For teachers, a lesson is where things get things done - they are “core business” and feel purposeful and productive.

However, meetings with your team and colleagues can feel like an addition to the working day as opposed to part of the working day. They also take away valuable time from our core work and can interrupt our flow state where we are actually getting things done.

As such, when a previous school gave me the go-ahead to trial some ideas to reduce meetings and make others more efficient, I jumped at the chance - and it had an immediate impact.

Here are three key things we did:

1. Stand-up meetings

We all have regular department meetings, usually as part of directed time. They are often scheduled after school and can become quite administrative with several follow-up tasks that need another meeting, or several emails, to then complete.

I had team members with long commutes, trains to catch, young children and on long-term supply - and after-school meetings did little for creativity and flow.

So we tried weekly stand-ups at lunchtime instead. The rule was they were no more than 15-20 minutes long and to enforce that, as the name suggested, no one sat down - figuratively, at least.

Instead, staff spoke briefly to share snippets of good practice, and ask questions about assessments, lessons and any relevant school business; anything else was followed up by me in an email.

These meetings were not in addition to department meetings and traditional sit-down meetings remained of course - but many of them have been replaced for good now.

For some, the idea of a weekly catch up sounded excessive and there was some reservation but, once we got into the groove, we noticed short bursts of regular, focused communication made us more efficient and gave us back more time in our day - improving workload management and morale.

2. Working documents  

Working documents like Google Docs, Dropbox, Word Online, and platforms like Trello, have always been popular but really ramped up in awareness and use during the pandemic - and I’m still using them now.

We have maintained and built on this, too. Since cutting out many meetings and reducing email overload, we use them to work on projects ranging from curriculum mapping to resource sharing in a single destination that can be updated as and when required, and all changes tracked.

So rather than endless emails to arrange a time to then discuss something in a meeting where we end up putting it all in a document anyway, we instead simply get a document going, share it and start collaborating.

We may still have the occasional meeting to check in if required, but working like this has given my team more autonomy to work flexibly and at a time and place - and pace - that suits them. 

3. Needs analysis  

My best lessons were when students would complete a few tasks, progress was made, verbal feedback was effective and there was no need to set homework - happy days all around.

This got me thinking about meetings, too. Rather than just having lots of ad hoc meetings with staff, on an area of development we decided on without consultation, we instead asked staff what they would value spending time on - a needs analysis in management parlance.

This led to areas such as exam marking and accurate predictions, and how to design new schemes of work, being cited as useful.

We then booked an hour off timetable, at the end of a teaching day, which would not have too high an impact on teaching time and cover (think short-term loss, long-term gain) and a flexible lunchtime meeting teachers could attend if they wanted to chat with me or others about the topic.

It didn’t mean we had fewer meetings per se, but it did mean the meetings we had were useful, productive and appreciated - by trusting staff to make decisions about what would work best for their team, their flow and productivity, and, ultimately, wellbeing all improved.  

None of the above is rocket science but, as leaders, we must always be thinking and rethinking about what works best for staff to get the best for our schools.

Zahara Chowdhury is head of diversity, equality, inclusion, wellbeing and PSHE at Beaconsfield High School