The first review considers flexible working approaches that have potential to keep teachers at the chalkface, including a list of 10 “enablers” that help schools to make a success of flexible working.
The second offers workload reduction strategies including 9 suggestions for priority areas in schools as well as a focus on some of the barriers to workload reduction – many of which are external factors.
The third looks at the role of leadership in driving teacher retention, identifying 3 key areas where effective leadership can make a difference.
The three reports, published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), offer further advice and lessons learned on top of these 22 elements that might be adapted by schools.
Flexible working
The first review, which has been conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (Harland et al, 2023), concludes that there is “considerable perceptual evidence that flexible working can support recruitment, retention, and workforce stability”, contributing positively to:
- Staff wellbeing and job satisfaction.
- Attendance, productivity, and motivation.
- Capacity, expertise, and diversity.
- Career progression, succession planning, and reducing the gender pay gap.
However, the review identifies a lack of “robust evidence” on the impact of flexible working as well as negative views from school leaders about increased costs and a lack of consistency for students associated with flexible working.
The main type of flexible working being used in schools is part-time working, although other approaches include:
- Flexible hours.
- Personal days.
- Remote working (including working off-site for things like lesson-planning and marking).
- Phased retirement.
The review estimates that between one-fifth and one-third of teachers may be working part-time to some degree, although in one sample of 500 state-funded schools in the review, only 3% had a flexible working policy on their websites.
What is clear is that the practice remains more common at primary level than at secondary. There is some evidence that disadvantaged schools are less receptive to flexible working practices.
The EEF wants to see more research that tries to overcome the notable challenge of isolating the precise impact of flexible working on recruitment and retention.
However, the review concludes that flexible working practices “appear to play an important role in improving teacher recruitment and retention” and that “offering flexibility is associated with several positive teacher outcomes”.
It adds: “The review shows clearly that teachers value flexibility and suggests that schools are likely to benefit in terms of retention if they make proactive management of flexibility a priority, especially as part of an overall leadership approach that is supportive of staff.”
To this end, the review identifies 10 “enablers” to flexible working practice in schools:
- Supportive leadership and school culture.
- A proactive rather than reactive approach.
- A fair and transparent processes for requesting flexible working.
- A willingness to negotiate and compromise (from both leaders and teachers).
- A clear and accessible flexible working policy (the report includes an analysis of existing flexible working policies in schools).
- Consideration of flexible working requests at recruitment
- Piloting flexible working arrangements.
- Creative timetabling.
- Managing and defining the responsibilities and workload associated with flexible roles.
- Training and resources for senior leaders and HR teams.
The review adds: “Given current recruitment and retention challenges, it is important for schools to think about practices that may help to retain teachers.
“There are numerous challenges to flexible working – including leadership attitudes and school culture, timetabling, financial costs, staff availability, and workload … Leadership and creating a school culture that values staff and prioritises staff wellbeing emerged as being crucial to successful flexible working practices and underpinned the other factors.”
Workload reduction strategies
Multiple strategies for managing workload are required if schools are to have an impact on teacher retention, according to the second of the trio of reviews.
Also conducted by the NFER (Martin et al, 2023), the review reminds us that high workload remains the top reason teachers give for leaving the profession. It comes after figures earlier this year revealed that 40,000 teachers quit the chalkface for reasons other than retirement in 2021/22.
The review involved information from more than 1,300 classroom teachers and school leaders working in 1,137 schools.
It finds that teachers in schools with more workload reduction strategies in place were much more likely to have positive views of their workload, autonomy and job satisfaction.
The most common strategies included giving timetabled time for planning and marking (PPA), offering access to existing schemes of work and lesson plans, as well as collaborative lesson-planning.
The review finds that insufficient funding and staff capacity are the top barriers to workload reduction, while 28% of teachers identified a lack of support from senior leadership as the key barrier to workload reduction.
The review sought views on which areas should be given high priority by schools seeking to reduce teacher workload. Responses included:
- Behaviour management and pastoral care (47%)
- Feedback, marking and assessment (41%)
- Lesson-planning and preparation (37%)
- Dealing with pupil safeguarding or pupil/family welfare issues (38%)
- Reducing total teaching time (30%)
- Internal communications such as staff emails and meetings (23%)
- Communication with parents/carers (21%)
- Performance management and staff supervision/support (20%)
- Non-teaching duties, such as supervising pupils, invigilation and extra-curricular activities (20%)
The review states that many schools have changed their policies and approaches recently in a bid to reduce teacher workload and that while these efforts must be “sustained”, attention should turn to examining the external drivers of teacher workload, which were identified as including:
- Insufficient funding/staff capacity (76%).
- External accountability, including Ofsted (58%).
- Lack of specialist support for specific pupil needs such as SEND, mental health and safeguarding (54%).
- Lack of support from parents/carers (24%).
Commenting on the review, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The evidence is clear that the answer to addressing very high levels of teacher workload – one of the main causes of teacher shortages – lies to a large extent with the government. The review finds that most schools are already adopting most of the available workload reduction strategies and says that attention should now turn to examining the external reasons for teacher workload.
“It says some of the main drivers come from outside the school – primarily from the government and Ofsted – and says that insufficient funding and staff capacity is the top barrier to workload reduction.”
School leadership
Three inter-related leadership approaches are identified as being important in supporting teacher retention.
The findings are published in the third of the EEF reviews, which was conducted by researchers from Durham University and University of Warwick (Nguyen et al, 2023).
The review takes in analyses of data collected from 60 countries and concludes that senior leadership should:
- Prioritise teacher development.
- Build relationship trust.
- Improve working conditions.
Prioritising CPD includes providing instructional support, professional development opportunities, and cultivating leadership potential in teachers.
Building relational trust considers aspects such as treating teachers with respect, considering teacher voice, and the behaviour of the leadership team. The report states: “School leadership behaviours can influence teacher commitment through promoting a positive school climate.”
Meanwhile, improving working conditions includes aspects such as supporting teacher professional autonomy, promoting collegiality, developing an equitable support and recognition system, establishing an effective communication structure, and supporting teachers with student disciplinary matters.
More research to come
The three publications form part of the EEF’s flagship research theme for 2023 – supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers to schools with high levels of socio-economically disadvantaged pupils. New research projects informed by these findings and aimed at testing the impact of specific approaches are to be launched “shortly”.
- Harland, Bradley & Worth: Understanding the factors that support the recruitment and retention of teachers – review of flexible working approaches, EEF, NFER, 2023. Report here.
- Martin et al: Supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers in schools with high proportions of disadvantaged pupils: Understanding current practice around managing teacher workload, EEF, NFER, 2023. Report here.
- Nguyen et al: Reviewing the evidence base on school leadership, culture, climate and structure for teacher retention, EEF, Durham University, University of Warwick, 2023. Report here.