With prevailing working conditions affecting the sustainability of school improvement and leadership capacity, Chris Ingate looks at one school that is prioritising staff wellbeing as a key strategic objective.

Working on wellbeing

With many schools and colleges struggling with financial constraints, public accountability and social change, ASCL’s Member Support Team is seeing record numbers of members raising concerns about working conditions, workload, wellbeing and burnout. However, there are schools and colleges trying to make staff wellbeing a strategic priority to help combat the wear and tear of 21st-century leadership.

As part of my recent East of England series of Headteacher ASCL Updates, I asked the assembled audience if anyone had any success stories in terms of improving staff working conditions and wellbeing. Copleston High School is one such example.

Consistency and application is key 

Executive Headteacher, Andy Green, embodies Copleston. His energy and determination to raise standards and outcomes at this large 11–18 all-ability academy is also linked to his care and support for all 300 members of staff. “I can’t do this alone,” Andy says. “It’s a big team effort and my job is to ensure teachers and support staff enjoy coming to work and are also clear about how to get the job done – which isn’t easy in the current climate.” 

Copleston High School is in Ipswich, Suffolk. The school has 1,930 students on roll and employs 150 teachers and 300 members of staff in total. Its student intake is diverse, including 405 disadvantaged students, 110 English as an Additional Language (EAL) students and 375 SEND students, 96 with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

What impressed me as I went on a walkabout one sweltering July afternoon with Head of School, Trenica King, was the school’s calm and settled learning environment. For Trenica, after a number of years leading other schools, she said, “I wished I had come to this school at the start of my senior leadership career because of the clarity of how we do things at Copleston. It makes our working lives that much less stressful because we all follow the same approach to things like behaviour management and lesson planning.” 

Andy concurred. His approach to school improvement has been about consistency and application. He talked about the power of systems and routines to drive achievement. For example, the framework for planning lessons is shared with students in the form of displays in every classroom and corridor. A similar approach is taken to behaviour management. “Staff wellbeing is massively helped if student behaviour and attitudes are positive and we do this by showing care as well as clarity about our expectations.” Having these systems and routines is also very liberating. Teachers are then encouraged to try new practices. Paradoxically, it seems that these robust routines create the freedom to innovate.

While not unique, the school uses a number of measures to support and promote teacher wellbeing:  

• Zero cover for all teachers to protect their planning, preparation, and assessment (PPA) time.
• School closes at 2pm on a Wednesday: a regular weekly event aided by the fact that students mostly live locally. This is a time for them to catch up with homework and for staff to engage in continuing professional development (CPD) or meetings so they can go home in good time.
• Appraisal versus performance-related pay: the school abandoned setting targets three years ago to focus on staff development and regular 1:1 professional conversations. Andy’s view is that the majority of staff want to do well and just need support and encouragement. Providing bespoke CPD has been a challenge, but he feels that staff ‘own’ their appraisal review, which is a massive sea-change.
• Flexible working: Copleston has always tried to meet the demands of staff in terms of going part-time or returning from maternity or paternity leave, but the new flexibilities are seen as opportunities for meaningful discussion rather than obstacles.
• Staff survey/Staff wellbeing group: an annual staff survey, alongside a regularly convened staff wellbeing group, ensure that ‘bugbears’ are openly discussed and addressed.

Feeling settled and secure 

One teacher I spoke to said that this all helped with workload and wellbeing, “because everything is so consistent here at Copleston – behaviour management, lesson planning, supportive drop ins by SLT – it helps my general wellbeing.

Plus, I feel supported and listened to.” For a school with more than 150 teachers, a turnover of seven staff this year is testament to how settled and secure staff feel.

But how does this all stack up for senior leaders, often at the forefront of school pressure and exempt from the 1,265-hours, 195-day limitation for teachers? Senior colleagues I spoke to said that their workload and wellbeing were regular features of line management meetings and SLT group discussions. They also felt that their teaching commitment was relatively low, so managing the few additional cover lessons and ‘on call’ periods was doable. Andy added that, as a large secondary school, he was fortunate to have eight other senior leaders and a number of seconded middle leaders who all helped with rotas and duties. The pastoral system includes a mixture of teachers and support staff who led on safeguarding, rewards, and behaviour.

Was there capacity for further school improvement? The overriding consensus was yes. The senior leadership team (SLT) had bespoke time to review and implement whole-school strategies, such as the recent focus on further improving attendance.

In conclusion, Andy quotes American folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie, “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” Modest in nature, Andy does not profess to be a member of Mensa, but his drive on systems and routines creates capacity for change and a relentless focus on ensuring all students progress, regardless of background. He and his team have done this by using positivity and encouragement for all their staff. Despite all the educational storms brewing on the horizon, Copleston shows that you can weather these storms and search for rainbows.

If you and your school or college have been focusing on staff wellbeing and workload and would like to share your story, please get in touch by emailing me at chris.ingate@ascl.org.uk

Chris Ingate
ASCL Conditions of Employment Specialist: Pay

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