Matt Topliss is the principal at Kyoto International School in Japan, a role he has held since August 2024. Prior to this, he led schools in Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco. He began his career in Kent, working as a PE teacher, before moving internationally in 2016.
He spoke to Tes for the Workload Around the World series to discuss his school’s approach to managing staff workload, initiatives to cut unnecessary tasks, his own efforts to keep on top of his workload - and why he’d like to do more around flexible working.
If you are an international school leader and would like to take part in the series, please get in touch via email.
1. What is the workload like for teachers in your school?
Workload is something we are very aware of and we follow the guidance we are given from the authorities in Japan.
For example, colleagues teach around 65 per cent of the time, with a further 10 per cent being taken up by duties and clubs. They are also expected to offer a one-hour club per week and attend our weekly professional development meetings (also one hour).
There is also an expectation that cover for colleagues could be offered, but this is not scheduled to be more than one hour per week across each of the school weeks per year.
We have also employed a cover supervisor, so cover for staff has been minimal for teaching colleagues. The cover supervisor and senior leaders have managed most of the cover so far this year.
2. How do you engage with teachers to understand any workload concerns?
We work hard to account for time very carefully and have been proactive in providing an understanding of expectations, school purpose and the role each member of staff has.
As head of school, I meet with each teaching staff member once every two weeks to understand any concerns and support their development. These meetings are also useful to “take the temperature” of our school, understand colleagues and build trust and confidence.
We survey our staff twice a year and have a professional development cycle that caters to different staff groups.
We also have a staff representative who will meet with the head of school to discuss any wider concerns or any changes to expectations or activities. All of this is supported by a staff handbook, induction and regular updates via our staff bulletin.
3. How have you helped to reduce workload?
We have a “no emails after 6pm or on weekends” rule - unless the emails are safeguarding-related.
We’ve always worked to remove meetings that weren’t really needed and also try to ensure that any requests on teachers’ time come with plenty of time to work on whatever the request is.
This means we have an active effort to reduce “last-minuteism” to ensure that colleagues have a clear understanding of what is happening and that nothing is added at the last minute. We have even not done things due to a lack of notice.
We have started to look at the use of AI to support the planning of individual education plans for our students with special educational needs so we can provide strategies and interventions for students that are AI-generated and then contextualised.
4. Are there cultural differences you have to consider around workload management?
There is a culture of overworking in Japan, which is certainly true for some of our Japanese colleagues in school. As such, we work with colleagues to help them manage their own workload and ensure what they are doing is appropriate to our teaching methods and international curriculum.
Labour law here is also very supportive of the employee so it is possible for time to be taken to manage workload and wellbeing.
We benefit from 18 public holidays per year, which has its positives and negatives, as this can constrict the academic year, increase workload at certain times and stall momentum.
5. Have you done anything to improve your own workload?
I have tried to be as organised and well-planned as possible. I work at weekends to get ahead, but only so that this allows me time to interact with students and staff and undertake my meetings and provide support within the week.
I also manage my work-life balance well by exercising and socialising regularly. I have a performance coach and have completed my own coach qualification. I also keep myself up-to-date through mentoring and qualifications development.
6. If you could introduce one major workload change what would it be and why?
There is talk of a four-day week in parts of Japan. This would allow further improvements in work-life balance, as has been proven in other parts of the world.
We must also look closely at what is essential in modern teaching and what we are just doing because we always have. Do local requirements allow us to mark, assess or report in different ways to support workload? Can we be revolutionary in our approach to traditionally heavy areas of teacher workload?
I would also like to investigate flexible working to support wellbeing and workload management. Allowing colleagues to complete their teaching and other activities and then work from home when they are not teaching may support this.
We still have more work to do on all of this, but this is essential for staff wellbeing and health and school effectiveness.
Matt Topliss was talking to Dan Worth
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