There’s nothing more satisfying than a simple solution to workload that has a positive knock-on effect on a whole range of teachers’ professional and personal lives. An effective shared whole-school calendar offers exactly this kind of ripple effect, but getting it right takes a little more than the click of a button and an altruistic sigh of contentment.

Here’s what to do, and why you should do it.

1. Planning the year

The school calendar should normally be the responsibility of an SLT member (but if leadership are stretched, this could be the perfect opportunity for a TLR or an opportunity for whole-school leadership for ambitious middle leaders). It should require a great deal of communication in the summer term with almost every form of postholder, from heads of department to HR and from Duke of Edinburgh leads to heads of year.

Collecting all the dates that have the potential to impact on more than one person for an entire academic year, identifying clashes and reminding colleagues of things they may have forgotten - data drops, mentor training, World Book Day - is no mean feat, but having all this information to hand means that teachers have the opportunity to reschedule rather than cancel, and for leadership to sensibly evaluate how their plans will impact on staff and students with other commitments.

Planning ahead in this way can support staff with all manner of decisions: it can help part-time colleagues to negotiate the best non-working day for them and their school if data drops always fall on a Friday, for example; it can allow staff to go for an evening swim on a week-by-week basis, or take advantage of being in the centre of town to meet friends for dinner or go to the cinema, and it can support parent-teachers with childcare arrangements for parents’ evenings or early morning commitments.

These small things make a huge difference to staff morale and wellbeing, and retain staff who would otherwise find organising professional and personal commitments too challenging.

2. Avoid bunching

The magic of a year-long calendar is its ability to support with staff workload. Once the dates have been collated and assigned throughout the year, spend time evaluating risks of bunching: do Year 11 mocks fall in the same fortnight as the KS3 assessments? Are there three evening events - a performance, a training twilight and a parents’ evening - that fall in the same week and impact the same people? Do the community reading mornings fall on the English department’s busiest days?

In order to evaluate this potential bunching effectively, it is important to know your staff: their responsibilities, their extracurricular activities, their personal commitments, and do your best to shuffle things so that teams and individuals have their workload spread out across the year.

Busy periods are inevitable, but an experienced teacher knows that by the end of term, teachers are tired; in the summer, secondary teachers’ timetables might be lighter when Year 11 leaves; in the autumn term, trainees will struggle. Consider these nuances when reviewing the calendar and see where you can ease workload: could you shuffle open evening, a drop down day, an Inset day, or a performance around in order to offer teachers (and students) some respite, or separate long days?

It is also important to figure out whether any additional commitments mean that you are asking staff to work more than their 1,265 hours, especially when you are producing a written document that, in the worst-case scenario, could be used as evidence to demonstrate that your school is not adhering to legal working conditions.

If collating these dates shows that staff will be working beyond directed time, then review where you can offer additional pay, where staff can be given time off in lieu, or which events are optional.

3. Changes of plan

Schools are responsive and fluctuating workplaces and there are dozens of reasons why dates might need to be changed or cancelled once they have been put in the calendar. Consider, however, formalising the expectations around last-minute changes within school policies. A “no last minute meetings” or “at least 48 hours notice of…” policy will result in a much calmer and happier workplace, and create a more considerate and respected culture. It will also encourage middle and senior leaders to reflect on how they manage their own workflow, priorities and ability to delegate and ask for help where necessary.

Where changes, cancellations or additions do need to happen, make sure that these are clearly and humanely communicated.

Emails can be overlooked, and conversations can be misunderstood, so it is important that these messages are communicated both verbally and in writing, and that there is a plan B if emergency deadlines are not met because of missed communication.

Consider accompanying any policies with a clear “get out” clause for staff who cannot, or find it unreasonable to, rearrange commitments: while some teachers may be happy to spend an extra hour at school for a rearranged marking night, others, for example, may have booked expensive theatre tickets with family that they will have to forgo for fear of reneging on their professional duties or being judged as slacking or problematic.

4. Outlook calendars

Hanging all of these dates up on an enormous calendar in the staff room, or presenting them all at once during September’s Inset will, unfortunately, not lead to the seamless organisation you might be envisioning. In a digitised world, the best way to ensure that staff have access to all of these dates is via a calendar attached to your email system.

Consider, however, how much training may be needed to ensure that teachers understand how to navigate these calendars, and transfer key dates from the whole-school calendar to their own. Even as a computer-literate, millennial teacher, I was delighted with the step-by-step, screen-grabbed instruction manual sent round by my assistant head, and the simple pointing and dragging of bevel-edged boxes from my career-changing head of department, for whom events are not a reality unless their invitations are accepted in Outlook.

5. Regular reminders

Regular reminders in staff briefings or department meetings of key dates for the following week, fortnight or half term will help staff to avoid double bookings or remind them to consider colleagues’ workloads when planning their own conversations or asking for favours.

These reminders will also enable middle leaders to support their teams with practical strategies to manage workload. As a mentor, for example, I am able to ensure my trainees use their time wisely so that they can complete their marking before the weekend and meet to input data together, or take on extra bits and pieces when school deadlines clash with university essays.

When delivering these reminders, don’t be fooled into thinking that you are repeating yourself unnecessarily when you are greeted with knowing nods - as teachers, we are highly skilled at looking profoundly confident in panic-inducing situations and your staff may well be smiling through a desperate urge to pick up their phone and message the babysitter immediately.

Emma Sheppard is founder of the Maternity Teacher / Paternity Teacher (MTPT) Project and a lead practitioner for English

This article originally appeared in the 10 May 2019 issue under the headline “The best laid plans will cure the blues”