The government is being urged to cut teachers’ timetables by one fifth in schools in the country’s poorest areas to make more time for lesson planning and professional development.
The proposal is part of a new education manifesto from the charity Teach First, launched today, which lobbies for a “significant increase” in funding for schools serving disadvantaged communities over the next five years, as well as extra cash for specialist staff to support with pastoral care, additional needs and family engagement.
Teach First is calling on the government to fund a £30 million pilot to recruit the additional teachers needed for its plan.
It says this would allow for a reduction in teachers’ timetabled hours by 20 per cent in one per cent of the most disadvantaged schools in the country, with scope to expand the scheme if successful.
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“Reducing timetabled hours for teachers in schools serving the most disadvantaged areas - who face unique classroom challenges - would allow them to spend more time on planning high quality lessons and professional development, which would improve pupil outcomes,” the charity said.
According to survey of more then 6,500 teachers conducted by Teacher Tapp in April, a majority (52 per cent) believe funding to reduce teachers’ timetables would make the greatest difference to support pupils.
This choice was second only to more funding for and access to social and mental health services (61 per cent).
Teach First is also calling for a boost to the Covid education recovery package, including teachers’ pay - particularly for those working in disadvantaged areas.
The news comes as the charity has also released new research conducted by Parent Ping, which found that 63 per cent of parents believe teachers are not paid fairly for the amount of work they do.
The polling found that parents of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) are more likely to have concerns about the amount of school time their children missed during the Covid crisis.
Nearly half of those parents (44 per cent) said they were extremely or somewhat worried about how much time in the classroom their child lost to the pandemic, compared to just 34 per cent of parents whose children are not eligible for FSM.
Other proposals in Teach First’s education manifesto include:
- Guaranteeing every pupil’s household safe access to the internet and a digital device
- Measures to diversify school leadership teams and increase inclusive teaching
- Significantly enhanced careers education and work experience
Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, said: “Inequality has been baked into our education system for too long and we need sustained action to tackle it. The pandemic has made the situation worse: affecting some pupils far harder than others.
“But any plan for the future of education must go beyond ‘recovery’ because where we were before wasn’t good enough.
“We have an opportunity to break the historical cycle of inequality. The policies we’ve put forward would help schools give every young person a fighting chance to get the best possible education.
“We urge the government to take on board these suggestions to ensure we don’t leave a generation of pupils behind.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are enormously grateful for teachers’ and leaders’ hard work during the pandemic. We have taken a wide range of action to address teacher workload and wellbeing and we are improving support and professional development at all stages of their career.
“Schools are receiving the biggest uplift to school funding in a decade - £14 billion in total over the three years to 2022-23.
“We have also committed to an ambitious and long-term education recovery plan, including an investment to date of over £3 billion and a significant expansion of our tutoring programme, to support children and young people to make up for learning lost during the pandemic.”
