Workload for independent school staff has increased, union says

Independent school staff are having to give up an increasing amount of their free time to manage heavy workloads, according to a survey by the National Education Union (NEU).

It found that of over 1,000 teachers and leaders in independent schools, 69 per cent said their workload has increased over the past year.

Forty-five per cent of respondents said their school does not have a policy in place to deal with parental contact out-of-hours, meaning that many are expected to respond to emails and texts from parents during evenings and weekends.

Almost a third (29 per cent) said that they are expected to respond immediately when they are contacted by a parent out of school.

The research also found that 22 per cent of independent school staff are spending the equivalent of up to two working days on activities related to their job during evenings and weekends.

Eighteen per cent are spending between 11 and 15 hours a week working outside their core school hours.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “All education staff must be allowed a healthy work-life balance and be given the time to switch-off after a working day or week. The fact that so many independent school staff are not being allowed to is unacceptable.

“Teachers’ workloads are already unmanageable without the added pressure of being expected to respond to emails from parents during evenings and weekends. Schools need to ensure that policies and procedures are in place to help staff deal with work outside of core school hours.”