As part of the three-year pay deal the teacher unions together with the Government and COSLA (employers) made a commitment to reducing teacher workload. Two additional in-service days were allocated within the 2019-2020 school session to help schools to identify and reduce teacher workload.

The SSTA conducted a survey of school representatives in December 2019 to gauge the impact of the additional in-service days in reducing teacher workload. Despite the commitment from the Government and COSLA, SSTA representatives reported that teacher workload was not reducing and in many cases teacher workload was still increasing.

Seamus Searson, SSTA General Secretary, said

“It appears that only the teacher unions are actively encouraging schools to identify causes of teacher workload and take steps to reduce bureaucracy, whilst other partners to the agreement (COSLA and the Government) have been not looking at themselves as to causes of teacher workload or supporting schools to cut teacher workload”.

“Schools in many areas lacked guidance or instruction on how to tackle teacher workload from their local authority. Schools in many areas had been left to their own devices with headteachers reluctant to make changes to working practices due to fear of inspection and fault finding by the local authority”.

The SSTA survey of school reps found that only 41% of school reps were involved in the planning of the days with only 27% of school looking at the causes of teacher workload.

The survey found that 84% of schools had used one of the days in the first term with only 20% of schools used them to tackle workload. A further 48% of schools only used part of the in-service days as intended.

Of the 27% of school that looked at causes of work load but only 19% identified measures to reduce workload with only just over half of these agreed to implement measures to reduce teacher workload.

Seamus Searson added

“Teachers need to focus on teaching and learning and not collecting data and evidence to satisfy Inspectors, local authorities and government officials. The fear of inspection and scrutiny from outside is widespread in schools. This just takes the power away from teachers to put their pupils first and undermines the government’s intention to put power in to the hands of teachers”.

John Guidi, SSTA President, said

“Many teachers are calling for time for curriculum development. The SSTA view is that three of the in-service days, one per term should be given over to teaching and learning (curriculum development). Teachers need time to plan”.

“Many of these days at are predominantly filled with new initiatives or information giving sessions that take time away from the real business of teaching and learning”.

SSTA members identified a number of areas that are causing concern.

New initiatives or procedures that are introduced to meet external policy demands, a target or a tick box in the event of an inspection or a local authority review. Many of these new initiatives are not piloted or evaluated before implementation but take a good deal of teacher time.

New and increased pupil ‘tracking and monitoring’ systems that do not give any new information about pupils. The teachers already know how there pupils are doing. Tracking and monitoring is unnecessary for most pupils as teacher have already intervened when there is a concern about a pupil and give support and guidance and how pupils can improve in every lesson they teach.

Need for a national system on tracking and monitoring and an agreed limit on the usefulness of these systems that prevent schools developing new and more complex processes that only add to teacher workload.

The survey identified some of the measures schools took to reduce teacher workload

• 19% reduced tracking and monitoring
• 36% removal of written comments within tracking and monitoring
• 29% reduction of written reports
• 14% allocated time for moderation/standardisation
• 10% gave time to make SQA course changes
• 14% simplified pupil referral systems
• 10% halt on new initiatives and demands placed on staff
• 17% increase of allocated curriculum development time
• 19% reduced staff meetings

Comments from members:

“The empowerment agenda set out by SLT ironically made staff feel less empowered”

“Staff were angered that other schools gave staff time to get on with their work whilst ours made them talk about their work issues for a day”.

“There's a lot of ill feeling about workload that hasn't been resolved by these additional in-service days there has been no real move to reduce workload in the school”.

“If anything workload has increased with new T+M systems that duplicate existing systems”.

“No points of action came out of the first day”.

“There has been no discussion with staff in regard to reducing teacher workload”.

“Workload pressures are increasing and a distinct lack of support from management is causing staff to feel overwhelmed and undervalued”.

“Not fully realised and the authority left this to individual schools”.

