Staff Workload and Well-Being
At Priory, we cultivate a healthy workplace culture where open and honest conversations happen, and staff workload is managed and reduced to support our wellbeing.
We consider ways to minimise excessively complicated administrative procedures which could distract us from our core purpose of running a school and teaching children.
We accept that there is always work to be done and regularly engage in professional dialogue about time and strategies to manage our workloads.
In relation to teachers specifically:
- We know that good feedback is the most effective way of progressing students’ learning. Marking is one form of feedback but this does not necessarily mean inordinate amounts of teacher writing in books. We therefore remove any marking that is done for the sake of compliance. We need teaching that is agile and rapidly responsive to students’ needs as they grapple with learning. It is more important that teachers closely track students’ developing knowledge and understanding and are responsive to it, rather than presenting beautifully marked books.
- Creating the conditions for smarter planning and preparation through greater staff collaboration time at all levels. We create the conditions for teachers to share resources.
- Planning should not be a bureaucratic and complicated function; it should focus on impact rather than process. We minimise planning that is done alone or in isolation and emphasise professional conversations in teams led by clear-sighted heads of department or team leaders.
- We look to free teachers from unnecessary fear, removing work that may not impact on learning and building confidence to focus on developing professional knowledge and skill.
- We believe parents are looking for reports that give a clear, rounded personalised summary of their children’s learning and progress so this is what we provide. They want good quality conversations with teachers that feel personal and specific to their child therefore quick and responsive discussions are encouraged above other forms of communication.
The below documents demonstrate how we support all our staff at Priory in relation to our workload and well-being:
