In this issue...

02 Dave Morgan’s column Our National Exec member gives a round-up for teachers

03 Events and meetings

Find out about upcoming meetings across the county

04 Primary workload and 05 The Secret Teacher Primary workload has risen dramatically in the last five years

06 Excessive workload in schools?

Try Ofsted’s handy Myth Buster

07 National Conference invites... Join Lincs NASUWT at the annual conference in Birmingham

08 District 12 conference Lincs and Notts teachers conference at Belton Woods on 26 & 27 February

IMPressionsA newsletter for Lincolnshire teachers Winter 2016

Share IMPressions with your colleagues and contacts to keep them informed. Find us on Facebook, under Lincolnshire Teachers

www.lincsnasuwt.org.uk

Local meetings and events... page 3

Conference dates... pages 7 & 8

Teacher recruitment crisis...

More teachers are quitting the profession than at any point in the past 10 years,

according to DfE figures

More than one in ten

say they only intend to stay in teaching

for 12 months

Nearly

a fifth say they intend to

stay only for a maximum of

five years

Dave Morgan’s report... page 2

Our Professional Assistant in the regional office answers some of your questions.

If you have a question about youremployment, contact your rep or give our advice line a ring on 03330 145 550.

My head teacher says Ofsted expects us to do deep marking. Is this the case? Marking seems to be taking up my life!

Ofsted DO NOT specify the type or frequency of marking!

In March 2015, Ofsted published an updated version of its

‘Ofsted inspections – clarification for schools document.1’

This document confirms Ofsted’s expectations of key

features of policy and practice in schools.

In relation to marking and feedback, it states: ‘Ofsted

recognises that marking and feedback to pupils, both written

and oral, are important aspects of assessment. However,

Ofsted does not (Ofsted’s emphasis) expect to see any

specific frequency, type or volume of marking and feedback;

these are for the school to decide through its assessment

policy. Marking and feedback should be consistent with that

policy, which may cater for different subjects and different

age groups of pupils in different ways, in order to be

effective and efficient in promoting learning.’

I’ve decided to go part time. Do I have to sign a new contract? My school is now an academy and was transferred across but the school have introduced new contracts for new staff.

There is no requirement for the school to issue a new

contract as this could be covered by a mutually agreed

‘variation of contract’. This would simply require a letter to

be issued by the employer stating the new hours to be

worked.

One tip we would suggest is that you get written agreement

in relation to BOTH the proportion you will be working

(i.e. 06.fte) AND the days these hours will be worked over.

With apologies to John F. Kennedy....And so, my fellow teachers ask not what your union can do for you; ask what you can do for your union.

Did you know....That most people who undertake work for the NASUWT are part time and unpaid? School reps, caseworkers and Local Association Secretaries fit in giving help and advice around work and home life commitments which sometimes means they are not instantly available.

So what can you do?Have you logged on to the NASUWT website – www.nasuwt.org.uk recently – or at all?

Have you checked that your details are correct and up to date? We have quite a few ‘lost’ members who have moved schools but we don’t know where to. All you need is a few minutes and your membership number.

Don’t have a school rep? Why not volunteer, or do you know someone who would make a good rep? It really is quite painless and training is provided; the level of involvement is up to you – even if you only open the post and act as first point of contact. We need a voice in every workplace and members need to be heard.

DID YOU?Get a pay rise this year – did any of your colleagues? It should have been a minimum of 1% and for some 2% not all schools have paid it – has yours?

What the STRB are you talking about?The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) is taking evidence. The NASUWT is vigorously defending our pay and conditions. Just as well as the Secretary of State has suggested that it might be a good idea if teachers’ pay could go down as well as up! You can bet that our terms and conditions will also be attacked.

Which is Why....We must defend the Action Short Of Strike Action (ASOSA). Details are on the NASUWT website if you are unsure of the contents which are designed to protect you without damaging your school. There is nothing in the ASOSA that will prevent a school from being judged ‘Outstanding’ by OfSTED but it will prevent you from being over-worked, abused or being taken advantage of. The old saying ‘use it or lose it’ is even more important now.

Sarah’s postbag

First IMPressionsby Dave Morgan, National Executive Member

02

Meetings for teachers across the countyFebruary is meeting month for Lincolnshire NASUWT. As well as our AGMs, these meetings will feature a short presentation and discussion about the recruitment and retention crisis followed by a discussion encompassing workload, marking and excessive observations.

All members are welcome to attend our meetings, which are informal and informative.

We’ll provide excellent food and refreshments and our meetings last around one hour. Bring any non-members with you - they can join at the meeting.

