Flexible working isn’t possible in schools – or is it? Imogen Rowley looks at one school that’s made flexible working a success, and offers advice for how you can too

Teaching has long lagged behind other professions in its approach to flexible working. In a 2016 NASUWT survey, only eight per cent of teachers felt that flexible working was encouraged by their school.

For all the sneers from outsiders of 3pm finishes and 13 weeks of holiday, those in the thick of it are more than aware of how un-family-friendly teaching can be, and why the option to work flexibly may help to ease the retention crisis – as was recently suggested by the NFER’s teacher retention research (SecEd, November 2018).

While organisations such as the Chartered College of Teaching and the National Education Union have pledged to encourage flexible working in the profession, the idea that it just “won’t work” for teachers lingers on. One school in Manchester, however, is proving that, actually, it can. So how does this school do it?

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