“The comments I hear again and again from my members is that to really reduce workload the SQA needs to stop constantly moving the goal posts so we can consolidate our assessment, courses and marking and also that the local authority need to step up more to support schools”.

“Workload has continued to increase. Continual changes from the SQA, multiple new initiatives & preparing for an inspection, reporting - although all electronic is now more onerous; all have added to workload”.

“We are struggling to identify effective measures to reduce workload, as it would mean stripping away broad 'systems of management' which SLT are reluctant to do”.

“Onslaught of new initiatives introduced throughout the year, not in the WTA, which adds to teacher stress and workload”.

“Very disappointed that an SNCT national agreement and LNCT agreement to look at reducing workload can be ignored at school level. If this is a taste of HT empowerment then I fear for the future”.

“Burnout. Colleagues who love the job are ready to ‘walk away’. SLTs need to stand up for their staff and call out the LAs for not being proactive in tackling workload”.

“If the idea was to reduce workload then let teachers decide how best to use two days to get things done.  We have to develop courses, write reports etc.  Our council decided when our days were and so we used them for development work”.

“The Headteacher dictated what was to happen. No collegiate working”.

(ENDS)

Please note:

Survey took place in December 2019 with 72 SSTA School Representatives responding.

Further information from

Seamus Searson
General Secretary

0131 313 7300

3 March 2020

The SSTA conducted a survey of members in June following the end of the National Qualification cycle on the extent of ‘Multi-Course’ teaching in S4 classes. The SSTA received 1,247 responses that showed a wide disparity of practice in each local authority across Scotland.

The SSTA has continuously campaigned for the unfairness, to both pupils and teachers, of multi-course teaching to be addressed. The response to the survey brings strong evidence for action to be taken to give all pupils an opportunity to reach their full potential.

Teachers have highlighted the difficulties in trying to teach more than one course in a class when the content is completely different. This has resulted in an impossible workload for teachers and a frustration that they are unable to concentrate on all the pupils all of the time.

‘Multi-course’ teaching is an attempt to teach more than one National qualification specialist subject course concurrently within the same class. For example: Teaching Mathematics National 4, National 5 and Higher courses at the same time.

The pupils in this instance don’t get a full lesson of teaching and they only get a third of the teachers’ time. Yet this is quite common within subjects despite Nat 4, Nat 5 and Higher being different courses. Pupils are being ‘short-changed’. We believe most parents are unaware of the situation their children are facing in school.

There appears to be a complete lack of understanding on those who put teachers in this position and for the sake of pupils and teachers this needs to change. Teachers are under-pressure to raise standards and improve the schools’ place on the league table rankings without the time and a class all following the same course.

The SSTA expected the survey to find evidence that smaller rural schools had a larger proportion of multi-course classes but was surprised by a high number of multi-course teaching in large urban schools where the numbers alone should ensure more single course classes. The survey identified a large number of pupils that were being placed in classes where more than one course was being taught at the same time.

Seamus Searson, SSTA General Secretary said “this survey has highlighted the wide variance of practice that teachers are expected to work within despite concerns raised by teachers over a number of years. The practice of multi-course teaching has wrongly become the norm in most schools in Scotland”.

“It is concerning that in a time when the focus is meeting the needs for all pupils that only a minority of pupils are finding themselves in a class with all their peers following the same course”.  

“The high number of classes with two or three courses being accommodated in a class in S4 should be a major concern for all. Just focussing at the median figures in the different categories should be a wake-up call. Only 23% of classes are single qualification, 51% of classes have two qualifications, and 21% of classes having three qualifications. The survey does show that the vast majority of pupils are not in single qualification classes”.

“There are many factors as to why this is happening in schools and further investigation needs to be undertaken in curriculum design, timetabling, national qualifications, school league tables, class sizes, staffing difficulties and the notion of pupil choice”

The main findings:

Single Qualification Course in S4 Class

The range of classes from 63% in East Renfrewshire in single course classes down to 7% in South Ayrshire. The median average within the survey was 23% of single course classes for Glasgow, East Lothian and Highland. The survey also included members in Independent schools where 69% of classes were found to have single qualification classes.

