In my first year as head of department, I made many mistakes. Most of these were harmless, and while I might look back on some of them and cringe, I’m certainly not losing sleep over them. Yet there is one mistake that I’m determined never to commit again: failing to protect my team from the stresses of the job.

Across the country, teachers face ever-increasing workload pressures and we are haemorrhaging talented teachers from the profession. According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the NEU teaching union, more than a third of teachers said they were “confident” they would not be working in education in five years’ time. Workload was one of the major reasons for teachers wanting to quit (cited by 51 per cent of respondents), second only to a lack of trust from government and the media (53 per cent).

As a head of department, you can do little to change how the profession is viewed by those outside of it - but there are steps you could take to make sure that your team members are not so overwhelmed by workload that it causes them to consider leaving.

Workload stress: Protecting your teachers’ wellbeing

Middle leaders are in a unique position to appreciate the strategic priorities of the school alongside the everyday demands and obstacles that classroom teachers face. This means that we need to act as conduits between senior leaders and classroom staff. We must serve as a voice for our teams, consistently communicating their experiences back to the senior leadership team, while also ensuring that existing workload and pressures are always considered before any new initiatives are implemented.

In other words, we need to act as an umbrella, protecting our team from the downpour of demands that teachers experience.

In retrospect, I have not always done this well in the past. Too often, I failed to shield my team because I was too busy focusing on other elements of the role.

On a typical day, I would be completing forms for HR, supporting colleagues with behaviour and trying to stay on top of an increasingly packed inbox, while also still finding time to plan my lessons and mark my books. Faced with all this, it is easy to forget about the workload of others.

Yet it is vital not to lose sight of what should always be your priority as a leader: your team. The question is, how do you protect them without burning out yourself?

Here are four strategies that I have decided to implement this year to help me better protect my team.

1. ‘What is this prioritised over?’

As a middle leader, there is a temptation to greet every new initiative that SLT suggests with enthusiasm and positivity, as a way of demonstrating that you and your team can rise to meet any challenge. However, too often this will only lead to you all producing lower-quality work, as you’re being pulled in too many directions at once.

The solution, I believe, is to always ask yourself where a new task that your team has been asked to complete should sit on your list of existing priorities - and whether any of the existing demands on your team could be “dropped” to accommodate the new commitment. It might help to have a physical list here, to clearly be able to see at a glance everything that you have going on. You could also use this as a reference point to discuss your current position to SLT. Now, you’re still showing enthusiasm, while also emphasising your team’s limited capacity.

2. Present a united front

The best piece of advice that I was given ahead of my first year as a head of department was to form strong professional relationships with my fellow middle leaders.

Too often, middle leaders end up working in silos, oblivious to the fact that colleagues working at the same level are facing similar pressures. But there is strength in numbers. By taking the time to regularly check in with your fellow middle leaders, you can identify where you have similar concerns - or similar potential solutions to issues.

When you identify these areas of overlap, you can approach SLT with them. You might find senior leaders to be more responsive when you communicate your concerns together.

3. Always be honest

My default response to challenges in the workplace is always to hide any difficulties I am having - I never want to be seen as someone who is in need of help or support.

However, when it comes to establishing a professional relationship with your line manager, nothing could be worse for you or your team. From your first line-management meeting, it is crucial that you consistently communicate the reality of yours and your team’s experiences. No one is a mind reader, and leaders can’t help to solve a problem if they don’t know it exists.

Too often, issues that arise in schools are down to poor communication between staff.

4. Know the challenges

On the flip side, as a manager yourself, you cannot protect your team if you don’t understand them and their needs. You need to take a proactive approach to finding out about the pressures that each member of your team is facing at any point in the year. For example, do members of the English department who also teach drama struggle with the demands of preparing for practical assessments during a certain week?

Make a point of regularly asking each member of your team about the pressures they are currently facing, and find out what they have coming up - and keep a note. This means that in meetings with senior leadership, you can better anticipate anything that is likely to have a negative impact on your team, then raise the issue immediately.

Edward Sealy is head of English at a school in Manchester

This article originally appeared in the 8 October 2021 issue under the headline “How to protect your team from work overload”