Lincoln Tuesday 2 February, 4.30pmThe Garden Tea Rooms, 141 Moor Lane, Nth Hykeham LN6 9AA

Afternoon tea served

Grantham and Sleaford

Monday 29 February, 6pm for 6.30pm start

Carres Arms, 1 Mareham Lane, Sleaford NG34 7JP

Food and refreshments served from 6pm

Holland Thursday 4 February, 4.30pmKitchen restaurant, Springfield Retails Centre,

Camel Gate, Spalding PE12 6EU Afternoon tea served

East Lindsey

Tuesday 9 February, 4.30pm

Mario’s Restaurant, 17 Burgh Road, Skegness PE25 2RA

A selection of excellent Italian food served

Stamford, Bourne & the Deepings Wednesday 3 February, 4.30pm Angel Hotel, Market St, Bourne PE10 9AEAfternoon tea served

Teacher recruitment

crisis...More teachers are

quitting the profession

than at any point in the

past 10 years,

according to

DfE figuresMore than

one in ten

say they only intend

to stay in teaching

for 12 months

Nearly

a fifth

say they intend to

stay only for a

maximum of

five years

Under discussion...

03

There are many words teachers may use to describe their jobs. But easy is never one of them. The recruitment and retention crisis which exists and will not go away is being ignored by ministers and denied by successive Governments. Ask any teacher what they need more of and the answer is usually ‘time’. The bald fact is that there are simply not enough hours in the day to fulfil the requirements of the job to any degree of satisfaction and the biggest reason for this is workload.

For workload, what I’m really referring to is paperwork. Mountains of it. Canny head teachers could half their heating bills by fuelling the on-site boiler with all the initiatives they receive (preferably before wasting time reading them).

The fact is that most of the ideas that have caused this paperwork overload are based on myths which senior management teams are too scared to challenge. How much stuff goes on in schools, how many requests are made to teachers with the opening sentence “Ofsted requires...”?

Ask Ofsted and they’ll hotly deny it. They have even taken the trouble to produce an Ofsted Myth Buster communication and sent it to all schools. That would appear to be one document that has made it to the shredder,

because management teams just don’t believe it.

Over the years, most things that have caused this paperwork burden have started off as slight praise to a local school about say; planning, pupil feedback, marking. Then the phone calls between heads begin and if you’re due an Ofsted a new monster rears its ugly head- “To get good or outstanding this week, what Ofsted wants is...” A whole industry has mushroomed where educational suppliers are keen to sell their ‘timesavers’ with promises of ‘Save your Sundays’, ‘Reduce your paper-work overnight’, ‘Get your life back’...

Take planning- it used to be something which teachers used to ensure they remembered what they needed to deliver sound lessons which pupils learned from. Not anymore. Now it is a multi-layered, multi-faceted document which contains such ridiculous amounts of detail as to be meaningless. All that writing becomes a work of fiction, when by Tuesday you just know the rest of the week’s intentions just ain’t gonna happen. Long term, medium term and short term plans are needed apparently, or pupils haven’t a hope in Hell of knowing what their learning objectives, success criteria and next steps in learning are to be.

It’s as though we have abandoned the idea of talking to children in the classroom any more (it used to work brilliantly!) Is there no longer any room for the off the cuff idea, the wing and prayer lesson which goes so well EVERYONE enjoys it? Why does management believe that a lesson is only worth any salt if it’s been planned to within an inch of its life?

To address this, sublime, detailed, ‘person-alised’ plans can be downloaded at the drop of a hat. Do Ministers really believe that the existence of the Workload Agreement has fixed the problem? Tell that to the queue of teachers waiting to use the photocopier before school starts, the ones clearing their backlog of emails at the weekend and the poor sods marking books after midnight.

The problem lies in things looking right rather than being right. Management now believe that planning is so streamlined and such a doddle there has to be something to fill that void. And the latest monster is marking. Senior management now like every teacher to turn their pupils into pen friends. The idea is, you write to your pupil, at length, about what you liked about their work, what they need to do to improve next time and how far away they are from their ‘targets’. Little sketches of step ladders, smiley faces,

“The latest monster is marking. Senior management now like every teacher

A

‘ Secret Teacher ’ writes.....

04

different coloured pens, glum emoticons, stickers, stamps and money (I’m joking about the last one), are all added and the child reads it, digests it and vows to improve.

