The quality of school leadership is the most important factor in determining staff happiness, a report has suggested
A study of schools across England found that factors including ability to control disruptive behaviour and size of workload had a weaker correlation with overall staff satisfaction.
The research by ImpactEd involved polling close to 900 school staff and over 45,000 pupils in primary and secondary schools.
The report also found that staff satisfaction was generally aligned with pupil happiness.
To complete the study, ImpactEd conducted correlation analyses that compared how staff responded to the question “Overall, how satisfied are you working at this school?” on a range of 1-10, with responses to a series of other questions.
The correlation between that question and responses to “I feel supported by the leaders and managers in this school” was 0.92, with 1 being a perfect correlation and -1 indicating no link.
There was also a very high correlation of 0.91 between satisfaction and the phrase “I think that the senior leadership team is doing a good job”.
Statements that focused on inclusion, such as “I feel accepted and supported as an individual
at this school” (0.92) and “I can voice contrary opinions at this school without fear of negative consequences” (0.77), were also found to be closely linked to staff satisfaction.
But statements such as “I have an acceptable workload” (0.7) and “I can control disruptive behaviour in my classroom” (0.61) were found to be less important than leadership to the happiness of teachers and other school staff, despite still having some influence on satisfaction.
The report concludes: “In schools where staff feel supported by the leadership, and believe that the communication is effective, staff tend to have higher average satisfaction levels.”
It adds: “Average pupil wellbeing correlates closely with a number of staff engagement responses.”
Responding to the survey, Owen Carter, co-founder and managing director of ImpactEd, said: “While national policies may well impact on many aspects of staff engagement, the high variation in scores between schools suggests individual schools are able to have an impact on staff satisfaction and therefore on pupil happiness.
“The quality of leadership is front and centre among the factors that drive stronger staff satisfaction and engagement”.
Commenting on the relationship between pupil and staff wellbeing, Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said the report “leads us to conclude that actions that support provision for pupils but lead to unsustainable working practices for school staff are unlikely to be successful in the long run, and that taking an integrated approach is likely to yield the most long-term benefits.”
