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School Staff Survey Highlight Report
This survey was carried out on behalf of the Poole Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group (PWAMG) in December 2009. A letter was sent to all school staff in November pay slips inviting them to participate in the on-line survey in the following categories: Support Staff, HLTAs/TAs and teachers.
Of 2500 letters sent, 46 staff members completed it a response rate of 1.8%; 73% were from primary schools, 21% from secondary schools and 6% from special schools; all HLTA/TA responses were from primary schools.
No overall indicative representation of school staff can be made due to the low response rate.
Highlights
Profile
- Contracts are mostly: teachers - FT 52 wk/yr, support staff - 37 hrs/wk term time only (some with additional holiday working) and HLTAs/TAs - PT, term time only
- The majority of staff have been employed in schools for at least 6 years
- On average 75% of staff have current job descriptions regardless of role
Workload and Well-being
- The majority of staff said their workload has increased over the past year
- Most TAs/HLTAs and support staff report they carry out work in their own unpaid time to manage workloads
- Most teachers report they are dissatisfied with their hours
- Despite general dissatisfaction, the majority of staff reported satisfaction with the level of personal fulfilment from their job
Performance Management (PM)
- 50% of support and 66% of HLTAs/TAs have access to regular PM reviews
- 100% of teachers reported a teachers' PM system is in place but only 79% said that they had completed the 08/09 cycle as of December; 3 had not started the 09/10 round (both are legal requirements)
- Few teachers agreed PM contributed to improving teaching and learning
- Most professional development accessed was in-house training or external courses. Few had access to coaching or mentoring, working collaboratively with/observing colleagues or on-line training; and yet collaborative working was considered the most useful by staff
- 68% of teachers were familiar with details of the professional standards for teachers; 26% were only ‘aware'; 1 did not know they existed
- Most support staff and HLTAs/TAs were unaware of the National Occupational Standards relevant to their roles
The ‘21 Tasks'
All staff reported carrying out at least some of the '21 tasks' identified in the National Agreement including teachers despite restrictions imposed by the School Teachers Pay and Conditions document. The most common tasks reportedly carried out are:
- Support staff - bulk photocopying, managing resources and supplies, word processing, filing and data management, collecting and handling money
- HLTAs/TAs classroom displays, bulk photocopying, record keeping and filing
- Teachers - classroom displays, analysis of examination results, record keeping and filing, collecting money; over half reported doing bulk photocopying, ordering supplies and equipment, producing class lists, transferring manual data into computerised systems
Cover Arrangements (including Planning Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time)
- Most staff were not aware if their school has a policy for covering absent teachers; only 4 responded that the school's policy restricts the use of teachers to ‘rarely' covering for absent colleagues unless specifically employed for this purpose
- Short-term planned absences are generally covered by a supply/cover teacher, a cover supervisor or an HLTA; 1 teacher reported being covered by colleagues
- Unplanned absences were also likely to be covered by supply/cover teachers, cover supervisors or HLTAs/TAs. Use of teacher colleagues is more frequent under these circumstances despite a legal requirement that teachers should cover only ‘rarely'
- 9 TAs said they provide cover supervision but only 1 had been trained to do so; many said they were actually teaching pupils rather than just providing cover supervision.
- Of the 7 HLTAs/TAs who provide cover for teachers' PPA time none reported having had any specific training except the HLTA
The National Agreement and PWAMG
- Although the majority (68%) of teachers are at least aware of the National Agreement, none are aware of PWAMG
- Only 30% of support staff and TAs/HLTAs are aware of the National Agreement and even fewer (16%) are aware of PWAMG
What happens next?
- Findings will be taken to the next PWAMG meeting on 5 February 2010 to identify key recommendations
- This highlight report will be included in all school staff February pay slips
- Key recommendations will be reported to head teachers later this term and followed up through PWAMG next term
- The full report will be included in the March 9th E-communication to schools
General enquiries:
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