We were delighted to contribute to the Department for Education’s re-launched Workload Reduction Toolkit - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/workload-reduction-toolkit

Reducing workload and focusing on the wellbeing of our staff has been a key priority at Kensington. As in any school, our children come first. However, in order for our children to come first, we need to also prioritise our own wellbeing.

We strongly believe that building a sustainable organisation means creating a place everyone loves to be. We spend a huge amount of our lives at work and everyone deserves to feel safe, secure and happy. Not only this, but ensuring our staff are properly supported allows them to be the best they can be. As a result, they provide the best possible learning experiences for our children.

Schools are incredibly demanding workplaces. Standing in front of a class and teaching 5 lessons, 5 days per week is a full-time job. That’s before you start planning, assessing, preparing resources, and the myriad of other tasks that are part and parcel of the modern teacher’s role. At Kensington, we’ve stripped away as much as we can so that staff can focus on what matters most. We also look at other ways of supporting staff: extra time out of class at key times of the year; CPD that is blocked and focused, not overwhelming; feedback systems that make a difference – no formal observations, no heavy-handed monitoring, but true partnership work, together, for the children; supportive teams; approaches that focus on what is important, not ticking a box, and much more.

Ultimately, it is about our ethos. We are all in this together to ensure the best for our children. We have worked to develop our understanding of emotions to improve our daily interactions. We have looked at what stops us from being our best and worked on these areas together, whether that’s sleep, exercise, diet, confidence, anxiety etc. Everyone is here to support each other. When something goes wrong, it is about understanding why and working together to improve it. That doesn’t mean accountability is removed: we are still exceptionally accountable. It means that we view it differently. All of this has built a culture of positivity and supportiveness. In our most recent survey, 97% (70 out of 72) of our staff answered yes to the question, ‘do you love being here?’ We are proud to be able to share this work through the Workload Reduction Toolkit and committed to continue building a place everyone loves to be.

You can watch the video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7A69oyTaCX4