VIEWS From the pen of... Kevin Lister Teach like you imagined it!


This month in our regular look at authors working in the UK education sector, we hear from KEVIN LISTER, author of “Teach Like You Imagined It”, who explains how his book can help with the all too familiar burden of a heavy workload.


Before you became a teacher, you imagined being a teacher. In my own imagined teacher life, my list of expected tasks included: lesson planning and delivery, marking and feedback, assessment and reporting, and behaviour management. I also expected to be able to have a good work-life balance. In truth the only one of these that has ever been missing is the work- life balance.


Spend any time around teachers and the topic of work-life balance


or workload is likely to arise. Often the discussion points the finger at someone or something that drives unacceptable workload. It’s very easy to point at local management, policies, data requirements, school leadership, Ofsted, the Department for Education, or some other body and blame them for causing workload. However, the problem with assigning blame is that it doesn’t actually fix anything, it just gives us a name to demonise. Sometimes money is seen as a possible solution. Perhaps a large


and sustained injection of cash for every school resulting in massive recruitment and a substantial reduction in contact ratios would alleviate the burden? That’s also spectacularly unlikely to happen! Of course, we can and should, campaign for better funding, but if we’re being realistic this will not be the thing that solves workload issues for teachers in the short term. Having worked in the automotive industry before becoming a


teacher, every hour I spent designing a part for a new car had a cost attached that needed to be paid for once the car went on sale. By contrast teachers’ time is not accounted for by the hour, and there is no active management of working time. For schools the only real cost to teachers doing more hours is the teacher’s own wellbeing, which is sold far too cheaply. Sometimes the things we try to do to improve our teaching only


serve to make us busier. School leaders will actively celebrate staff “going the extra mile”. They will be reluctant to discourage extra efforts at the expense of teacher wellbeing because that effort might help improve the school. However, in the long-term successful schools cannot be run at the expense of unhappy and unhealthy staff. Teacher workload is potentially infinite, there is always another task


to do and this can become toxic. We need to choose to do the things that have the most impact, and actively choose not to do the things that don’t. Our students will benefit much more from a well-rested and healthy teacher than they will from another hour spent designing a new resource. I believe that every teacher can and should take action to manage


their own workload. Similarly, every school leader must encourage and support this, failure to do so is weakening your school and the profession in the long run. Teach Like You Imagined It is aimed at all teachers and school


leaders as a guide to taking back control of workload, and hopefully improving the wellbeing of the profession.


Teach Like You Imagined It by Kevin Lister for Crown House Publishing (ISBN 9781785834004) is available at www.crownhouse.co.uk and all good bookshops.


September 2019 British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) We need help to


#clearthelists in the UK too This month in his regular column for Education Today, PATRICK HAYES, Director of BESA, highlights the growing use of wish lists for school resources, and argues for a long-term approach to school funding.


It’s become the phenomenon of the summer holidays in the United States. Across the country, teachers are setting up “wish lists” on Amazon containing teaching resources they need, and using social media to encourage the local community to fund items that they’ve requested. Take a look at the hashtag #clearthelists


on Twitter and you’ll see thousands of teachers listing desired classroom items. It’s a bit like a wedding gift list for the


classroom. Teachers are asking for things like crayons, pencils, textbooks, tennis balls, phonics games – everything under the sun. Celebrities are also getting in on the act and supporting schools,


the magazine Business Insider reports that the likes of stars like Khloé Kardashian, country singer Casey Donahew, and YouTube celeb Jeffree Star are participating to help schools out. There’s a reason why it’s come to this. Business Insider reports


that a survey by the US Department of Education has found that 94 per cent of state school teachers pay for resources out of their own pocket. On average they spend $479 (around £397) a year on items for their classrooms, despite being worse off than many other graduate professions. This is caused, in part, by a decline in government funding for


schools, which still hasn’t recovered fully since the recession. Something we are all too familiar with in the UK. It’s no surprise to hear that parents are having to fork out more


for resources for children’s education than ever before. Data from Mintel has found that in 2018 parents spent £130 million on computing equipment for their children’s education, compared with £80 million the year before. And £100 million was spent on stationery compared with £65 million in 2017. This brings home just how important it is that schools begin to get


the funding that they need – for staff salaries, certainly, but also for the right educational resources in order to deliver the standard of education our children deserve. Our latest research at BESA, working with the National Education


Research Panel to survey a representative sample of English schools, found that fewer schools are saying they are “well equipped with teaching and learning resources” than at any point since we started asking the question back in 2013. Forty-nine per cent of primary schools and 31 per cent of secondary schools say they are. Back in 2015, it was 79% of primaries, and 49% of secondaries. Initiatives such as the commendable Rocket Fund by Nesta are


starting to leverage the good will of the community to rectify this, and many schools in the UK have Amazon wish lists too. But this situation will only be properly rectified if the Treasury


releases additional funds to schools – not just in one-off injections, but over a longer period of time. The talk is that education is going to play a central role in any forthcoming General Election. We’ll be revitalising our Resource Our Schools campaign to ensure that funding for school resources isn’t forgotten about.


uDo sign our statement at: www.resourceourschools.com


www.education-today.co.uk 13


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