Mentor materials
Managing workload and wellbeing
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn how to manage workload and wellbeing, by:
- Using and personalising systems and routines to support efficient time and task management
- Collaborating with colleagues to share the load of planning and preparation and making use of shared resources (e.g. textbooks)
- Protecting time for rest and recovery.
Activities
Reflecting on learning (10 minutes)
Pose the question: What has been learned from the discussion agreed in the last topic?
Guidance for mentors:
Throughout the year, the mentor should have shared suggestions for managing workload, such as using routines, assessment strategies, use of existing high-quality resources etc. This topic therefore is a chance for the ECT to reflect on what has worked well and for the mentor to share any other suggestions from their own practice and to plan to avoid some of the challenges again next year.
The mentor should support the ECT, e.g. by taking feedback to colleagues as appropriate to suggest alternative approaches to department, subject or phase meetings.
The ECT will reflect again on how they protect time for rest and recovery at the end of the second year of the programme, so the mentor may wish to make some notes here to share with the ECT then to reflect on changes.
Managing workload and wellbeing: week-by-week (20 minutes)
Ask the ECT to identify the strategies that have worked well for them this year in relation to:
- Collaborating with colleagues to share the load of planning
- Making use of shared resources
- Protecting time for rest and recovery.
Ask the ECT how effective they have found these approaches to managing their workload and wellbeing, and what they can do to develop them further so that they continue to manage their time more effectively. Looking ahead to next year, using their timetable if available, the mentor and ECT should identify where the busiest times are in the week, and where time is available for rest and recovery.
Pose the question: How can you manage your time outside these slots to ensure your workload doesn’t become too arduous?
Managing workload and wellbeing: across the year (25 minutes)
Using Handout 6.4, plot on the chart the key activities that create extra workload intensity throughout the year. This will depend on phase and subject but might include, e.g. parents’ evenings, report writing, exams, school productions, practical assessment points, sports events, etc.
Looking forward to next year, choose one or two of these activities and reflect on how the workload intensity might be reduced by planning ahead. For example:
- Are there any aspects of these activities that could be done more simply, especially now that the ECT has more experience?
- Could some of the workload be shared with colleagues who are involved in the same activities?
- Could some activities be postponed until a less intense time of year?
- Where could the ECT could become more effective and reduce workload, e.g. written marking?
- In the school year, when will they particularly need to protect some time for rest and recovery?
The ECT should identify key actions they can take in the coming year to manage these key points of workload intensity and agree with their mentor the steps they will take. If appropriate, mentors should facilitate conversations with colleagues to support this. The mentor and the ECT should agree two or three occasions in the coming year when they will review these (e.g. just before or after the periods of intensity). Where appropriate, reminders of these actions and commitments should be diarised now.
Planning for action
The mentors and the ECT should agree two or three key action points relating to this topic.