Last week, the government faced criticism for delaying the imposition of yet another sin tax - this time on disposable coffee cups. I think it’s misguided to believe that those willing to pay in the region of three pounds for a bucket of muddy water will be deterred by a modest price hike. More importantly, I think it misses a damaging problem in our working culture that is particularly visible in the staffrooms and offices of colleges and schools.

My working day in college is fuelled by coffee. I’m an addict, but not to the point where the quality ceases to matter. It needs to be intensely dark - so that if poured into a glass cup it is fully opaque. It should have a crema that gives a pint of Guinness a run for its money. It ought to be chocolatey smooth. Yet legions of teachers queue numbly in high-street coffee chains to buy pints of insipid, warm water housed in single-use plastic.

Stress and insularity

Something else is going on: teachers are falling into cycles of stress and insularity. They feel too busy to make a decent coffee, too busy to wash up a china mug or cup - and they’re absolutely determined to get out of the office for a few minutes. Staffrooms are under threat from the increasing attraction of momentary escape.

An article in the press last week claimed that the threat to staffrooms in schools “can perhaps be traced to 2012” and amendments to school premises regulations. That inexplicably ignores the Building Schools for the Future programme of the 2000s that deliberately excluded staff space and favoured a panopticon of internal windows rather than walls, to achieve a state of constant passive supervision of students. It was an attack on teachers’ right to a break or privacy.

Wellbeing

We are fortunate in FE, where staff wellbeing seems to be a priority of our leaders. Our sector is not funded as well as schools, so FE can’t necessarily compete with them on salaries, but it does offer a professional and dignified environment. We need to be proactive in consolidating and developing our staffrooms and their culture as an attraction to working - and continuing to work - in FE. Over the last year, many faculties across my college have invested in expensive coffee machines. Some have gone further and created their own hipster-style café areas with scandi-pattern cups, chalkboards announcing the blends of coffee on offer, and herbal tea alternatives for those with a care for their heart rate. A friendly-looking honesty pot covers the cost of coffee pods. A few stylish sofas complete the image. It’s a little dose of hygge between lessons and meetings - or even better, during meetings.

The key thing is that this offers an indulgence within the office. Rather than staring into space as you walk through winter drizzle, you can instead lean in to share moments with colleagues. Those moments might be just to laugh and gossip, but many will be supportive or collaborative. On one occasion - in a levelling, shared moment - one of my team members opened up about a behaviour issue that had been a festering source of distress.

The following week we found a way to fix it. Just last week, talking through one of the trickier questions on the English GCSE specification with two newer members of staff helped me to clarify for myself how to approach it. My lessons following that discussion were much more effective than those immediately before it. Good coffee is a great investment for teaching teams.

Also, forks. Please buy more forks.

Andrew Otty leads 16-19 English in a college in the South West and is a Shine ambassador. He tweets @Education720

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