As the clocks go back, the nights are drawing in and daylight is becoming scarcer. For hardworking teachers, it’s very possible that you are only glimpsing the sun while you’re actually at work. This is not ideal.

Despite the most recent DfE teacher workload survey (2019) offering some positive findings, it was still found that ‘most respondents could not complete their workload within their contracted hours, did not have an acceptable workload, and did not achieve a good work-life balance.’ Of course, it’s likely that concerns over workload will have increased since the global pandemic.

Teachers still cite marking and lesson planning as their biggest workload burdens.

In support, our tips for reducing teacher workload should hopefully help you head home before sunset:

3 Tips for Reducing Teacher Workload

1 – Manageable Marking

This is often the number one time-eater talked about by teachers. Your freedom with marking workload is governed by the marking policy in your school, however there are always ways you can become more time-efficient and effective with your marking strategy:

• Aim to focus on feedback – try to plan opportunities for self- and peer-assessment in your lesson to reduce the amount of marking. For ideas on implementation, head to QualityInstruction.org or TeacherToolkit.
• Whole class feedback – Tick mark assessments and write a collective set of notes on frequent mistakes or successes (like an examiner’s report) to save you time writing individual feedback on every activity. This is especially useful for spelling mistakes: instead of correcting every keyword in 120 tests, collate a list of the most frequently incorrect ones and give the whole class that list to then be tested on in a couple of weeks’ time. This saves repeating written comments and enables planning of engaging whole class tasks to clarify misunderstandings. If you plan activities where understanding can be tested through multiple-choice answers, these can be marked by students quickly. A wide variety of templates are online and shared on Twitter. For more information on rationale read: https://www.tes.com/news/why-whole-class-feedback-beats-vague-written-comments
• Peer Assessment – Can the students mark parts of the test themselves? Especially multiple-choice or short-answer questions.
• Self-review – You do not necessarily need to write repetitive comments. Why not number/tick mark and then get students to use the mark scheme to write their own comments, using a comment bank to help?
• Open page – If you’ve done the assessment in exercise books, get students to leave their books open on the correct page. The 10 seconds you save flicking through every book to find the correct page all adds up!
• Marking one question at a time – Marking one question / double-page spread at a time is a great way to get into a rhythm, keeping your mind focused on one part of the mark scheme before you have to think about the next part of the test.

2 – Power Planning

• PowerPoint planning – It’s less common these days for schools to expect an individual lesson plan. So, why not plan your lesson by making a PowerPoint? This will save you time planning a lesson and then making a PowerPoint. It is also easy to make changes as you go along. Having a ‘master’ presentation with slides in formats that you frequently use is also a time saver! For example, your background, titles, and dates formatted so that you’re not faffing about with design each time.
• The 5-minute lesson plan – Print off a set of these and plan all your lesson in only 5 minutes each! This framework forces you to focus on the important things needed and you can now even create your own unique plan for your subject or school’s pedagogy. A great tool to use when you find yourself procrastinating, and spending more time planning a starter than it takes to deliver it!
• Do not reinvent the wheel – There’s no need to start everything from scratch! You can often reuse things that you have already done other years, or even create units in a similar format.
• Repeat high-quality activities – Using one starter/plenary and repeating the activity with different year groups. Keep the activity, change the level you pitch it at. Years 7 to 13 will all get something from some quickly thought-up (or web-generated) anagrams of what they learned last time (and then make them write the definition) to start your lesson. It means you don’t need to plan seven different tasks.
• Collaborating: Co-planning and sharing of resources can save the whole department time, not only you! The chances are someone already has a similar (if not same) lesson that they’ve used. If not, why not ask around on Twitter or Facebook groups and have a look at TES or Schoology for resources that already exist?

3 – Look After Yourself

• Protect your time – We often crave adult interaction after spending most of the day with students. However, do not fall into the trap of endlessly chatting with colleagues after school. Socialising is great but beware of it eating up precious planning or marking time, leading you to stay later. Never be afraid to politely decline a corridor catch up!
• Wellbeing – drinking water, eating healthy, exercising, sleep and enjoying some time to yourself for a hobby will all make you more productive when actually doing work. We know this won’t be new to you , but if you have let any of these aspects of well-being slip, it will impact on your day.
• Treat yourself – whether it be a meal out, drinks with a friend, a night in front of the TV or even just an early night, give yourself something to look forward to. This will keep you positive and give you the motivation to complete your work faster.

Thank you for reading our blog on reducing teacher workload, we hope you found it insightful!

Remember that when working with Prospero Teaching, you have access to our Training & Development Team (all qualified teachers with experience as interviewers) for any advice needed.  If you would like feedback on your lesson plan, please feel free to send it to us via your consultant. They will always be in touch before the interview to go over a few details and answer any questions.

Check out our current vacancies if you’re looking for primary or secondary teacher jobs, we currently have short-term, long-term and permanent opportunities. If you’d like to have a chat with a friendly consultant, then register your interest and we’ll be in touch!