The Department for Education’s latest Teacher Workload Survey results show that teacher workload is improving, but there is still a way to go. Jack Worth and Matt Walker investigate the latest research findings

Teacher workload remains one of the major issues facing the profession. The work/life balance of school staff affects the satisfaction and wellbeing of practitioners and their likelihood of staying in the profession long-term.

At a time when more teachers are needed to serve growing numbers of pupils and not enough new teachers are being trained, retention is of great importance to the quality of education.

As workload is a key factor affecting teacher retention, reducing teacher workload has become a key policy priority for the Department for Education (DfE).

The workload associated with marking, tracking and monitoring pupil progress coupled with accountability measures can seriously impact on stress and job satisfaction. Long working hours and constant changes to working practices, as outlined in our previous Engaging teachers report (Lynch et al, 2016), which presented an analysis of teacher retention, have led to challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers.

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