The annual Working lives of teachers and leaders research is based on the experiences of professionals working in schools between February and May 2023, but carries some clear messages for the new government, which says it is dedicated to improving teacher, wellbeing, workload and retention.
The study, which has been published by the Department for Education, finds that working hours are up:
- Full-time school leaders reported working 58.2 hours a week (up from 57.5 in 2022).
- Full-time teachers reported working 52.4 hours a week (up from 51.9).
- The proportion of teachers and leaders working 60 or more hours in the reference week increased to 47% from 43% for school leaders and from 19% to 22% for teachers.
- Primary school leaders reported working 57 hours a week (up from 56.2) while secondary leaders reported working 58.5 hours a week (up from 58.3).
- Primary teachers reported working 50 hours a week (up from 49.1) while secondary teachers reported working 48.9 hours a week (up from 48.5).
The research involved a total of 10,411 teachers and leaders and found that the respondents felt they spent too much time on administrative tasks, following up behaviour incidents, and recording or analysing data.
The report states: “As in 2022, classroom teachers and middle leaders reported that they spent too much time on tasks other than teaching, particularly general administrative work (75% in both years).”
However, the survey found that teachers and middle leaders were more likely in 2023 to report spending too much time on:
- Following up on behaviour incidents (57% vs 50%).
- Recording, inputting, monitoring and analysing data (56% vs 53%).
- Communication and cooperation with parents or guardians (47% vs 35%).
- Pupil counselling, supervision and tuition (35% vs 29%).
- Delivering uncontracted extra activities (29% vs 21%).
Flexible working is seen as a core solution to the teacher retention and recruitment crisis, and the respondents reported increased flexible approaches being employed by schools, including:
- Part-time working (46% in 2023 compared to 40% in 2022).
- Planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time offsite (15% vs 12%).
- Ad-hoc days at manager's discretion to start late or finish early to accommodate ad-hoc requests (14% vs 7%).
- Ad-hoc personal days off at manager's discretion (12% vs 6%).
However, flexible working remains much more common in primary schools (55%) than in secondary (36%).
Elsewhere, more than a third of teachers and leaders (36%) indicated that they were considering quitting state education in the 12 months preceding the survey. This represents a significant increase from 25% in 2022.
The research finds that teachers were more likely to be thinking about walking away than leaders (37% vs 31%), with groups more likely to be considering this including those aged under-35 (38%), males (42%), and those who rated pupil behaviour as poor (49%). The most common reasons for considering quitting teaching were:
- High workload (94%)
- Stress and/or poor wellbeing (84%)
- Teachers’ views not being valued by policy-makers (83%).
- Government initiatives and policy changes (77%).
- Pressure relating to pupil outcomes or inspection (70%).
- Dissatisfaction with pay (63%).
- Poor health (63%).
In taking office, education secretary Bridget Phillipson pledged in an open letter to “reset” the government’s relationships with the profession, promising to tackle high workload and teacher retention, while also pledging to recruit 6,500 new teachers.
Commenting on the findings, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We have to find a way to reverse the trend of teachers and leaders working longer hours against a backdrop of an ever-widening range of tasks and growing number of expectations.
“The big increase in the number of teachers and leaders considering leaving education is deeply worrying and this survey reveals that workload is a relevant factor in almost every case.
“There is a vicious cycle of teachers departing the profession as a result of workload factors, remaining staff being put under increasing pressure and a lack of government action to address the underlying problems.
“There has been a change of government since this survey was carried out, and with that there needs to be a change of approach. This survey could hardly make it any clearer that tackling longstanding concerns around workload will be fundamental to fixing the recruitment and retention crisis.”
- DfE: Research and analysis: Working lives of teachers and leaders – wave 2 , September 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-lives-of-teachers-and-leaders-wave-2