Teachers and pupils are at risk of burnout from the increasing pressure being placed on them to undertake extra classes during lunchbreaks, after school, at weekends and during school holidays, Representatives at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, have today warned.
The use of ‘pupil interventions’ to raise attainment among pupils who are struggling is increasingly being misused by schools to justify adding to teachers’ workloads and working hours, the Conference, which is being held in Manchester, has heard.
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said
“It is important that pupils who need extra support with their learning receive that targeted help, however neither pupils nor teachers benefit if they are being overburdened with excessive hours of additional lessons which are eating into weekends, holidays and break times.
“Teachers running additional classes face bullying and threats to their jobs, pay and career progression if they do not comply.
“The Union should not be being forced into escalating industrial action to secure the basic working conditions that teachers have a right to expect.
“However, the NASUWT will continue to do whatever it takes to protect teachers from these unacceptable practices.”
ENDS
NASUWT Press Office contacts:
Ben Padley 07785 463 119
Lena Davies 07867 392 746
Simon Houltby 07920 711 069
Notes to editors
The NASUWT’s Annual Conference is being held at Manchester Central from 14-17 April.
The full text of the motion is below:
WORKLOAD AND THE ‘VIRAL’ INTERVENTIONS PHENOMENON
Louis Kavanagh to move,
Katherine Carlisle to second:
Conference is deeply concerned about the rising, ill-informed and debilitating pressure placed on classroom teachers to do ever more under the catch-all, but misleading, term ‘interventions’.
Conference notes that this growing phenomenon includes:
(i) management-led working practices which have not been workload impact assessed;
(ii) coercive practices such as insidious threats to career progression;
(iii) the de facto lengthening of the school day through the expectation that teachers will deliver extra lessons outside of the normal timetable;
(iv) the loss of lunch breaks for teachers and students alike;
(v) the bullying of teachers into running ‘booster’ and revision classes after school, at weekends and during holiday periods and
(vi) the consequential compromising of the teacher’s work/life balance.
Conference asserts that the accountability pressures being placed upon schools are being translated into unreasonable demands on teachers to intervene with pupils on a regular basis.
Conference calls upon the National Executive to:
(a) consider issuing a specific action instruction on interventions and teaching outside the school day;
(b) strengthen the Action Short of Strike Action guidance to members, reminding them of their rights regarding working time and
(c) continue to campaign for inspection bodies in the UK to include the inspection of work/life balance and workload in their frameworks.
(Birmingham, Solihull)
-01.png){kind=spacer}