Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education, writes:

Every day, thousands of teachers rise to the challenge of giving our children and young people the essential skills, knowledge and values they need to prepare them for life in modern Britain.

This country has world-class teachers and I have huge respect for the way the teaching profession has worked with us over the last few years to implement much-needed reforms. You are the ones who are putting this government’s plan for education into action. 

But too many of you are still struggling under the burden of an unnecessary and unsustainable workload. We want to work with you, and the whole of the teaching profession, to see what we can do to reduce this burden - to offer you a new deal.

As a result of our programme of talks with teacher unions, we are already addressing the misconceptions that have previously added to teachers’ workload. Last week’s publication by Ofsted comes out of this work, helpfully dispelling myths about the requirements of inspection.

But now we’re going further.

We’re calling on you, and all your colleagues, to have your say on how to reduce unsustainable workload.

It’s called the Workload Challenge. Before the end of November, we want you to tell us what the problems are and what could be done to solve them. Once you have shared your views and experiences, we will take action. And the more specific you can be, the more we can achieve real results for you.

Here’s how to take part:

• Send us your solutions and strategies for tackling workload - we want to hear about the good practice already in schools.

• Tell us about the unnecessary tasks that take you away from teaching, and where these come from.

• Let us know what you think should be done to tackle unnecessary workload - by government, by schools, or by others.

Everything that has been achieved in recent years has been possible only because of the hard work and commitment of thousands of teachers, right across the country.

We now need your help to tackle this problem so that teachers can focus on what matters most - planning and teaching great lessons for children.

By cutting back on unproductive, unnecessary workload, we want all teachers to have time and freedom to do what you do best - teach.

To take part in the Workload Challenge, fill in this survey or email us. More information is available at https://www.tes.co.uk/dfe.