Primary teachers are spending an hour longer each week on school management and administration than they were in 1994. Classroom teachers in secondary schools are also working longer hours according to the School Teacher Review Body workload survey. But additional management and administration accounts for just 12 minutes more of their week on average.
This may reflect the growth in management responsibilities of primary teachers with the development of subject coordinators’ posts. The STRB analysis shows primary teachers spending 5.2 hours a week on management and administration: 13 per cent longer in staff meetings, 60 per cent longer on school policy development and 50 per cent longer on organising buildings, equipment and books than in 1994.
Secondary teachers spend slightly less time (5.1 hours a week) on such activities. Their staff meetings are shorter and they do only a quarter of the school policy development and planning work done by primary colleagues. Secondary class teachers do 40 per cent more general administrative and clerical work than primary. The amount of admin work recorded by heads and deputies has fallen.
