Workplace flexibility:
Is this achievable?
Journalist Nic Paton looks at nine-day fortnights and hybrid working to see how and if schools can utilise this working pattern.
Workplace flexibility:
Is this achievable?
Journalist Nic Paton looks at nine-day fortnights and hybrid working to see how and if schools can utilise this working pattern.
You’ll undoubtedly be pleased to know that a human rather than artificial intelligence is writing this article. Moreover, this human is able to tap away at his keyboard in a home office, pestered by little more than the cat or delivery drivers, yet still able to summon up the likes of NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman and NAHT assistant general secretary James Bowen from wherever they are in the country via his laptop.
Working and leading in a school, of course, is not like that. Discounting the forced covid-19 pandemic experiment of remote learning, which many school leaders rightly found problematic and challenging for both staff and children, the school environment is very much what we might term ‘a contact sport’.
In other words, the school day generally happens face to face, either in the classroom or working in person with colleagues, parents and children; it is a busy, bustling, energetic, people-focused environment – which can be one of its attractions – and one that cannot be replicated remotely or via a home office.
You’ll undoubtedly be pleased to know that a human rather than artificial intelligence is writing this article. Moreover, this human is able to tap away at his keyboard in a home office, pestered by little more than the cat or delivery drivers, yet still able to summon up the likes of NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman and NAHT assistant general secretary James Bowen from wherever they are in the country via his laptop.
Working and leading in a school, of course, is not like that. Discounting the forced covid-19 pandemic experiment of remote learning, which many school leaders rightly found problematic and challenging for both staff and children, the school environment is very much what we might term ‘a contact sport’.
In other words, the school day generally happens face to face, either in the classroom or working in person with colleagues, parents and children; it is a busy, bustling, energetic, people-focused environment – which can be one of its attractions – and one that cannot be replicated remotely or via a home office.
The growing demand for workplace flexibility
Yet, at the same time, more and more employers – and increasingly so since the pandemic – view offering at least some form of remote or hybrid working as a key selling point to attract and retain employees, younger employees and graduates in particular.
Despite the fulminations of figures like ex-M&S boss Stuart Rose and Lord Sugar – who claim hybrid or home workers are somehow slackers – data from the Office for National Statistics shows that, as of last autumn, more than a quarter of working adults in Great Britain (28%) were hybrid working.
Research by the human resource body, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, concluded that as many as four million people have switched or left their jobs because of a lack of flexibility, which is becoming more important to many. More than two-thirds (69%) say the ability to work remotely is important, while a similar percentage (66%) said they look for it when evaluating job roles.
JAMES BOWEN,
NAHT ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY
For a profession wrestling with its own retention and recruitment crisis, schools and school leaders need to be looking at what might be possible, within the constraints of the school ‘contact sport’, to tap into this growing desire and impetus for more flexible working, argues James Bowen.
Yet, at the same time, more and more employers – and increasingly so since the pandemic – view offering at least some form of remote or hybrid working as a key selling point to attract and retain employees, younger employees and graduates in particular.
Despite the fulminations of figures like ex-M&S boss Stuart Rose and Lord Sugar – who claim hybrid or home workers are somehow slackers – data from the Office for National Statistics shows that, as of last autumn, more than a quarter of working adults in Great Britain (28%) were hybrid working.
Research by the human resource body, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, concluded that as many as four million people have switched or left their jobs because of a lack of flexibility, which is becoming more important to many. More than two-thirds (69%) say the ability to work remotely is important, while a similar percentage (66%) said they look for it when evaluating job roles.
JAMES BOWEN,
NAHT ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY
For a profession wrestling with its own retention and recruitment crisis, schools and school leaders need to be looking at what might be possible, within the constraints of the school ‘contact sport’, to tap into this growing desire and impetus for more flexible working, argues James Bowen.
Challenges and innovations in flexible working for schools
“People going into the workplace now are increasingly expecting or wanting flexibility in their work; that has been clear since the pandemic,” he tells Leadership Focus.
