The first project, led by Ambition Institute, will investigate if a nine-day working fortnight – where staff have an extra day off once a fortnight – can have a positive impact on retention.
This project will work with Dixons Academies Trust, who moved to a nine-day working fortnight at the start of this school year across the 17 schools in their trust. The first phase of this project will include interviews with leaders and teachers to understand the benefits and challenges of implementing a nine-day working fortnight.
Flexible employment arrangements are being used in many industries to recruit and retain staff, yet they can be difficult to accommodate in education settings. Last year, an EEF evidence review identified flexible working as a possible solution to recruiting and retaining teachers. However, the review also highlighted school leaders’ concerns around the strain it could put on school budgets, and possible lack of consistency for pupils.
Today’s new research projects will add to the evidence base on the impact of flexible working approaches, as well as the most effective methods of implementing them.
The second project, led by researchers from the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and the Chartered College of Teaching, will explore the perceived impact on teacher retention when schools encourage teachers’ planning, preparation, and assessment (PPA) time to be taken offsite rather than on school premises.
Teachers are currently entitled to at least 10% of their time for autonomous PPA where they are able to plan lessons and mark pupils’ work but most currently complete this onsite at school. Flexible working could be improved by giving teachers the option to spend this time remotely and ensuring school timetables enable this. This project, conducted across primary schools, will help to understand the barriers and enablers for schools’ and teachers’ uptake of this measure, contributions to teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction, and any potential implications on teaching quality and pupil learning.
Off-site PPA is often one of the most straightforward ways for schools to enable a more supportive working environment for teachers. This study aims to build the evidence base for this approach and its potential impact on teacher retention.
A third project, led by Teacher Tapp, will use their app to identify strategies that are most likely to be effective in attracting teachers to schools with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage.
Today’s new projects have been commissioned as part of the EEF’s flagship research theme: supporting the recruitment and retention of teachers to schools with high levels of socio-economically disadvantaged pupils.
The latest Department of Education data has revealed that over the last twelve years, over 40,000 teachers left the profession after just one year of teaching, with this figure rising to 63,000 after three years (1). Recruitment and retention issues are often exacerbated for schools serving higher levels of disadvantaged pupils, so identifying solutions is key for supporting education equality.
Commenting on the projects, Emily Yeomans, co-Chief Executive at Education Endowment Foundation said:
Hilary Spencer, CEO of Ambition Institute, said,
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