But it doesn’t end there. No. They then have to write back to you, showing that they have read your missive and you then write to them again. It takes hours. Ofsted love this apparently. It shows quality feedback which clearly tells the pupil where to go next. And to make sure its going on, book scrutinies are undertaken at the drop of a hat- to make sure we are all corresponding with hundreds of pupils on a regular basis. Woe betide if there’s a smiley face missing. (Some have sensibly weighed the chance of a dressing down against losing an entire evening to marking and have taken a chance – they are the ones threatened with ‘capability procedures’).

The nonsense of all this is that any teacher will tell you that it has NO impact at all on pupil outcomes. But the impact on workload has been huge. It is unwieldy, unmanageable, detrimental to work life balance and a complete waste of time. As is so much of what we do. I have yet to meet a teacher who doesn’t love seeing pupils make progress, often against all odds, through the dedication, compassion and skill of professionals who

genuinely care and who don’t need the sword of Damocles hanging over them to do a great job.

The upshot is that far too much of our time is taken trying to prove we do our job. Creating ‘evidence’ if you like, so that once every few years or months, if the results aren’t there, the paper trail is. Where has the trust in the profession gone? Is anyone looking at other possible reasons why a pupil hasn’t made expected progress despite following every initiative foisted on the school? Ask any teacher what they miss when they leave the job and you’ll never be told its the paperwork or marking books. Ask them why they left and it’s a different story.

Producing this paper trail saps energy, diminishes enthusiasm, stifles creativity and feeds the queues of teachers out there who have decided enough is enough. I love teaching. It’s a privilege to enable pupils to achieve their potential. But I’ve yet to see a ‘top down’, ill thought out, burdensome initiative producing yet another ring binder of stuff to read, digest and respond to, which has made a single one of my lessons better.

I’m looking forward to staying warm in my retirement with a ‘fuel allowance’ collected over many years. .....Anon

Primary workload is out of control. The DfE’s own figures show that hours worked per week have leapt since 2010, and NASUWT surveys show it is the number one concern for all teachers. We can’t expect to solve the recruitment crisis unless we first deal with the grinding workload for teachers.

Lincolnshire faces acute recruitment problems as new primary schools are required to deal with the increased number of places required. We could become a beacon county for lowering workload, thereby encouraging teachers to come to our county. But that will involve a lot of work on the part of everyone involved in education.

The NASUWT’s Big Question survey has charted a steady rise in workload over the past 5 years and respondents consistently identified workload as the main reason for disaffection with in the profession.

In order to determine the drivers of workload, teachers were asked about the causes of workload and bureaucracy in schools. The top five causes cited were administration for inspection (51%), pupil target setting (49%), record keeping (47%), lesson planning (39%), and entering pupil data (36%). Administration for inspection as a cause of bureaucracy has increased by 9% since 2011, with over half of teachers now citing this as an issue.

The top cause, administration for inspections, can be dealt with by using the Ofsted ‘myth busters’ guide (see page 6).

If you and your colleagues would like to deal with excessive workload at your school now is the time to do it. You have got exceptional bargaining power as the demand for teachers outstrips supply and schools are scrambling to recruit.

Get in touch with your local association if you’d like us to help.

to turn their pupils into pen friends.”

Teacher workload

...the primary cause of the recruitment crisis

05

Have you been told that the deep marking regime your school is implementing in ‘Ofsted required’? That your lesson plans must be to ‘Ofsted standard’? A myth busting document by Ofsted themselves goes through in detail what Ofsted does not expect. And it makes for interesting reading.

The short guide opens with an explanation of its purpose: ‘...to dispel myths that can result in unnecessary workloads in schools’. It is clear that Ofsted understand that workload is the number one driver of dissatisfaction among teachers and NASUWT surveys have shown this to be true.

Below are a few of the myths dispelled by Ofsted, and it’s worth reading the full 3 page document to see what Ofsted are really looking for.

n Ofsted does not require schools to provide individual lesson plans to inspectors.

n Ofsted does not specify how planning should be set out, the length of time it should take or the amount of detail it should contain.

n Ofsted does not grade individual lessons, and does not expect schools to use the Ofsted evaluation schedule.

n Ofsted does not require schools to undertake a specified amount of lesson observation.

n Ofsted does not expect to see any specific frequency, type or volume of marking and feedback.

n Ofsted does not expect to see any written record of oral feedback provided to pupils by teachers.

n Unnecessary or extensive collections of marked pupils’ work are not required for inspection.

n Ofsted does not require schools to provide evidence for each teacher for each of the bulleted sub-headings in the teachers’ standards.