Two Qualification Courses in S4 Class

The range of classes from 64% of classes in South Ayrshire containing pupils on two qualification courses down to 29% in East Renfrewshire. The median average within the survey was 51% of two course classes in Aberdeenshire and Falkirk. In Independent schools the figure was 22%.

Three Qualification Courses in S4 Class

The range of classes from 36% of classes in East Ayrshire containing pupils on three qualification courses down to 3% in East Dunbartonshire. The median average within the survey was 21% of three course classes in Aberdeenshire and Falkirk. In Independent schools the figure was 9%.

Four Qualification Courses in S4 Class

The range of classes from 10% of classes in Aberdeen City containing pupils on four qualification courses down to 1% in Fife. The median average within the survey was 3% of four course classes in East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian and Scottish Borders. The authorities with no classes with four qualification courses were East Renfrewshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and Stirling. In Independent schools the figure was 0%.

Two and Three Qualification Courses in S4 Class

The range of classes from 89% of classes in Aberdeen City containing pupils on two or three qualification courses down to 37% in East Renfrewshire. The median average within the survey was 72% of two or three course classes in Aberdeen City, Fife, Aberdeenshire and South Lanarkshire. In Independent schools the figure was 31%.

Two, Three or Four Qualification Courses in S4 Class

The range of classes from 93% of classes in South Ayrshire containing pupils on two, three or four qualification courses down to 37% in East Renfrewshire. The median average within the survey was 77% of two, three or four course classes in Glasgow, East Lothian and Highland. In Independent schools the figure was 31%.

(Ends)

Note to Editors.

The SSTA represents nearly 7,000 members in secondary schools in Scotland.

Attached

1. Full list of survey results
2. Comments made by SSTA members

Please note: the survey took place in June 2019 with 1,247 responses. Not all local authorities have been included due to insufficient responses to give a reasonable picture of the practice within the authority.  

The SSTA conducted a Consultative Ballot of its members in Dundee in response to the Councils proposed Faculty Management Structure in Secondary Schools. More than 60% of SSTA members responded in less than a week.

• 95% of those members responding do not support the change to a faculty structure for middle management of Secondary schools.
• 89% of members do not have a clear understanding of how ‘Dundee’s vision to raise attainment’ will be met through faculties.
• 95% of members do not believe that this change will raise attainment for your pupils. 
• 94% of members expect the move to faculties will increase their workload

Seamus Searson SSTA General Secretary said “The proposed restructuring exercise is a crude attempt to dismantle and reduce management structures within secondary schools without any educational foundation and a total lack of understanding of how secondary schools operate”.

“The existing system of principal teacher of subjects in secondary schools has been under attack in many parts of Scotland for a number of years purely to reduce school expenditure with little regard to the important part subject specialist principal teachers play in supporting teaching and learning”.

“This sort of policy has increased teacher disillusionment within the profession in terms of reduced career opportunities, increased workload and teachers’ perceived lack of value. It is no wonder we have a severe problem with teacher retention and recruitment”.

“A small selection of comments received from members (below) during the last week speak for themselves”

Peter Thorburn, SSTA District Secretary said “Since the announcement that Dundee Council proposed to move to a faculty management structure the SSTA Officers have been working on behalf of members engaging with council officers. Unfortunately, they have refused to listen to the unions’ concerns and intend to proceed without reaching an agreement with the teacher trade unions”.

“As a consequence, the Dundee Negotiating Committee for Teachers has gone into dispute and further meetings with the council are being sought. It appears the Council is unprepared to meet the teacher union representatives and seek to break the deadlock”. 

