Use existing guidance as a starting point
The Department for Education’s workload and wellbeing service provides free resources that schools can adapt. Its guidance applies to England. The wider collection includes material on marking, planning, data management and support for early career teachers. These are existing resources, not a newly announced November entitlement or a rule requiring every school to use the same system. Teachers elsewhere in the UK should check the guidance and arrangements relevant to their setting.
Describe the task before proposing a solution
Choose one recurring activity rather than trying to redesign the whole working week. For example: “We enter the same assessment information into two places. Who uses each record and what decision does it support?” Note roughly how often the task occurs and which colleagues depend on it. Keep this review proportionate; a detailed time-tracking exercise can become another burden if nobody has agreed how the information will be used.
Agree a small trial with the right person
A department or year group might propose keeping one shared record for a limited period, with approval from the person responsible for the process. Decide what information must remain available and how colleagues will find it. For planning, the first trial might be sharing an existing resource and recording only the changes needed for each class. These are editorial examples, not instructions to disregard school policies or remove required records without agreement.
Review the effect on teaching as well as time
Set a date to ask two questions: did the change reduce unnecessary work, and could staff still make the decisions they needed to make? Invite feedback from the colleagues who receive the information, not only those who produce it. If a simpler approach works, make the revised expectation clear so that nobody quietly continues the old version as well. Where workload concerns persist, use the school’s established channels and staff representation to seek a discussion about the underlying expectations.