Excessive workload in schools?Try the Myth Buster

The Ofsted document is only 3 pages long and is well worth a read. You can find a copy by going to this link: bit.ly/ofstedmythbuster

06

TheCurse of Serco hits LincolnshireMichael Gove once said he would happily let Serco run schools. Lincolnshire County Council took him at his word, letting them operate a new financial management system.

Unfortunately LCC have been struck with the curse of Serco, as thousands of bills have gone unpaid.

This summer dozens of Lincs schools faced problems as unpaid bills led to angry exchanges with suppliers and cancellation of contracts.

We understand the problems are largely resolved now but it doesn’t bode well for the county’s plans to privatise more of its operations.

Serco have been responsible for a series of well-publicised blunders when running public services. These include overcharging the government for offender tagging, losing the contract to run Bradford’s schools and major failings when running the out of hours GP service in Cornwall.

Not the sort of people we want in charge of schools.

“...if CfBT, Serco or anyone else wants to set up a new school, that we will allow you” – Michael Gove, 2010

This year conference is held from 25th to 28th March in BirminghamNational conference is the supreme decision making body for the union, and Lincolnshire NASUWT are always represented there by a large group of our members.

Conference is a great way to learn more about how the union works, and to meet teachers from across the UK to debate and discuss the major issues facing the profession. This year we will have debates about how we deal with workload, pay and performance management, and the teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

Conference is FREE to all members of the NASUWT. We cover the cost of hotels and food at the event so you will not be out of pocket for attending.

If you’d like to attend this year, get in touch with your local association or email: david.morgan@exec.nasuwt.org.uk

Join Lincolnshire NASUWT at NATIONAL CONFERENCE in 2016!

07

Mike’s musings

Contractual obligations

A long time ago in the fair and pleasant land of Lincolnshire

teachers could change jobs confident that the new workplace

would offer an increase in salary and other benefits.

Things have changed. A subtle change was wrought by the

wicked wizard Gove and his malevolence has been subtly

extended by his follower Nicky Morgan. Before you take a

new job make sure that you know what the salary will be.

Make sure that you have the details in writing. Before you

sign a contract, read it with great care, is it really what you

expected? Some schools are free of the sinister spells cast

by these distant but powerful people but others are not.

If in doubt, get in touch with your union.

Pressure on Heads of Department

Schemes of work are invaluable for teachers. For someone

new they give the vital basic structure upon which good short

and medium term planning is based.

For experienced colleagues they give a sense of place and

progress which can be checked against experience. At the

moment government is making big changes to our curriculum

which requires changes to schemes of work everywhere.

For heads of small departments in large schools or anyone

with curriculum responsibility in smaller schools there may

be a lot of pressure to update schemes of work in a very

short time.

Do talk to senior staff about having a reasonable time to

complete these big tasks. Do seek to delegate parts of the

task to others and give them time in INSET days, or similar,

to carry out the work.

There are some anxious Heads around who are trying to

alleviate their anxiety by pressurising others. Awareness

may help you.

with Mike Stevenson

Notts & Lincs NASUWTConferenceSaturday 27 February 2016with meal and overnight stay on Friday 26 February (places limited)

Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham, Lincs. NG32 2LN

A conference for NASUWT members in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire to discuss and debate the direction of the union for the coming year, to network with other teachers, and discuss changes to the profession.

Including workshops, plenaries and guest speakers:Melissa Benn Melissa is a journalist and broadcaster who writes regularly for The Guardian, The Observer, The Times and the London Review of Books.

She is the author of ‘School Wars: the Battle for Britain’s Education’ and ‘The Truth About Our Schools: Debunking the Myths, Exploring the Evidence’.

Professor John Howson John is the author of the blog ‘Stories Behind the Education Numbers’.

He is an authority on the labour market for teachers, a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education and a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University. He writes and speaks about the teacher recruitment crisis and the real causes of the steep fall in teacher numbers in recent years.

There have been a lot of change in the past few years, with new types of school opening and dramatic changes to how teachers are employed. It is no longer the case that a teacher’s pay is based on experience, and education is now a free-for-all where rates of pay can vary dramatically.

This conference is aimed at school reps and NASUWT activists but is open to all members. If you’d like to know more, email: stewart.halforty@mail.nasuwt.org.uk

Members are invited to attend a meal hosted by the Lincs Federation president on Friday 26 February. Overnight accommodation is available.

Like us on Facebook! Search: ‘Lincolnshire teachers’

Our new Facebook page will promote positive stories about teachers and schools in Lincolnshire. Give us a ‘like’ to see occasional stories from around the county.

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