‘The only way I cope is by working nearly every night’

A year on from the government’s Workload Challenge and a vast majority of school staff still say that their workload is unmanageable.

Almost 44,000 teachers responded to education secretary Nicky Morgan’s Workload Challenge last year, highlighting the key issues that led to unmanageable workload problems within the profession.

High on the list of workload drivers were data-recording, excessive marking, the amount and detail of lesson planning that is required, and the number of new government initiatives and policy changes.

However, at the time, the government’s response to its own findings was criticised by teaching unions for lacking “tangible” action.

Now, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has published the findings of new research one year on from the launch of the Workload Challenge showing that nothing has changed.