I’ll take three days of a great teacher, over zero days of a great teacher

Like so many schools across the country, one of the biggest challenges for Barking Abbey School is recruitment and retention.

Facing the choice between losing teachers and embracing new ways of working, Headteacher Tony Roe shares his approach to improving flexibility, as he decided to implement an innovative school-wide approach to retaining his teachers.

As Tony puts it…

With many of our staff now parents, I’m often faced with the choice of accommodating flexible working or potentially losing fantastic teachers. To be pragmatic, I’ll take three days of a great teacher, over zero days of a great teacher.

It’s all about ensuring that we have the best quality teachers in front of our pupils. We start recruiting teachers in November and luckily rarely need to recruit over 15% of teaching staff.

While we of course still get people moving on for various reasons, we put our low turnover down to our efforts to keep staff happy and motivated.

Trialling reduced hours with the Teach First Training Programme

A few years ago, we worked closely with Teach First to grant reduced teaching hours for one of our trainee maths teachers, while they were on the Teach First Training Programme.

Our trainee had young children and caring responsibilities during her training, so we all worked to ensure that she could meet her teacher training hours and complete her course work in three days a week. While we could accommodate her reduced teaching timetable, Teach First was also able to support, by allowing this trainee to complete her assessments over a longer period.

I really welcomed this slower pace of teacher training, which is a full-on commitment for those straight out of university, let alone trainees with family commitments. I think a slower option could help avoid missing out on prospective teachers who may be intimidated by the workload, that comes with training on the job.

A school-wide approach to flexible working 

Now, almost 20% of our 155 teachers work on a reduced timetable. While a couple of teachers are on a 0.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) – working two days a week, a larger number do 0.6 (three days a week) and 0.8 (four days a week). 

We've been able to make 0.4 hours work for staff who teach subjects that require one lesson a week, such as art. Core subjects, like English and maths are more difficult as the pupils will have four or five lessons a week. Accommodating a 0.4 teacher timetable would see students having two or three teachers per core subject, which isn’t ideal for engagement.

So, we try as much as possible to support flexible working, and I’m quite confident that we would have lost a lot of the teachers who work flexibly if we weren’t able to.

How they make flexible working work 

I determine whether we can accommodate flexible working requests at Barking Abbey by assessing our curriculum needs. I have 2,579 lessons to fill, and I match teachers to each period. To accommodate a teacher who wants to work three days a week rather than five days a week, we simply slot them into available lessons and work to minimise occasions of split classes.

As a school, we run a professional trust model. I’m very clear on when our staff must be in school. Everyone needs to be in the classroom from 8:20am and on site until 3:15pm. If they continue to do a great job, I don’t need my teachers in school outside of those hours. Some of our teachers leave bang on 3:15pm to collect their children from school, or commute and then use their time in the evening to mark and plan their lessons.

Time Off in Lieu for teachers

Staff that choose to work over their contracted hours in school are also eligible for Time Off in Lieu (TOIL). This is especially helpful for parents’ evening. While our part-time staff should only be doing four parents’ evenings a year, they may teach seven classes within their timetable, so will need to attend seven parents’ evenings. As these extra hours are outside what their contracted, we encourage them to claim TOIL.

One of our teachers uses his TOIL every June to book a day off and take his wife shopping and for lunch in London when their kids are in school. He says it’s brilliant to specifically build up TOIL so that they can have a lovely day together. I love that we can enable our staff, who work so hard all year round, to do nice things like that!

Flexible working is possible in schools

As a local authority school outside a multi-academy trust, we’ve worked hard to ensure staff can enjoy flexible working, balancing both their professional and personal lives. For other stand-alone schools to do the same, sharing different approaches and how they work for each community could make a real difference.

Every Headteacher runs their school differently - some may prefer all staff in for Monday morning briefings, while others embrace hybrid check-ins. There’s no right or wrong way, as long as the school runs smoothly and successfully. 

I know flexible working is possible, because I’ve done it myself. As a classroom teacher, I left work at 4:30pm to collect my children, and as a school leader, I continue to support my staff in balancing work and personal commitments.

If teaching was seen as a career that works alongside family and personal commitments, it could help schools recruit more brilliant teachers.

The research: What do Gen Z want from their careers? 

In our recent research looking at tomorrow’s teachers, it was found the most important aspect of Gen Z’s job search is establishing a good work-life balance. 

In addition to the insights from how Barking Abbey School approach flexibility, you can find more case studies on how our partner schools are adapting flexible working to suit their needs here.