I long ago gave up all pretence of having any reasonable grasp on technology; indeed, I have banished Alexa to another room as I don’t want her listening. But I’m still a fan, an enthusiastic amateur rather than an expert - and actually as a senior leader that’s all you need to be. If you’re not lucky enough to have a dynamic IT department (or at least a technician), you probably have many, much younger staff, who have grown up on a daily diet of Google and Microsoft.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I have found it far easier to enable others to lead technology in school rather than try and fake it myself. As a headteacher, you can’t do everything yourself, which certainly includes the adoption of fantastic technology. However, when technology is undoubtedly key to reducing a great deal of workload, it cannot be ignored - so find yourself some keen and enthusiastic staff, willing to take on the creative aspect.
Technology does not always mean less work
The starting point has to be identifying a problem that needs improving and then seeing if technology can help solve it. Do not look at some lovely shiny technology and think now what use can I find for this. You’ll waste a fortune on something that will gather dust in the corner. Don’t create a problem - that adds to workload rather than reduces it.
Take, for example, report writing. I believe this was my first experience of using technology in education that wasn’t a part of Microsoft Office. Rather than cut down the hours spent handwriting reports and re-writing them, many staff found that human error at the building stage - spelling errors, missing punctuation, incorrect pronouns etc, caused havoc and additional workload. Suddenly, teachers were having to rewrite entire class sets. It also took a long time for programs to become sophisticated enough so that reports didn’t read like a ton of random sentences had been thrown onto the page. Parents were not impressed; it was an own-goal by the school.
I once inherited a school’s entire staff appraisal process on a completely unusable piece of software. It had been designed for industry and had been well sold in a marketing ploy. It was completely unusable - too many layers, limited access, slow, clunky and incredibly frustrating for anyone trying to use it. It was despised by the staff; it actually hindered staff appraisal as precious time that should have been spent discussing professional development become a constant battle with the program. Scrapping it was one of the most popular decisions I’ve ever made; staff actually whooped for joy when informed. Sometimes, reducing workload means cutting back on unnecessary technology.
But tech can reduce workload
When staff come to you with their work-related problems, bounce it back to them to try and find a solution. Encourage creative thinking. When staff were not following the policy for organising off-site school trips, key leaders created a shared online document. This enabled any member of staff to access the same document from any location and systematically work through the procedure, while those responsible for health and safety, or risk assessments, could track them and check each compulsory activity was completed, reducing the workload for everyone involved in the process.
When trying to use bits of paper to request, agree, log and arrange cover for meetings or courses during school time, we fairly regularly found ourselves in a pickle. Unsurprisingly, a member of staff would not arrive in school and when contacted would tell us they’d handed their form into HR the previous week - more often than not that exact piece of paper was hidden under a pile of something else. Again, a simple shared online document meant that all members of staff could request a course or a personal absence and they could track as it was authorised by each person and then check who had their cover, cutting down on unnecessary burdens.
A workload shared can be a workload halved
We use shared online documents for all sorts of collaborative activities - from writing schemes of learning across schools, to writing joint policies, to moderating coursework across a local authority cluster. Being able to share sensitive information with colleagues - such as students’ personal care plans or their learning passports - in a live document that all parties can contribute to, saves a huge amount of time and makes communication more effective. It rids you of long email chains, forgotten attachments and someone accidentally changing an important document on a shared drive.
Technology also gives teachers the ability to collaborate on schemes of learning, lesson plans and resources - really useful if you’re the only RE or economics teacher at your school and the nearest one is miles away. For younger kids, being able to video their learning development and sharing with parents is far easier and takes less time than taking photos and trying to explain what is happening. And while our initial experiences may not have been positive, there is some good software now emerging for report writing and staff appraisals.
Importantly, I have learnt not to try and force technology on staff. Like every other initiative, some will be early adopters and these will become your envoys; the more staff can see the benefits of technology and how it can cut their workload, the more they’ll want to give it a go themselves. Provide lots of time for its introduction and ensure there is lots of low-stakes CPD.
One of the best things I ever did was allow my senior team to pick the technology they wished to use in their role. Adding to their stress and workload by insisting that they use a device that someone else preferred wasn’t acceptable. Instead of having to spend time grappling with something they didn’t like, they could choose what worked best for them. We had a couple using iPads, some on SurfacePros, a couple kept their gaffer-taped laptops and one person didn’t want anything other than the desktop computer in their office. It made them happy, it saved them time, and I trusted them to know what worked best for them.
Keziah Featherstone is co-founder and national leader for #WomenEd. She is a member of the Headteachers Roundtable and an experienced school leader. She tweets @keziah70
