Do your SLT have regular WFH days?

[GinJeanie]

Out of interest, I just wondered if this was a thing in other schools? It seems to have caught on in our school...

@Newrumpus

When the consequences of missing a deadline are that someone potentially loses their job as a chunk of required funding isn’t allocated, it makes dealing with the interruption at that moment seem foolish.

There may well be schools were senior staff take advantage and use flexible arrangements not available to the wider staff. There are also occasions where it is rational and proportionate to prioritise tasks that cannot be efficiently completed within school for the benefit of the whole school community.

Yes there are times when a job cannot efficiently completed within the school.

As a class teacher, I do them on Sundays.

Which is fine until Sunday is over the work still isn’t complete.

Same as me. Roll on Monday evening. Why should SLT be different?

I do think that all teaching staff should be allowed to take PPA off site. I can get a lot more done without the phone going and people knocking on the door.

They aren't! Staff can take PPA time at home and SLT can take SOME management time at home, what's the difference?

At my school staff cannot take PPA time at home. SLT teachers can take an afternoon a week of leadership time at home.

If you feel that the school would benefit from you taking PPA time at home you could request this.

We have. We've been told no.

I don’t think there is much more you can do then. If you have shown that the school would benefit from something yet the head doesn’t want to accept that benefit, then that is his/her loss, I’m afraid. I would love to have PPA time and would be more than happy to take it in school.

All our SLT do a 4 day week..and yes the resentment is huge. We are definitely not ‘all in it together’. This last term has been horrendous, staff numbers at an all time low, and instead of rising to the bar to fill the gaps…they are relying on TA support instead. The less you are paid, the more they seem to expect. No wonder it’s hard to find staff these days, there are too many schools taking the proverbial pee…

newrumpus - with respect PPA is planning, prep and assessment time. I don't know how much teaching you do, but if you are like my former head you would not require PPA as he did zero teaching.

Some of the admin work I had to do was essential too, but I did not get the opportunity to do it with no interruptions during the school day. For example, if I messed up exam codes and exam entries I could have cost the school thousands of pounds in late entry fees, or I could have be left with very stressed students with the wrong exam paper in front of them.

When SLT take themselves off site, or sit behind the protection of their office door then they are passing duties they are paid very well to do, onto other staff. In my school the behaviour team, who were made up of very poorly paid TAs spent hours and hours walking the corridors trying to manege the behaviour of some very challenging students. They had little training to do so, and certainly their pay grade did not reflect the challenges this brings. I saw SLT turn on their heel and retreat to their office to avoid getting involved.

I also witnessed aggressive parents shouting at office staff because they could not get in to speak to a member of the SLT. Again, the best paid members of staff being left alone to work on paperwork, leaving other staff to deal with this.

I am well aware what PPA is for. I’m not a headteacher. I do plenty of teaching as I already said.

Think about the stress of exam codes and then multiply it several times. I happily did exam entries in school for years and would happily do so now. I would like to have PPA time so that I could resource my lessons properly.

I am sorry that your school managers seem to be letting you down. That doesn’t mean that is what is happening in all cases.

@amillionmenonmars For what it’s worth, I’m SLT and totally agree with you. I think being present in school is really important. It’s not OK, in my view, for SLT not to be on hand for behaviour incidents, fielding parents or dealing with emergencies. I wouldn’t want to be in a school where SLT shut themselves away or wfh to complete paperwork. I couldn’t look colleagues teaching 25 out of 30 periods in the eye if I was taking a day or even half a day a week at home to do my paperwork uninterrupted, whilst my team dealt with all the student-facing stuff without me there.

One of ours does and it is commented on by staff regularly. Teachers can't take PPA at home - this SLT member has an office to themselves, they could just shut the bloody door

If SLT are going to do it, everyone needs to be able to do it. But I can see that getting very complicated, with things like problems timetabling duties, and "trapped time". What happens if all your PPA is in the middle of the day, you're going to be really resentful of those whose PPA is Friday afternoon! On balance it's probably fairer if everyone has to take PPA and manager time in school, unless the school considers this really carefully when timetabling (although throwing more constraints into the timetable is surely not ideal). If SLT keep getting disturbed at school, they need firmer boundaries, get a "do not disturb" sign or something. Or do their focussed work on the evenings and weekends like the rest of their staff.

Yes, they do.
I support headteacher performance management of headteachers. Governors are responsible for HT health and well-being as well as their performance.
When agreed with governors, leaders can take time to work at home, to focus on leadership (school evaluation, development planning). Time is much more effectively spent without the interruptions of the school day.
Agreed not as a regular occurrence, possibly a day or two per term. Good also for building, trusting and valuing other leaders in school.

What about valuing those who aren't leaders? I refer of course to the less important staff.

@DolphinFC

What about valuing those who aren't leaders? I refer of course to the less important staff.

Bahahaha.... valuing us?! Never going to happen!

Sorry, I'll clarify @DolphinFC

• valuing other leaders in their leadership role, in terms of taking the operational lead in school whilst the Ht works at home or offsite. It is about building capacity and developing future leaders.

Staff not on the leadership scale don't have a leadership role.

@spanieleyes
As for teaching HT's, yes, same here, many in small primary schools. Some teach as much as 0.5 - as budgets don't support anything else. If they don't teach in small schools they are the HT of three or four schools and spend a day in each!

As a member of SLT, I think it is really important to be on site. I have worked from home maybe twice when a deadline was approaching that, if missed, would have negatively impacted most of the school community.

I would also add, however, that some posters have demonstrated a lack of understanding about the 'paperwork' that we apparently choose to do at the expense of being with the kids. If it weren't for my 'paperwork' our school would be a safety hazard, we would never refer our pupils to camhs or other services that they NEED, we would have no extra funding for extra TAs for children with complex needs, no medical supplies, training or procedures, no links with specialists, no sense of how we can improve our practice and keep up to date with our pedagogy, no school meals, no idea of who has a nut allergy, no supply teachers or TAs, and we would have the LA on our back because we had not submitted an outline of how we are spending out Pupil Premium money. The list is endless. Far too many teachers do not understand that the SLT oversee the operational side of the school which does, unfortunately, require some paperwork to be done effectively. I also work way over my contracted hours, but most staff don't realise that.

I will probably get flamed for this, but I am just giving an alternative perspective to the main narrative here. Teachers are fab, by the say. It's just that nod all SLTs are the enemy.

Apologies for my fat fingers!