Hello Teacher Tappers!
Congratulations to the winner of our February Prize Draw! One lucky science teacher is the happy golden ticket holder, and £1,000 richer 🤑.
And more good news – a new competition is launching soon 👀 so keep checking the app each day for updates.
How much weekend work do teachers do?
Every teacher knows the pain of dragging bags of books home on a Friday night 😭 but just how much work do teachers do over Saturday and Sunday? This week we asked about marking and emailing on the weekend.
It’s a question we regularly ask, so it’s good way to see whether or not workload reduction initiatives are taking effect. Judging by your replies to our marking question, the answer is no…
The number of you saying ‘no time’ has stayed consistent over the years – but those putting in longer hours jumped 3 percentage points since last year.
What happens when we compare the experience of those of you in primary schools to secondary schools? And if we look at classroom teachers in particular? 🤔
The below chart shows that classroom teachers (versus leaders) clock up more hours on marking (no surprise there), and last weekend secondary teachers were slightly more likely than primary colleagues to spend over 3 hours marking.
What about weekend emailing?
Here we see a different story; although headteachers can keep their red pen in the drawer, 63% of heads sent three or more emails over the weekend.
It’s not all bad news though – there was an 11 percentage point increase in the overall number of Teacher Tappers sending no weekend emails at all 🙌.
Absence and lateness
Student absence is a problem as it hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. But to what extent is that absence making a difference to learning?
Fortunately, we asked you about how much lateness and absence interfered with teaching before the lockdowns ever happened – so we’re able to make real comparisons between now and pre-2020.
In 2017, only 18% of secondary teachers strongly agreed that student lateness and absence interfered with teaching; today it is 36%, a dramatic increase.
But is it the same across the country?
Those of you teaching in the North West were more likely to ‘strongly agree’ that absence is interfering with teaching compared to those in the East of England or South East – with 36% strongly agreeing in the North West compared to just 23% in the East of England.
Also, while we already know absence plays a big part in the disadvantage gap – from what you’ve told us this week, it’s schools in the most disadvantaged areas that are seeing the most disruption to teaching from absence.
We have our eyes peeled for more blogs/readings/resources on attendance to help you tackle this issue. If you see any good ones please do highlight via ‘Contact Us’ in the settings menu or on our social channels.
Rules, rules, rules
There’s been a lot of talk online about school rules, and whether schools are now too strict. But as the teachers IN those schools – do you think your school is too strict?
This one is a changing picture. While very few of you say your school is too strict (only around 7%), the numbers who strongly felt their school wasn’t strict – and therefore seem to want it to be more strict – has dropped since the pandemic.
Back in 2018, 28% of primary teachers and 25% of secondary teachers strongly disagreed their school was too strict. Now the percentages are 20% and 24%. This suggests that schools have potentially become stricter in their approaches, compared to 2018, or have teacher expectations mellowed?
Much of the online furore over strict schools has concentrated on large Multi Academy Trusts.
So, are teachers in those more likely to say the school is too strict? We ran the numbers and no. There’s a negligible difference between the two.
Finish line in sight
It’s already March, and before we know it the year will be over. But are you on track to finish the curriculum?
Good news: most of you think that you’re going to finish on time! 😮💨
The bad news is that 1 in 5 of you think you won’t, or that there is a good chance that you won’t. This has been the same since we first asked you in 2018.
However, when we break this down into primary and secondary – we can see it’s primary teachers who worry the most about squeezing the notoriously overpacked primary curriculum in. 30% of you in primary school teachers have concerns about finishing, compared to just 15% in secondary.
And out of all primary schools, a third of you in RI/inadequate schools believe there is a good chance, or you definitely won’t finish this year.
Were you a teacher who tapped ‘no’? As you can see – you’re not alone! Let us know how you’re dealing with it on socials or through the app 💬.
Ups and Downs
On the rise 📈
Seating plans: 📋 In 2018, 41 per cent of you said seating plans were required by your senior leaders. Now it’s 63 per cent.
Heading down 📉
The early starters: ⏰ Fewer teachers are now arriving at school before 7:30am. 36% told us you arrived before 7:30am this week, compared to 44% in 2018.
Daily Reads
Our most read daily read this week was Jennifer Webb’s blog: The spreadsheet to save your life
If you would like to read the rest you can find them here 👇