SSTA Members Comments

“At present, the staffing crisis within my school has meant that non-subject specialists are teaching core subjects. By changing to faculties, how does this address the staffing situation? The most important aspect of our job is teaching and learning but this move will create further responsibilities for classroom teachers who will have to help to manage the day to day running of the department, particularly with a faculty head who is not a subject specialist”.

“There seems no evidence offered in their rationale that supports the assertion that it will raise attainment”.

“There are literally no studies that demonstrate a link between improved attainment and a faculty structure. I have worked in two previous authorities that employed a faculty structure and found the system inferior to the principal teacher structure”.

“I have spoken with many people from around the country who are already working within faculties. To date, nobody has given me any cause to believe that moving to this system will be a success and I have yet to read of any definitive results to PROVE it is the result of faculties that the attainment gap has closed”.

“We are likely to lose more teachers and less will want to enter the profession. Staff morale will also fall even lower. How can teachers lead curricula development when it is not their teaching subject? It is yet another example of sabotaging the profession, removing/reducing the chance of progression whilst saving a pittance”.

“Students will lose subject specialism and gain bureaucrats. The drive of a PT to create an amazing exciting department will be gone. Who will the expert be? How will newly qualified staff gain the required support and experiences to be the best they can be”.

“Subject will suffer, Children will suffer”.

“I think that this is clearly a money saving venture. Subject based PTs are the best level of management in a school. Once they are removed their work will be passed down onto ordinary teachers, yet again”!

“What evidence is there to suggest that a faculty management system improves attainment? This is a cost cutting exercise no matter what way the powers at be are trying to spin it. This will NEVER raise attainment and this is not the voice of doubt speaking this is the voice of reality and reason. This is teaching in Dundee today. A very worrying time for pupils, teachers and parents”.

“I think that the statements made by members of the Directorate in Children's and Family Services that the move to faculties is an attempt to 'raise attainment' is appalling. This move will not raise attainment for pupils in Dundee. Maybe valuing the hard work of the majority of staff might”.

“More work will be delegated by the head of faculty as there is no way they have the skills or subject knowledge to manage such a massive department. One person cannot manage this as well as teach and deal with discipline effectively”.

“The problem lies squarely with the SLT of Children & Families and in some schools to properly carry out their roles. These senior “leaders” seem to be under the impression that existing PTs will be biting their hands off to get these new posts. I for one have no intention to put my mental and physical health on the line for doing so. Nor do I know anyone else, who intends to. Or at least, no one with proven experience or any credibility”.

“The progression pathway for many teachers reaching the "early-middle" of their career has now been closed and morale will inevitably plummet”.

“I am a relatively young teacher with a young family at the moment, however, it has always been my aspiration to progress further in my career ie PT subject. I feel this opportunity has been taken away from me now and don't understand how I will be given promotion opportunities in the future - there will be more work, more stress, staff morale will be 'zero' & there will be less goodwill among us!”

“The consultation process is insensitive. Colleagues are being asked to discuss possible models for the school. Who is going to propose a model which gets rid of a colleague and friend? This would have provided savings and reduced the number of PTs being pitted against each other in competitive interviews. One story circulating is that there are 32 staff eligible to apply for the PT Science Faculty at a large Dundee school. Imagine the impact on those experienced and promoted staff who are not leeted? Or will applicants be interviewed? Absolute nonsense! Another concern? This is only the start.

“I think we should be saying industrial action will happen if this goes ahead”.

“There has been no CPD session within the authority to provide current principal teachers with any training that outlines specific strategies and processes that will lead to raised attainment. We are all told to raise attainment however we are provided with little to no guidance or instruction on what has worked elsewhere and left to strategise ourselves. Zero skills, knowledge or actual practice training”.

“Raising attainment cannot work alongside such widespread removal of expertise. Dundee will lose some excellent leaders and teachers because of this”.

“This proposal does not get it right for every child in Dundee and certainly not the teacher staff - no-one in Dundee house has thought about staff morale or health and well-being”.

