Workload's been reduced... right?

Well, according to the recent Government report, it has...

And yet, we are still faced with the problem that there are too few people entering the profession, and too many people leaving it. Much of the recent media coverage has been concerning the matter of pay. Pay is certainly an issue, particularly with regards to recruitment, but retention (and recruitment of the right people), I think, is mainly influenced by workload (with a side of money!).

Therefore, when the Government launched it's Wellbeing Charter in May 2021, I, for one, was all ears. At last, a clear set of directives and ideas which would really make peoples' lives better. For those schools where ideas suggested were embraced and adopted, there does seem to have been some change made.

The Workload Reduction in Schools report was published on 20th July 2023, cynics may point out that releasing a report on, what for most, was the last few days of the summer term, would not have had a positive impact onto staff wellbeing, but maybe, just maybe, they wanted to release it as soon as it was finalised; and that happened to be in the last week of term.

For the data lovers amongst us, the report contains some great tables and graphs, but, the section which I think is most useful comes early on when they report what schools have done which has worked.

Schools which have reduced workload, and are reducing "unnecessary" teacher work, have done so by;

• Reducing data input needed

• Less frequent reporting

• Verbal feedback (rather than written)

• Purchasing or sharing SoW

• Centralised lesson planning

• Reducing parents evenings, and parents evenings which do take place do so online

• Reducing number of meetings

• Introducing policies around communications out of standard school hours

When you consider how many schools were involved in this report, the most popular area of change has been with regards to written feedback/marking. I'm not sure I've made up my mind as to the usefulness of written verses verbal feedback. If I am totally honest, I think that my concern, or hesitation in moving away from written feedback in the past have all been related to trust. How do I know that staff have carried out verbal feedback? Whereas written feedback is clear to see, and show.

As a class teacher, I also liked personalised written feedback as I knew, for certain, that I had given everyone some feedback rather than be distracted by the student who was loudest or most demanding. I enjoyed being able to "prove" I'd done my bit.

None of this is related to impact. However, I think that it is important to be honest and recognise what internal barriers or prejudice may be in place and then address those; as they are the lens which we view the evidence in front of us. Then it is the job of the leadership and development teams to look at what impact each form of feedback has, and then work out how to move the teaching teams from a to b.

So, despite the barriers and issues which continue to be seen regarding workload, I, for one, am pleased that there are, at least, think tanks, researchers and the like, plugging away to make things better.