What the experts say… STRATEGIC SITE STAFFING: MOVING FROM FIRE-


FIGHTING TO FORWARD-PLANNING Comment by NICK ORDE-POWLETT, Managing Director at TIB Services


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very day a site team is operating at reduced capacity is a day the school feels the strain. Site teams are one of those critical functions where absences are immediately visible,


creating a ripple effect that impacts staff, students, and the wider school community.


Despite how vital the role is to the daily running of a school, many educators underestimate the true cost of managing caretaker recruitment in-house. For many busy leadership teams, the traditional route of advertising and vetting is becoming increasingly untenable. According to TIB Services data, the hidden costs are both quantifiable and damaging. The impact on school operations can be broken down into three core areas: • Senior leadership time: On average, a school leader will spend 30 hours managing the advertising, interviewing, and vetting process for a single candidate.


• Operational disruption: The duration from the initial advert to a candidate being ready to start often stretches beyond two months, leaving the school vulnerable.


• The multiplication effect: For MATs, pressures are amplified. When gaps occur across several sites, the drain on central resources and senior leadership capacity scales rapidly, turning local challenges into a trust- wide strategic burden.


This is time that could be spent on curriculum planning, staff development, and pupil outcomes, yet it is frequently lost to administrative churn and vacancy management.


The risk of this reactive approach extends beyond just lost time. When interviews are approached with a fixed idea of what a traditional caretaker looks like, schools often focus too heavily on previous job titles rather than


the skills and values that truly matter. Schools can overlook candidates with the resilience and cultural fit necessary for a busy educational environment. This frequently results in performance gaps, where a new hire may look strong on paper but lacks the practical problem-solving abilities required on the ground.


Forward-thinking schools and trusts are now shifting their perspective, treating site staffing as a strategic priority. By moving from panic-hiring to proactive planning, leaders can build safer and more resilient learning environments. A key part of this shift involves looking at a wider talent pool, specifically individuals from the military, emergency services, and skilled trades. These professionals bring a unique set of transferable skills, including discipline, technical competence, and the ability to remain calm under pressure.


True resilience also comes from ensuring staff are ready to contribute from day one. When site staff are pre-trained in essential compliance areas such as Asbestos Awareness, COSHH, Fire Warden duties, and Legionella, the burden of induction is lifted from school leadership. This ensures that the site remains safe, compliant, and operational without a steep learning curve during the first few weeks of employment. By ensuring that every professional arrives with a clear Letter of Assurance for the Single Central Record as a baseline standard, schools can maintain their focus on high- level strategy rather than administrative compliance. Ultimately, the question of site staffing is a leadership one. It is about assessing whether your current strategy has a single point of failure. If a site manager or member of the estates team were to be absent tomorrow for three months, would the school continue to run smoothly without senior intervention? If the answer is no, it is time to reconsider the approach.


DRAMA, ORACY AND THE POWER OF PERFORMANCE


Comment by KERRY JACKSON, Lead Tutor for PGCE Drama at Liverpool Hope University


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ommunicating effectively, articulating ideas and engaging with others are crucial skills our students need to master in order to succeed. Yet too often, young people are not being given enough opportunities to develop them.


In the latest Pearson School Report 2025, a third of students shared that they feel the skill of ‘speaking confidently in front of others’ is missing from their learning and would help them later in life. At the same time, over a quarter feel they are missing ‘communication skills and how to interact with others’.


Following a technical revolution that has enabled people to interact without speech, students are seeking opportunities to learn – and this is where the power of drama comes in. I would even argue that no other subject in the curriculum has the same ability to support this generation of learners.


Drama has everything students need to fill these skills gaps. We teach future-proof skills – skills that can connect us as humans. We teach speech: pace, pause, pitch and projection. By exploring plays, we also explore the subtleties that make us who we are: inhabiting emotions, expression, and empathy.


Skilled teachers can use drama lessons to build unique cultures, enabling students to feel comfortable exposing themselves through performance – especially during adolescence, when interacting can otherwise feel so challenging.


In addition, we know that EAL learners (those with English as an additional language) benefit greatly from drama pedagogies, and the same


22 www.education-today.co.uk is true for pupil premium learners.


But the truth is that in many schools – especially those that are state- funded – curriculum time for drama may be as little as an hour a fortnight. Time is tight, funding is limited, and it can be very hard to find specialist teachers who can scaffold the subject without sparking anxiety. Protecting time in the timetable so students can learn the subject – and giving teachers more time to teach it – is a critical step that is needed now. And I don’t just mean inside the classroom.


Just as it would be unthinkable to teach football without offering opportunities to play matches, or to teach music without opportunities to play concerts, schools offering drama should create opportunities for school productions: feel-good events that provide real-world scenarios for students to learn from.


I appreciate that putting drama in the spotlight is easier said than done, but we need to rethink the way it fits into our schools. Drama is English. Drama is history. Drama is society. If we can improve access to high-quality teaching, strong curricula and effective resources – and provide safe, supportive performance spaces – our students will thrive. They will confidently speak and connect with an audience, however big or small. They will express their ideas, overcome their nerves, and have the ability to adapt to different situations. In doing so, they will develop skills that help them not only in school, but beyond the school gates and into adulthood.


As Shakespeare once said: “All the world’s a stage”. We need to give our students the opportunity to create their own.


April 2026


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