Huntington School: Cutting teachers’ workloads

Contact
Chris Bridge, Head Teacher
E-mail: c.bridge@huntington-ed.org.uk

Background

Huntington is a comprehensive school and technical college serving the City of York. It has 1,500 pupils (aged 11-18) and employs 100 teaching and 70 non-teaching members of staff.

In the academic year 1998/9 only one permanent member of staff left the school. However, in 1999/2000 this figure rose to nine, and again to 20 in 2000/1. Furthermore, the proportion of staff leaving the teaching profession altogether – as opposed to moving to other schools – also increased across the period.

The school recognised the need to take action with the aim of

• cutting teacher workload
• improving staff retention

The initiative

Information was gathered and collated to found out why staff were leaving.

To complement this, there was a drive to find out what staff in post were finding stressful. A confidential stress survey was circulated annually during the pre-Christmas period (a high-pressure period in the school calendar).

Teachers were asked to rank 20 stress factors, including “bad behaviour by a few pupils”, “demands from the head/senior management team”, and “finding time for marking”. Results were analysed to take into account the different experiences of, for example, new teachers or heads of departments. A separate survey was run for non-teaching staff.

Results from the surveys were reflected in the school’s development plan leading to a range of measures designed to tackle the causes of stress at source. The success of the survey has led to it being repeated annually.

Examples of measures taken in response to the surveys include:

• Training for staff and taking a tougher stance with parents to deal with “bad behaviour by a few pupils”.
• Employing a senior administrator to manage the site.
• Giving the school office responsibility for compiling all reports, attendance and progress statistics.
• Providing a dedicated administrative assistant for every department.
• Employing external invigilators during examination periods.
• Transferring the role of exams assistant and half of the Special Needs Co-ordinator role to non-teachers.
• Improving stress monitoring by recording stress-related absences and discussing stress-related problems at senior management team meetings.

Results

• 60% reduction in number of permanent teaching staff leaving in 2001/2.
• Only one member of teaching staff leaving the profession in the last academic year.
• Giving administrative tasks to dedicated assistants means teachers have more time available for marking and lesson planning.
• Turnover among administrative staff is low as assistants enjoy the greater roles and responsibilities that come with being part of departmental teams.

Conclusions

• Impacts can be made on people’s demands through a series of “small” solutions, as opposed to one “big” answer.
• New initiatives should fit into existing systems to avoid stress caused by “initiative overload”.
• Interventions should be focussed on stress factors that can be controlled at the organisational level.