Teachers could abandon ‘triple marking and Mocksteds’ in drive to cut workload
EXCESSIVE lesson planning and triple marking should be abandoned, education leaders said as the new Education Secretary makes overtures to teachers.
Damian Hinds will announce a new drive to cut down on teacher workload, which he says is one of the biggest factors making them give up their jobs.
He is to make the comments after a Commons public accounts committee report warned that ministers have failed to “get a grip” on teacher retention and that there is a “growing sense of crisis” in recruiting.
Addressing head teachers at the annual conference of the Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) today, Mr Hinds will say: “We have so many brilliant teachers in our schools… but, with rising pupil numbers, I recognise that recruitment and retention is difficult for schools. And, clearly, one of the biggest threats to retention, and also to recruitment, is workload. Too many of our teachers and our school leaders are working too long hours – and on non-teaching tasks that are not helping children to learn.
“We need to get back to the essence of successful teaching – strip away the workload that doesn’t add value and give teachers the time and the space to focus on what actually matters.”
Mr Hinds will also announce a strategy to boost retention and recruitment of teachers. The number of secondary school teachers has been falling since 2010, while secondary school pupil numbers are due to increase by 540,000 – almost 20 per cent – by 2025, according to the Department for Education’s official forecast.
He is due to address heads alongside Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools, who will urge teachers to cut down their workload by spending less time on unnecessary distractions. She will say: “It is an utter travesty that so many [newly qualified teachers] end up losing their early enthusiasm, because of the pressures of the job. Especially when so many of those pressures are entirely unnecessary. That’s what endless data cuts, triple marking, 10-page lesson plans, and, worse, Mocksteds are: a distraction from the core purpose of education, a costly distraction.”
Triple marking is when teachers mark a piece of work, then hand it back to students who redraft their answers and return it to teachers for approval.