“There are an awful lot of companies and organisations that are able to provide flexibility. But that, clearly, is an enormous challenge for schools and the school system more widely. If you’re teaching a class of seven-year-olds, you can’t just pop out to pick up your dry cleaning or whatever it is. It is pretty much impossible for schools to offer that same level of flexibility and compete in the flexible working arena,” he adds.
Schools are trying to innovate in this area, with some – as we highlight below – testing models such as nine-day fortnights or allowing planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) to be done remotely or from home. The Education Endowment Foundation, for example, is currently carrying out research on how the nine-day fortnight model may (or may not) help improve teacher retention, with its findings due in the spring.
Last year, data from the National Foundation for Educational Research showed that the use of late starts, early finishes and ad-hoc ‘personal’ or ‘well-being’ days off for teachers doubled between 2021-22 and 2022-23. The use of off-site PPA time has also increased. Even the Department for Education joined in, publishing flexible working guidance in 2023.
A recent article in the TES highlighted examples of flexible working being trialled in schools in Buckinghamshire, Stoke-on-Trent, London and Humberside, among others.
There is work and innovation going on (as we highlighted in the last Leadership Focus) around job sharing, even at the head teacher level.
PAUL WHITEMAN,
NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY
So, change is coming, albeit patchily. One possible reason for this patchiness is that to do remote or flexible working properly, you really need to put money behind it – money many cash-strapped school leaders simply do not have, as Paul Whiteman also puts it.
“People going into the workplace now are increasingly expecting or wanting flexibility in their work; that has been clear since the pandemic,” he tells Leadership Focus.
“There are an awful lot of companies and organisations that are able to provide flexibility. But that, clearly, is an enormous challenge for schools and the school system more widely. If you’re teaching a class of seven-year-olds, you can’t just pop out to pick up your dry cleaning or whatever it is. It is pretty much impossible for schools to offer that same level of flexibility and compete in the flexible working arena,” he adds.
Schools are trying to innovate in this area, with some – as we highlight below – testing models such as nine-day fortnights or allowing planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) to be done remotely or from home. The Education Endowment Foundation, for example, is currently carrying out research on how the nine-day fortnight model may (or may not) help improve teacher retention, with its findings due in the spring.
Last year, data from the National Foundation for Educational Research showed that the use of late starts, early finishes and ad-hoc ‘personal’ or ‘well-being’ days off for teachers doubled between 2021-22 and 2022-23. The use of off-site PPA time has also increased. Even the Department for Education joined in, publishing flexible working guidance in 2023.
A recent article in the TES highlighted examples of flexible working being trialled in schools in Buckinghamshire, Stoke-on-Trent, London and Humberside, among others.
There is work and innovation going on (as we highlighted in the last Leadership Focus) around job sharing, even at the head teacher level.
PAUL WHITEMAN,
NAHT GENERAL SECRETARY
So, change is coming, albeit patchily. One possible reason for this patchiness is that to do remote or flexible working properly, you really need to put money behind it – money many cash-strapped school leaders simply do not have, as Paul Whiteman also puts it.
Flexibility and retention in teaching
“As a union, this is a really interesting conversation; it is something that we want to be involved in. There are good reasons to say that when teachers aren’t in contact time and are preparing lessons, marking and so on, those things don’t necessarily have to happen in school. That said, it can be very location-specific. For example, it is much easier to achieve in a large secondary school than in a single-form entry primary school perhaps,” he explains.
“So we agree that, as a profession, we’re going to have to be really innovative about this. But the key is we can’t do it for free. There has to be a conversation about making sure we resource these things right. But what is absolutely certain is that with the flexibility young professionals have in different work environments, we will never be able to recruit and retain the very best without decent pay, because so many other options offer a much better work-life balance,” Paul adds.
IAN HARTWRIGHT,
NAHT HEAD OF POLICY (PROFESSIONAL)
“We have to transform what it looks like to be a teacher, and I think you do that by transforming the retention piece as well,” agrees Ian Hartwright, NAHT head of policy (professional).
