Reducing Teachers' Workload â A Way Forward - National Union of ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

4 Conclusion This Report has demonstrated, we believe, that there is strong support from teachers for significant moderation of their workload, and that contractual changes are necessary to ensure that this moderation takes place. Whether addressed through limits to teacher contact time or guaranteed non-contact time for marking and preparation (or both; the two are complementary), teachers are looking for some way to set limits to the workloads they now face. The introduction of non-contact time in primary schools – many of which have none at all at present – would alone be a major breakthrough. However, it will also be clear that teachers do not regard contractual changes alone as sufficient. Telling teachers to work less hours, without suggesting how workload can be moderated to fit in these shorter hours, is meaningless. As conscientious professionals, teachers will merely continue working the hours they are at present, in order that they, their schools and their pupils are not compromised. What teachers need, we have argued, is not only guidance on what their working hours should be but an indication of how what is expected of them can be delivered, reasonably, within these hours. This indication can only be given by a body or agency that takes oversight of, and responsibility for, all that teachers are expected to do and views this as a whole. For teachers, this will require a significant change to the current position. In contrast to what was promised a few years ago, any suggestion that the rate of change of National Curriculum and other statutory requirements might be moderated has been completely lost, and new requirements seem to arrive weekly. At the lowest level, new Chief Examiners appear to teachers to swap “A” level set texts on whim, not seeming (to teachers) to care what the effect this has on their preparation load for the new academic year. (“This chief examiner doesn’t seem to like Shakespeare’s tragedies”, commented one English teacher, “and that means weekend after weekend of work for me and for many others like me. Does it really matter to him that much ?”) At a more systemic level, there still seems no understanding whatsoever of the time that will be needed to carry out the latest set of guidelines or instructions, nor any idea of where the extra time is to come from. There is simply too much for teachers to do; and much that they are asked to do bears no relation, in their view, to the teaching of children. So what overall messages stand out from our fieldwork in these twenty-eight schools ? First, teachers wished that someone, somewhere had an overview of all the administrative, monitoring and assessment work they were now required to do to deliver the National Curriculum. Too many of those responsible for loading further work onto schools and teachers had only a piecemeal perspective, and could not see how their own loading contributed to the whole. Secondly, they wanted time to prepare and deliver lessons to the standard that they knew they were capable of, while being able overall to reduce the current 1:1 overhead of marking and preparation compared to teaching. This will require specific and nationally endorsed NUT/ATL 20 Reducing Teacher’s Workload
guidance on what monitoring, in particular, teachers can be expected to do – backed up, perhaps, by equally specific criticism from OFSTED when a school’s management sets out (by accident or design) to require more than this. Lastly, many teachers were – even in the “best” schools we saw – fearful that despite their best intentions the strain of the job they now had to do would be too much for them. As colleagues go off sick, the load on those remaining increases, and may be enough to tip the balance. Perhaps some of the schools we saw were nearer collapse than we thought. John Atkins David Carter Mike Nichol April 2002 NUT/ATL 21 Reducing Teacher’s Workload
Page 1 and 2: Reducing Teachers’ Workload - A W
Page 3 and 4: about their workloads, and what ste
Page 5 and 6: The NUT is also grateful to the Ass
Page 7 and 8: In secondary schools, the picture w
Page 9 and 10: It would be simple, thought one tea
Page 11 and 12: hour of marking/preparation for one
Page 13 and 14: A contractual limit to contact time
Page 15 and 16: In particular, teachers in the latt
Page 17 and 18: Nevertheless, it seems clear that t
Page 19: These teachers were more likely to
Page 23: Annex 2 The survey questions The fo

Reducing Teachers' Workload â A Way Forward - National Union of ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?

Reducing Teachers' Workload â A Way Forward - National Union of ...