Teachers in council-run schools could be allowed to complete their contracted hours over four days under plans aimed at making working arrangements more flexible, while schools would continue to open for the full five-day week.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell has asked the School Teachers’ Review Body to consider changes to the rules governing the 195 days teachers are required to work each year.
The proposal would allow full-time staff to complete 1,265 directed hours over fewer days. Some teachers could still be scheduled to work on the fifth day to ensure pupils receive education throughout the school week.
It would not introduce a four-day week for all teachers, nor reduce the number of days schools must remain open. Ms Powell said no teacher would be expected to work more than the existing 195 days a year, and that the 1,265-hour limit would remain unchanged.
The hours cover lessons, meetings and other directed duties, but exclude work carried out in teachers’ own time, including preparing lessons and marking.
Writing to Mike Aldred, chairman of the School Teachers’ Review Body, Ms Powell said there was uncertainty over whether schools could offer different working patterns within the current framework.
“We understand there is ambiguity within the current 195-day framework about schools’ ability to offer flexibility in individual teacher working patterns,” she wrote.
She said ministers were proposing a “targeted amendment” to clarify that teachers could be available to work their directed hours over up to 195 days, or a pro rata equivalent. The intention, she added, was to give school leaders greater flexibility in responding to changing workforce needs.
Flexible working is already possible in academies, although government figures indicate that they are still expected to follow the 195-day structure, which includes five staff-training days.
The review body has previously identified four-day weeks, nine-day fortnights and remote working as possible measures to help recruit and retain teachers. It also warned that schools had been slow to embrace flexible arrangements, despite their popularity in other industries.
Wider changes to teachers’ working hours have been ruled out as part of the review. The proposals come amid warnings that inflexible arrangements are contributing to experienced teachers leaving the classroom.