“Reduce morale in staff even further”.

“There is no career progression for aspiring PTs for at least the next 3 years - probably beyond - as all promotions are ring fenced. This will mean that all aspiring PTs will look out with DCC for jobs, and even take sideways moves in the interim. DCC will feel the full impact of this in a few years’ time”.

“Disgusting way to treat teachers who are already stretched thinly to cover teacher shortages and budget cuts”.

(Ends)

30 May 2019

The SSTA submitted its vision on the future of the teaching profession in Scotland to the Careers Pathway Teachers Panel. The SSTA is seeking a system that values teachers and their contribution to Scottish society. 

Seamus Searson SSTA General Secretary “It is time for the Scottish Government and employers to stand-up and recognise the important role and contribution that teachers make to Scottish society. Scottish teachers have been keeping the education system afloat despite drastic financial cuts over the last ten years. Teachers have been subjected to continuous change and increasing bureaucracy whilst expectations increase when teachers and education support staff are being reduced. At the same time teachers have seen their salaries and career prospects virtually disappear”.

“It is no wonder that teachers are leaving and government struggles to find new recruits. Teachers’ salaries have reduced by more than 24% during the period and opportunities for development and promotion have virtually disappeared. The Scottish Government needs to acknowledge that teachers’ working conditions and remuneration have failed to keep pace with the rapidly changing education environment”.

Kevin Campbell SSTA President said “teaching is increasingly perceived as an unattractive profession with an impossible workload demand, restricted career path and an uncompetitive salary scale.  Addressing the structure of schools and its workforce are essential elements in the Scottish Government challenge to ‘close the attainment gap’. The biggest challenge to teachers in schools is the culture of ever-increasing workloads and meeting an ever-expanding range of pupil needs”.

The SSTA submission recommends

The Classroom Teacher

• A career structure that gives opportunities to gain experience and responsibility that recognises the commitment of the teacher
• Recognise and reward teachers to focus on teaching and learning
• Recognise the importance of time to develop strategies and materials for use in the classroom
• Recognise and reward experienced teachers for using their expertise inside and outside the school

The Supply Teacher

• Recognise and reward the expertise of the supply teacher as an integral part of the education system
• Create a national register of qualified supply teachers to ensure a career path and access to continued professional development

The Secondary Subject Specialist

• Recognise and reward lead teachers of subjects in secondary schools
• Recognise the importance of time to develop strategies and materials for use in the classroom
• Recognise the need for opportunities for collaboration with other subject specialist in and across schools
• Recognise and reward lead teachers of subjects for sharing expertise within school and across schools

The Guidance and Pupil Support Teacher

• Recognise and reward the importance of guidance and pupil support teachers.
• Recognise the expertise of these teachers and create a professional career structure that values their expertise in the education service
• Recognise and reward guidance and pupil support teachers for sharing expertise within school and across schools
• Offer opportunities with time and pay for aspiring teachers to develop their understanding of, and expertise in, support roles

(Please see the appendix of the attached submission document for the SSTA Pastoral Pupil Support Survey)

The Management Structure

• Introduce a number of realistic management posts that offer opportunities to gain experience and encourage teachers to seek further responsibility.
• Recognise the importance of management posts being achievable and provided with sufficient non-teaching time to undertake those responsibilities
• Recognise and reward the principal teacher who manages a number of subject areas and focus their work on supporting teaching and learning in those areas.
• Recognise and reward posts that manage a number of ‘whole school’ responsibilities
• Recognise and reward the extent of the increasing responsibilities expected of Depute Headteachers and Headteachers.
• Create supporting teacher posts to assist the range of responsibilities expected of senior members of teaching staff.

[Ends]

Attached.  SSTA submission to: Careers Pathway for Teachers Panel

SSTA Submission to Career Pathways for Teachers - October 2018 

Further information from

Seamus Searson
General Secretary

0131 313 7300

27 November 2018