Workload Charter
At Barnehurst, we believe a happy and healthy workforce is vital for the success of our students and community. The charter underpins our determination to ensure that our school is a great place to work and to improve the work life balance for teaching staff.
To bring together some of our fundamental and guiding principles, we have developed our Workload Charter. The Charter clearly sets out our collective approach to day to day delivery and how we work together, providing a framework that covers the key challenges we face as a profession.
Culture
We start from an assumption of professional trust and the belief that everyone seeks to do a good job. We ask all leaders to set a good example in how they behave and that they try to reduce levels of stress and anxiety in the school. Actions taken:
- No formal lesson observations or gradings of teachers or lessons
- Coaching systems in place to support teachers in personal professional development
- All teaching staff have weekly release time for CPD or subject leadership
- CareFirst online and phone confidential support available for all staff
- Every staff member has a wellbeing day each year
- Annual staff wellbeing survey and follow up actions
- All staff have access to National College for professional development
Data Collection
Actions taken to date:
- New assessment system used which is user friendly and time effective
- Reduced to three data collection points per year
- End of year reports reduced to one page per child
Communication
Actions we have taken to date:
- Weekly staff notices with key communication messages for the week
- Weekly phase meeting for small team communication
- All teachers have access to school calendar to enable time management
- Clear leadership structure so everyone knows who they can speak to
- Staff advised that there is no expectation to check emails outside of working hours
- Staff asked not to send emails to colleagues outside of working hours
- Staff advised to use the ‘delayed send’ option if sending email outside of school hours.
Lesson Planning
- Planning formats created by working party to reduce content and workload
- Additional half termly PPA for medium term planning
Marking and Feedback
- No distance marking for English
- Assessment marking only in maths and foundation subjects
- Focus on the next step is the next lesson
- Use of online learning journey in EYFS to reduce administration time and focus on learning
Workload
- No playtime or lunch duties
- No after school club expectation, unless volunteered by staff member
- Investment in IT reducing admin work such as photocopying
- All teachers issued a personal iPad
- Reduction in end of year reporting arrangements focussing on quality of report rather than quantity
- Display outcomes published three times per year
This charter is shared and discussed with our teaching staff and next steps identified.
