Hello, Tappsters!
What day is it? Who cares! You are deep into the holidays now – we hope your bladder is enjoying being able to visit the toilet whenever you want, and enjoying lunch whenever you feel like taking it (more on this later…).
Prizes for our Mystery Tappers
Today, one lucky Tapper has a special message in their app telling them they have won a prize – we can now reveal it is a £100 gift card 🤑
Not the lucky winner? No worries! We have another mystery prize up for grabs this week!
Full terms and conditions here.
And now, for our best edu-data findings…
1. What you’ve done this summer…
Lessons have stopped for the year – but are you still in touch with your colleagues? So far, half of you have met up in person, but it’s classroom teachers who are the MOST likely to be chatting to their colleagues for non-work reasons (47%), whereas headteachers are the most likely to be keeping to themselves, with just 11% reaching out for non-work reasons.
Work dreams have been a problem for some of you – two-thirds of you can remember your dreams, and of those, teachers, a quarter have strange dreams about school…(does anyone else have one about the computers all not working and desks going missing? Or is that just me??).
28% of you still don’t feel rested yet (hence the dreams, perhaps?), and 63% have either taken, or will be taking, a holiday.
Whether or not you DO feel rested, might come down to who you have at home with you…and whether you are male or female…
Female teachers with children at home are the most likely to report they still don’t feel fully rested (31%) compared to male teachers with no children at home (22%).
2. Checking work emails 📧
Senior leaders in schools take on slightly different responsibilities over the summer — such as safeguarding concerns and managing exam results — which can mean work emails still need to be checked.
But how many are doing this because they want to, rather than because they have to?
Among headteachers, 97% are checking their emails, but only 38% of them are doing so voluntarily.
For other senior leaders, the figure is a little lower: 89% are checking their emails, and 62% of those are doing it by choice.
Does checking work emails impact leaders ability to relax? It would seem so!
Leaders who are expected to check emails, 76% took more than a week to feel rested, with 35% still not rested; whereas leaders who are NOT expected to check emails, 63% took more than a week to feel rested, with 27% still not feeling rested.
Is there a clear email policy at your school? Is it something you could adjust to improve the work-life balance for your senior leaders?
3. Would you rather…
Over the summer we have snuck in a few ‘fun’ would you rather games into our daily questions – we hope you enjoyed them!
Here are some of the results…
Teachers in special/alternative provision schools are the most confident being filmed with their challenging classes (46%), whereas arts inc design and technology teachers are the most confident they could ‘wing it’ being observed when they haven’t prepared (76%)!
How about the big ‘marking vs parents evening’ debate?
This revealed a HUGE split between subjects. As you might expect, maths, science and KS2 teachers were the most keen to mark papers rather than speak to parents five nights in a row (85%, 83% and 82%), and teachers in special/AP, other inc PE and English teachers were the more likely to want to speak to parents over facing a towering marking pile (38%, 39%, 43%)
Does Disney make a difference?
When faced with a choice between a school trip to EuroDisney or a camping site, EuroDisney comes out top for teachers!
For some reason, faced with five days of braving the British weather was less appealing than five days at the “happiest place on Earth”.
70% of primary and 78% of secondary would pick EuroDisney over covering absent teachers, but just 54% of primary and 63% of secondary would pick camping over cover.
+ Bonus finding – results day advice
We asked Teacher Tappers for their best advice for students on results day – and the number one tip was a reminder that their exam results aren’t the total sum of who they are.
“You are more than a grade on a piece of paper”
Time and again, teachers emphasise that exam results aren’t a reflection of a student’s worth. The aim? To reduce pressure and boost confidence. Teachers want students to know they are more than a set of letters or numbers.
- “You are more than your exam results—good or bad.”
- “Your results don’t define you.”
- This doesn’t measure your worth.”
You can read the full blog on results day advice here.
Daily Reads
The top read in the last week was all about SEND and the rise in EHCPs.
Have you seen a great blog you think would make a great daily read? Let us know by emailing england@teachertapp.co.uk and we will check it out!
