Teachers to be allowed to work from home
Teachers are to be allowed to work from home under Labour plans to tackle the recruitment crisis in schools.
Headteachers will be told they can let their staff do marking and planning away from the classroom.
Teachers already have free periods to mark homework and to plan lessons, and Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, wants to make it easier for them to work from home in these periods.
It is hoped it will help stem the tide of women leaving the profession when they have children. In the academic year 2022/23, about 32,000 left.
The plan would allow such teachers to take their free periods in blocks at the end or the beginning of the day, enabling them to work from home while looking after children, or to complete the school run.
It follows a successful trial of the scheme in an academy chain, the Dixons Academies Trust, which runs a number of schools in northern England and says it is working towards a nine-day fortnight for teachers.
A government source said: “Unlike its predecessor, this Government is taking the recruitment and retention of teachers seriously, which is why we’re making common-sense changes that enable great teachers to stay in our classrooms.
“These changes are part of a wider reset of the relationship between government and teaching staff to ensure we drive high and rising standards across our schools and deliver better life chances for our children.”
Flexible working
Earlier this year, Luke Sparkes, the chief executive of the Dixons Academies Trust, said: “Evidence has shown that flexible working can attract and retain more teachers, yet the education sector is considered somewhat antiquated in its approaches to flexibility.
“With teachers leaving the profession in droves, and with the Department for Education missing its target to recruit new trainees for the second year in a row, a radical approach is needed to ensure we retain the best talent.”
However, critics fear that the boost to flexible working will lead to a reduction in productivity and could be the start of a slippery slope with pupils getting less face-to-face time with teachers.
Labour has come under fire for bowing to pressure from unions on above-inflation public sector pay deals and, in relation to schools, the decision to immediately scrap one word ratings by Ofsted.
Although flexible working of this kind was technically already available to teachers, many schools interpreted the rules differently.
Ms Phillipson will bring out new guidance for schools to make it clear that teachers can work at home during time set aside for lesson planning and marking homework.
Each year, thousands of teachers leave the profession early and the largest cohort are women in their 30s, often parents of young children.
Family life
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “There has been a big increase of women in their 30s exiting the profession because other professions are more compatible with family life.
“The lack of flexibility for teachers is not keeping mothers in the profession in particular. When I started out in the profession it was seen as family friendly, but that is no longer the case. This is a start, and there is more for the Government to do around this.”
Dixons Academies Trust’s aim of achieving a nine-day fortnight for teachers, while not cutting down on students’ contact time would be achieved via “creative and dynamic scheduling”, “different approaches to student grouping”, and increased “planning, preparation and assessment time (PPA)” – in other words, lesson planning and marking homework.
“Where this model might not work, we are pushing forward with a plan that allows remote working during non-contact time,” he said.
“This will include giving more PPA and making it manageable from home or another remote location, and – where our teachers want to – compressing the free hours or non-contact hours so that they can be away from school for longer periods.”
Mr Sparkes also said the academy chain was considering offering teachers “personal days” during term time and even longer holidays.
Writing for the Times Educational Supplement, he said: “Although the holiday allowance afforded to teachers is generous, we know that it is also restrictive, and we believe that allowing some deviation is not just welcome but necessary.
“Where this model might not work, we are pushing forward with a plan that allows remote working during non-contact time.”
The chain is also looking at using artificial intelligence to plan lessons, with the hope that over time AI could “form a re-imagining of the school timetable to reduce teachers’ contact time and provide greater flexibility”.