How we are tackling workload

Behaviour

Behaviour

1. Everyone has the highest expectations of behaviour, with all staff (not just teaching staff) reinforcing those expectations.
2. A clear system of consequences/sanctions which is applied consistently by all so staff don't have battles with students. Simple and quick logging of the consequences/sanctions.
3. Clear and robust behaviour systems that underpins impeccable behaviour, so you are free to teach.
4. Centralised after school detentions (staffed by our achievement leaders) for all behaviour and homework issues to ease the pressure at break, lunch and after school.
5. No teachers have to make phone calls to parents/carers regarding behaviour. The robust behaviour systems ensure teachers can get on with teaching.
6. The SLT are very visible and all staff 'own' their corridors. Staff and students know that they'll never walk alone.
7. The SLT run break and lunch time duties every day so that behaviour in unstructured time does not affect the smooth running of lessons.
8. Staff do not need to do any lunch duties. If they want to do one, then we will pay them or pay for their lunch.

Professional Development

Professional Development

1. Staff training on effective and ineffective feedback so that teachers are fully aware of what has the greatest impact on student progress and do not waste their time on pointless activities.
2. Lesson observations are low stakes, high frequency, completed by colleagues within your department and are focussed upon reviewing collaboratively planned lessons.
3. After school meetings and events have been rationalised. The gained time has been given to departments to support collaborative planning, subject specific CPD and preparation time.
4. Training for middle and senior leaders to ensure meeting time is used as productively as possible.
5. The number of line management meetings have been reduced.
6. We have adjusted the timings of the school day so that teachers can meet to plan collaboratively and still leave at a reasonable time without having to take work home.
7. Appraisal that is project based and driven by the teacher.
8. Comprehensive support for all teachers in their first five years of their careers-eg dedicated mentors, specific training, regular meetings and access to the early career working party.

Assessment, feedback and reporting to parents

Assessment, feedback and reporting to parents

1. Quizzing and reading homework in Years 7 and 8 has substantially reduced planning and setting of tasks. It also requires zero marking, only checking.
2. Homework tasks in Year 9 to 11 include quizzing and reading. Other tasks are based on key revision strategies, which can be self/peer marked in class and require minimal teacher marking.
3. No setting of homework for Years 7, 8 and 9 and only reading/revision for Years 10 and 11 during the week before a holiday to ensure staff do not return to a pile of marking.
4. Use of online packages for homework such as Hegarty Maths, Seneca learning or Quizlet to further reduce planning, setting and marking.
5. The preparation tasks for Year 12 have been removed to ensure that teachers do not come back in September to a pile of marking.
6. We have significantly reduced the number of data collections and the amount of data collected. There is now only one data collection per year for all year groups and no written subject reports.
7. SIMs pulls the data from departmental databases, meaning that data is only entered once.
8. The whole school assessment calendar is created alongside middle leaders to ensure the best possible timings of exams and moderation and to avoid pinch points.
9. All tests and exams contain multiple choice questions and knowledge questions so that they can be quickly marked.
10. Comparative judgement is used for marking the Years 10 and 11 English literature mock examinations. External marking is used to mark the Year 11 English language mock examinations.
11. The use of tests and exams that clearly indicate what students do and don’t know and can and can’t do in order to inform future planning and help students progress. We don’t collect data just for the fun of it!
12. We work collaboratively within the multi academy trust when creating assessments. This also improves their reliability and validity.
13. Tests and exams that can be self/peer marked with minimal teaching marking.
14. No onerous or impossible marking policy. Instead, we have a feedback policy that focuses on whole class feedback, verbal feedback and daily quizzes. No more hours spent marking hundreds of books ‘just because’.

Email Guidance

Email guidance

At King Charles I school we value face to face communication and we feel that these interactions between staff are the most effective and productive. However, we recognise that one of the challenges facing staff working in a split site school is that meeting colleagues face to face is not always possible and so communication via email provides staff with an easy and quick way to communicate.  Despite the ease at which emails can be sent, the workload and pressure associated with reading and responding to emails can quickly become a workload issue that we are very keen to avoid.  In order to negate this potential workload issue, we expect all staff to follow the guidance set out as follows:

• In order to reduce the number of emails sent, a staff bulletin is sent out twice a week on a Tuesday and a Thursday. All staff read these bulletins and replace the need to send all staff emails. Where possible, please use the bulletin instead of emailing. There are also daily student bulletins that can be used to communicate with students via their form tutors. As a tutor it is vital that the student bulletin is shared with students during registration.
• Staff are free to read and respond to emails when they would like. However, there is no expectation for staff to read or respond to emails sent out of working hours or during holidays. Out of working hours emails are classed as:
  
  • Monday to Friday: emails sent after 6.00pm and before 8.00am.
  • Weekend: emails sent after 6.00pm on Friday evening and before 8.00am on Monday morning.

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We ask that emails from parents/carers are replied to within two working days. This 48 hours does not include emails sent by parents/carers out of hours. For example, there is no expectation for an email sent by a parent/carer on a Saturday to be read or responded to until Monday morning at the earliest. In fact, staff would still have until 6.00pm Tuesday to respond to the parent/carer. If an issue cannot be resolved satisfactorily within a two email exchange (four in total), then a face to face meeting in school should be convened. The following guidance is on our website:

Email enquiries to the school at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or directly to the relevant member of staff in the table below. Please ‘cc’ the line manager. We would be grateful if emails were only sent to one member of staff. To ensure that this method of communication is used as efficiently and purposefully as possible, we will use the following protocols:

• All emails will be responded to during working hours and within two working days, dependent upon the level of concern/nature of the concern. However, staff are not expected to respond to emails sent out of working hours. Out of working hours emails are classed as emails sent after 6.00pm and before 8.00am during the week or emails sent after 6.00pm on Friday evening and before 8.00am Monday morning.
• If an issue cannot be resolved satisfactorily within a two email exchange (four in total), then a face to face meeting in school should be convened.
• Staff are not expected to respond to an email deemed/perceived to be abusive or aggressive.
• In some instances, a parent/carer may feel that an issue has not been resolved satisfactorily. However, the school retains the right to deem the matter closed where it feels due diligence has been afforded to the concern.

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• There are some occasions when emails should be sent to more than one person-eg a newsletter or important information for a group of staff. However, the majority of emails should only be directed to one person. Staff should always consider using the bulletin rather than including lots of staff in one email.
• Please do not ‘cc’ staff into emails sent to other people.
• If staff wish to access their emails using a personal mobile device (such as their mobile phone or tablet), they should go through the school website and log in using the ‘School email’ link. Use of the Outlook email app or any other alternative email app is not permitted. This is to ensure that no-one other than a member of staff can gain access to school emails.
• ‘All staff’ emails will be send infrequently and this facility is restricted to SLT, the Admin Manager and the Business Manager. If staff wish to send a message to all staff it should be done via the bulletin.
• Please support your colleagues to reduce excessive and unnecessary workload caused by emails, by considering the following:
  • Can the message be sent via bulletin?
  • Would the message be better discussed face to face?

• Please remember that emails should not contain any personal or sensitive information about students, their families or staff including replying to an email that contains personal or sensitive information. For further guidance on keeping information safe please refer to the Data Protection policy.
• Emails should never be used to communicate safeguarding concerns. All safeguarding concerns should be relayed to a safeguarding officer using CPOMS or face to face and without delay.