decision making too. Let us have a voice, even if you still make the final decision. We have experience and and a viewpoint that might help make any initiatives more successful and we then feel part of it.

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.

Sorry, but that really isn’t a lot!

Ask your staff what they are enjoying teaching and go and see it. Not a learning walk as a means to catch staff out but actually to see something really good. Be part of the learning. You could ask staff or departments to nominate another teacher for excellence. Be interested in what your teachers are doing. Genuinely interested. Not Ofsted interested but for real what is a great thing that is happening in a classroom in your school.

Back your staff, trust your staff

This ^

When I started teaching, 30 years ago, an experienced teacher could walk into a classroom and teach, effectively, without a written plan, let alone a 5 page on for each lesson. As a probationer, yes, I was expected to do 2 sides of A4, for the week, but, once you had experience under your belt, it relaxed.
Last year, I spent some time in a special school Reception and Yr1mixed class of children with autism. The teacher had to produce 5 A4 sheets of her differentiated planning FOR ONE DAY. It was snowing, and the school transport was disrupted, so the children were obviously affected. The planning was completely useless and the teacher's skills and instinct kicked in. She'd just had to waste 3 hours every night to write it all out. Multiple this by 190 days a year, and you see the issue.
Give the trained, experienced professionals on your staff the respect and autonomy to do the job they could do if given the chance.

I'm SLT and I teach 4 days a week with my own class (primary). A part time teacher teaches the other day.

All of the others SLT members teach but it's more in the line of taking out groups, just teaching maths every day etc. I do feel like they have forgotten what it is like to have all of the extra stuff that goes with having your own class rather than just teaching lessons and then handing children back. I find that I often have a different perspective because of this.

TBH I would find it slightly irritating if someone who only taught 10 hours a week advised me on workload. And I know all that comes with the SLT role, lots of teachers won't.

Detentions.

Have a detention rota, do 2 detentions, one for work, one for behaviour.

Behavior detention, all students in one room in silence copying something boring for 30 mins. All staff on a rota so you don't have to think, "I can't give detention I have a meeting tonight".

Work detention with the teacher, at the teacher's convenience to catch up on any missed work.

Don't undermine sanctions.

Eat in the canteen with the students, your mere presence has a positive effect on behaviour.

If you are mentoring a student on NQT and you require a lesson plan 2 days in advance then please read it and make comments that can improve it before the student teaches it.

Again for students NQT don't give ridiculous feedback eg criticise a student for not bringing students into a classroom when you are not there and the school policy is that students cannot let a class in without their mentor/supervisor. Also telling a disabled student the pupils can't see them properly because they don't stand for the entire lesson is not helpful.

Yes those last two were personal, I wasn't the only student told off about not sitting, the other is a ft wheelchair user.

Praise the good kids. Whether it is phone call to parents, a postcard, house points etc. The kid that comes in everyday, works hard but is never top of the class can feel ignored. Individual teachers can give praise but a letter/card/phone call home from a senior member of staff is a huge deal. You don't need to know the child, allow weekly nominations from each department, a card saying, "Ms X has told me how hard you have been working this term, well done" would cost little and reap so much.

And another pet hate. The kid with autism doesn't see extension work as extension, he thinks it's a punishment. He ignores me while I explain to the rest of the class, he is much happier reading the handout and working on his own and frequently completes the work before anyone else. If he spends the last 15 mins reading as a treat for completing work he might not be strictly speaking taking part in the lesson but he is improving his literacy, not having a melt down and feels I'm treating him fairly. In short I am accommodating his SEN.

• say thanks, say well done, be confident in us, be confident in the school. Don’t be scared of ofsted.

• find out what your staff want from their careers. Help them get it.

• I don’t mind the morning meetings but at one bloody amazing school I worked at they were 5 mins and always included some laughing!

• provide appropriate resources. And make them accessible. I have to find a specific person when I need glue sticks. Ffs.

• make sure the photocopiers are good and working. They’re the heart of the school - Bettet Call Saul reference there for anyone watching!

• make sure the staff toilets are cleaned and well stocked. Not being able to adequately wash my hands makes me feel crap and like the school is going to the dogs!

• do an audit of the admin jobs staff do. Ask yourself what is the purpose? Is there a positive outcome or is it a just a pointless output? For example after the lesson I am meant to put which chn struggled in the plan for each non foundation subject for each lesson. It is pointless. Feeds nothing. Goes nowhere.

• read research. Update policies accordingly. I still have to waste time on displays when research proves they’re not helpful.

• god yes to the ofsted myth busting. I’m primary. Still have to waste my time sticking photos of kids in books. So rather than helping kids in lesson I’m photographing them. And rather than assessing what we need to do next I’m printing out photos on a photocopier that doesn’t work!

The best school I worked at only did stuff that helped chn learn. It had confidence in itself. It most definitely did not feel the need to prove stuff to ofsted. It learnt from research and changed accordingly. It was dynamic and efficient. That made staff happy.

Echoing the message about valuing staff - I’ve never forgotten the Head who gave me a bottle of wine after a shitty week with an awful child. It’s not feasible to do that every time and I don’t drink but I appreciated him saying, I’m really sorry about what’s happened, have a glass of wine and a restful weekend. I’d work for him again in a heartbeat - just not the shitty academy and exec head there!

Make a plan for the term and stick to it, don't organise a twilight with a week's notice don't require medium term planning to be changed the night before I start teaching, don't throw and activity my way that takes two hours and ask me if I can do it by Thursday because it's a lovely idea.
So basically plan well, stick to the plan and communicate the plan.

Definitely agree with the centralised detentions - at the school I work in they are on a Tuesday, Weds and Thursday, you get put into the next day, if you don't turn up it turns into supervised lunch the next day plus detention that evening. Two given in one day and you just keep going until the "time is served" so to speak.