Greater flexibility is key to recruiting and retaining the teachers we need

Flexible Teacher Talent - run by two Teach First ambassadors and part-time secondary school teachers - grew from a passion to work with schools to better support the flexible working needs of their staff, and therefore retain great teachers and leaders.

Co-founder Lindsay talks us through how they support individuals, school, MATS and the DfE to embed flexible working patterns into the sector.

Why flexibility matters for all teachers

When Lucy Rose and I first set up Flexible Teacher Talent in 2016, we had assumed that we would be mostly supporting women in the 30 to 39-year-old demographic who were looking at flexible working once they became parents - like us.

We quickly discovered that the reasons and life stages of teachers looking to work flexibly were much more diverse.

In our book, ‘Flex Education: A guide for flexible working in schools’, we talked about how the younger generation were more likely to want to have so called “portfolio careers”. There was increasing demand to be part-teacher, part-something else and this wasn’t possible if the only option available to work in teaching was full time.

We encouraged school leaders to look beyond the idea that the only good teachers were full time teachers.

This was before the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and the rapid evolution of remote working. Other industries have moved on a great deal in terms of flexible working. There are now many more opportunities for working at home, hybrid working, or not being at your desk all day every day. The competition to attract new graduates has intensified.

Even though teaching is a vocation, it has become a less attractive prospect when compared to opportunities which allow home working or have negotiable start and finish times. Maybe flexibility used to be predominantly a priority for mums, but now the lack of flexibility in schools stands it apart from many other jobs - and not in a good way.

Gen Z; working smarter, not harder

Lucy and I were Teach First trainees in London schools in 2004 and 2006 and both spent the first 10 or so years we worked at those schools working 60+ hour weeks. It was the culture in our schools, and we didn’t know any different. We saw many colleagues burn out or leave because that kind of work wasn’t sustainable for many different reasons.

For many, they carried on until they became parents and that was the point when they realised it wasn’t sustainable or until they needed to care for a relative, for some it was until their health reached breaking point. There are obviously several problems with this, but one is that when they do come to ask for flexible working they aren’t able to get it. But Gen Z seem much more aware than this.

At Flexible Teacher Talent and in our day jobs in our schools, we have also seen a change in mindset from Gen Z. Our experience is that they are more aware of what else is out there, have higher expectations in terms of healthy work life balance, and want to work smarter rather than harder.

They are more aware of their wellbeing and less likely to work themselves into the ground or accept working conditions that aren’t fair. They want to work in a way that is sustainable. Many of the younger people we work with are articulate about what they want in terms of work life balance. It is refreshing to see - but it is quite different to many schools where there is a culture of equating hours on site with effectiveness.

Why flexibility is key for teacher retention, wellbeing and so much more

If we want to attract new graduates to the profession, and retain them, then we need to implement the flexibility that schools can do well. Obviously, we are never going to have the same work from home or flexi-time offers as office jobs, but there is a middle ground.

Not requiring staff to stay on site during non-contact time, better part-time and job share arrangements, more flexibility for occasional time off are some examples. The innovative 9 day working fortnight is an exciting idea, but flexible working doesn’t have to be as revolutionary.

Our experience is that Gen Z teachers request flexible working for a huge variety of reasons - so they can have late starts and go windsurfing before school, use remote PPA to go running during daylight hours, go part time to study, set up a business, or teach in a special school. All with the aim of a work-life balance that suits them as individuals.

The experience of one young woman working in a rather intense school primary in inner city Birmingham sticks in my mind. She loved her job but was becoming increasingly aware of how exhausted she was. Her Key Stage 1 job working with children from highly disadvantaged backgrounds was physically demanding and high energy and she felt that by the end of the week she couldn’t give it her all.

She ideally wanted to work three days a week in school and do something else on the other days. She missed the challenge and stimulus from her degree in English literature. However, she thought the only reason you could request flexible working was for childcare purposes.

Thank goodness she reached out to us on social media! We explained that flexible working isn’t just for parents and there doesn’t need to be a reason given for why you want to work flexibly. Then we supported her with flexible working application which was accepted by her school. She went part time and started a Masters in comparative literature. She stayed in the classroom. She didn’t become one of these statistics.

Too many teachers don’t get this opportunity, so we lose them. If they don’t know it’s an option for teachers, if they don’t know they can ask for it or if they are sure their request will be turned down, then we lose them.

Flexibility is needed, beyond those who become mothers

Teaching should be an enjoyable, sustainable career whatever stage you are at, and whatever your priorities and commitments are.

We need to move away from these tropes that flex is only for mums and that the best teachers work the longest hours.

Being a teacher doesn’t have to mean being a full-time teacher on site for the whole week, every week. Proper flexible working done well in our schools will help to attract talented teachers and keep them in front of the children who need them most.

To achieve this, and ensure teaching isn’t a profession left behind, we must modernise – and quickly. It’ll take strong leadership at a national government, trust, and school level to make this necessary cultural shift.

At Flexible Teacher Talent, we work with trusts and school leaders to help implement flexible working to promote retention, inclusion, staff wellbeing and productivity. If you would like support with embracing flexible working in your settings, then please contact us at flexibleteachertalent@gmail.com or on LinkedIn.

We also lead on the DfE’s Flexible Working in MATs and School programme which is packed with resources, webinar recordings, case studies and opportunities to develop flexible working in schools - worth a look at www.flexibleworkinginschools.co.uk.

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 insights from Flexible Teacher Talent co-founder Lindsay Patience, you can find more case studies on how our partner schools are adapting flexible working to suit their needs here.