“There are obvious things you can do. For one, let’s fund teacher training – asking people to take on debt to enter the profession is a major disincentive. Second, once we have got somebody into teaching, let’s take steps to keep them there.
“You could start by waiving student debt, for example. That debt is not only for young teachers – it affects those in leadership positions because it has been in place for so long. Servicing that debt can take as much as nine per cent of one’s income, making it, in effect, an additional income tax for those who have chosen to become teachers.
“It gives you a fantastic opportunity to increase take-home pay without raising the overall pay bill. If all these young teachers received an eight to nine per cent pay increase, teaching would suddenly seem more attractive.
“Beyond that, we need to look at what makes teaching as a career attractive. We need bespoke, flexible working approaches that suit teaching and don’t try to import what happens in an office, because teaching doesn’t take place in an office,” Ian continues.
“For example, leaders could have one or two flexible ‘well-being days’ to take at any point during the year. Implementing this would be relatively easy and low-cost – just providing an opportunity to recharge. Alternatively, they could be taken in smaller increments, such as a few hours here and there or the occasional half-day. However, it does require your staffing not to be so tight, which requires some money to be put into it. Quite a lot of our members already do this in some shape or form.
Funding and the future of teacher well-being
“Finally, we need to look at more opportunities to allow leaders to stay in the profession as they get older or near retirement. For example, almost no use is made of phased retirement at the moment. What happens is that a lot of leaders get to 55 years old, look at their pension and go, ‘I’ll take it’. That means something like a 20% actuarial reduction, so it is not good for them financially, and it is certainly not good for the profession because all of that experience is walking out the door and is lost forever.
“If you have a leader doing phased retirement, where they perhaps work three days a week, they are still paying that three-fifths into their pension; that is good for them and good for the Exchequer. It also allows someone to work alongside them, gaining leadership experience on those other two days with support, and you’re not losing that experience and knowledge in the school,” Ian adds.
“One of the messages that has come through very loud and clear from this conversation so far, for me, is I don’t think any school or trust has managed to be really innovative with flexible working in a cost-neutral way,” highlights James in conclusion.
“All of them have said it costs extra to do. The worry is whether we end up in a world where this sort of flexibility is only available to schools with the budget to do it – that we end up with a two-tier system where some can afford it and others can’t.
“There is an argument that if we start thinking there is something in this, then some campaigning may need to be done – where we say to the government, ‘Look, this could be a real game-changer and could shift the dial on teacher and school leaders’ well-being, but it will need to be funded.’ There are extra costs involved with this, and that needs to be recognised.
“The results from all the trials and pilots could become really significant, especially if, in time, these models become more normalised and accepted as viable within the day-to-day teaching and school environment.
“In fact, arguably, it might take something of this sort of magnitude or scale to really have an impact on well-being. Then, however, the tough question for the government is, ‘Are you prepared to put your money where your mouth is?’ And that’s, of course, a whole other conversation,” James says.
‘Teachers are less stressed; we’ve had less absence – it is a positive change’
TERRI LEIGHTON,
PRINCIPAL AT DIXONS MANNINGHAM PRIMARY ACADEMY
Dixons Manningham Primary Academy in Bradford introduced a nine-day fortnight for its 15 classroom teachers at the start of September – and has not looked back, says principal Terri Leighton.
“Our teachers do appear to be less stressed. We’ve had fewer absences compared with previous years. So, it is proving to be a positive change,” she tells Leadership Focus.
The two-form entry primary, with 460 children, is one of 16 schools and one college within the Dixons Academies Trust, which operates across Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
All the schools in the trust have introduced different models of flexible working, with some bringing in home-based PPA, others allowing term-time holidays and so on.
“In Manningham, our nine-day fortnight is exactly as it says; it is not condensed hours,” emphasises Terri.
“Every teacher gets the same day every week out of class. One week, it is their PPA day – which is done in school – and the next week, it is the 10th day in their fortnight. That not only gives teachers the agency and flexibility to use that 10th day however they choose, but it also reduces the number of subjects they have to plan, prepare for and teach. It also means, indirectly, they get a little more PPA time as well. It has really improved well-being,” she adds.
There has, of course, needed to be a conversation about how this is resourced and covered. “In an ideal world, you would always want teachers covering lessons. But there was no way we could afford four extra teachers out of our budget to do that. We instead use other staff, such as higher-level teaching assistants that have an interest in a particular subject area,” says Terri.
Both days, the PPA day and the 10th day, are covered by these subject specialists, with the children rotating through the same subjects every week.
“We are fortunate in that our teaching assistants have always covered our PPA anyway. So, we have always developed them and given them the ability and training to manage a class as well as manage our clubs. We have, in some areas, reduced the number of teaching assistants and, in others, promoted them into other positions,” says Terri.
“First and foremost, it is about making sure it works for you as a school. It depends on your context, staffing and how you can accommodate and adapt to it,” she advises.
“With Manningham, I was really clear what I wanted to achieve. Yet, we still went through a lot of scenarios – I think we got to model seven – and a lot of consultations. It is also about perseverance; if you want it to work, you will find a way.
“We talked to the parents about it in our normal meetings – and there was just no push-back at all. I talked to parents at the gate, and nobody was concerned about it in the slightest,” Terri adds.
“Education needs to be a profession of choice, one which attracts the best and the brightest and where long-serving educators want to stay,” concludes Robyn Ellis, school and college leader at the trust. “We don’t want to be outcompeted by other organisations that can be more flexible simply by the nature of the work they do. We have to keep up and be creating a modern profession.”
TERRI LEIGHTON,
PRINCIPAL AT DIXONS MANNINGHAM PRIMARY ACADEMY
Dixons Manningham Primary Academy in Bradford introduced a nine-day fortnight for its 15 classroom teachers at the start of September – and has not looked back, says principal Terri Leighton.
“Our teachers do appear to be less stressed. We’ve had fewer absences compared with previous years. So, it is proving to be a positive change,” she tells Leadership Focus.
The two-form entry primary, with 460 children, is one of 16 schools and one college within the Dixons Academies Trust, which operates across Bradford, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
All the schools in the trust have introduced different models of flexible working, with some bringing in home-based PPA, others allowing term-time holidays and so on.
“In Manningham, our nine-day fortnight is exactly as it says; it is not condensed hours,” emphasises Terri.
“Every teacher gets the same day every week out of class. One week, it is their PPA day – which is done in school – and the next week, it is the 10th day in their fortnight. That not only gives teachers the agency and flexibility to use that 10th day however they choose, but it also reduces the number of subjects they have to plan, prepare for and teach. It also means, indirectly, they get a little more PPA time as well. It has really improved well-being,” she adds.
There has, of course, needed to be a conversation about how this is resourced and covered. “In an ideal world, you would always want teachers covering lessons. But there was no way we could afford four extra teachers out of our budget to do that. We instead use other staff, such as higher-level teaching assistants that have an interest in a particular subject area,” says Terri.
Both days, the PPA day and the 10th day, are covered by these subject specialists, with the children rotating through the same subjects every week.
“We are fortunate in that our teaching assistants have always covered our PPA anyway. So, we have always developed them and given them the ability and training to manage a class as well as manage our clubs. We have, in some areas, reduced the number of teaching assistants and, in others, promoted them into other positions,” says Terri.
“First and foremost, it is about making sure it works for you as a school. It depends on your context, staffing and how you can accommodate and adapt to it,” she advises.
“With Manningham, I was really clear what I wanted to achieve. Yet, we still went through a lot of scenarios – I think we got to model seven – and a lot of consultations. It is also about perseverance; if you want it to work, you will find a way.
“We talked to the parents about it in our normal meetings – and there was just no push-back at all. I talked to parents at the gate, and nobody was concerned about it in the slightest,” Terri adds.
“Education needs to be a profession of choice, one which attracts the best and the brightest and where long-serving educators want to stay,” concludes Robyn Ellis, school and college leader at the trust. “We don’t want to be outcompeted by other organisations that can be more flexible simply by the nature of the work they do. We have to keep up and be creating a modern profession.”
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