Leaders Eat Last

The challengeOne teacher has been in before eight every day for a fortnight and her reports are being rewritten twice, while the reporting period stretches everyone.

What the leader doesThe headteacher meets the teacher privately in protected time, then removes one optional demand for the whole staff, making the decision fair and visible without linking it to her.

What success looks likeBy day 30 every team should have protected planning time and one optional demand removed; by day 60 reports should be completed on time without repeated late working; by day 90 staff should report lower avoidable workload.

The challengeTeachers upload one weekly plan in two formats, costing them forty-five minutes a week, and some leaders want to keep the second format just in case.

What the leader doesThe deputy headteacher moves teachers onto a single planning record, holds the line on dropping the duplicate and works out with phase leaders what evidence they genuinely need for assurance.

What success looks likeBy day 30 the shared planner should be the only route; by day 60 teachers should recover at least forty-five minutes a week; by day 90 single-route planning should remain usable, accessible and trusted.

The challengeThree support colleagues have missed breaks they were entitled to because the Early Years leader has been changing the rota at short notice.

What the leader doesThe Early Years leader tells the headteacher plainly that the late rota and missing cover sequence were the leader's own responsibility, asks colleagues how they want it acknowledged and publishes standards for rota notice and protected breaks.

What success looks likeBy day 30 rota notice and protected-break standards should be published; by day 60 they should be met on 95% of days; by day 90 support staff should report fairer, more predictable deployment.

The challengeDepartments say they are choosing which of three curriculum deadlines to disappoint, and staff pulse scores have already moved.

What the leader doesThe headteacher turns three deadlines into one sequence, pauses one workstream, protects time for the core work and offers a bounded alternative where a department faces a genuine external constraint.

What success looks likeBy day 30 one authoritative sequence and protected time should operate; departments should complete the core progression work by 20 October, with no enrichment work alongside it, and its quality reviewed by day 60; by day 90 staff confidence in prioritisation should improve.

The challengeTwenty-eight per cent of planned pastoral and safeguarding casework time is going to routine cover, so risk work is being finished in the evenings.

What the leader doesThe deputy headteacher protects casework blocks with a clear emergency threshold, puts senior leaders into the cover rota and explains the system reason to colleagues who pick up more cover.

What success looks likeBy day 30 protected blocks and an emergency threshold should operate; by day 60 at least 90% of casework time should be protected; by day 90 protection should stay above 90% without shifting cover unfairly onto others.

The challengeOne colleague carries more high-need Year 11 casework than anyone else on the team, and moving it risks taking away the adult those pupils trust.

What the leader doesThe head of year meets the colleague in protected time, maps who holds each relationship and each task, and moves tasks through a staged handover while keeping the trusted adult in place.

What success looks likeBy day 30 every high-need case should have relationship and task ownership mapped; by day 60 protected check-ins should happen and support tasks close reliably; by day 90 no pupil should rely on one unsupported adult.

The challengeArt teachers mark every page of every sketchbook, and some colleagues will hear less marking as lower expectations.

What the leader doesThe head of art replaces blanket marking with a focused critique and response cycle, models a critique and takes on explaining the change to parents rather than leaving teachers to defend it.

What success looks likeBy day 30 every class should plan one critique-response point; by day 60 written marking time should fall by 25% with stronger pupil response; by day 90 marking time should fall by one third without weaker outcomes.

The challengeA regional data return repeats nine fields the trust already holds, on top of overlapping requests from four central teams, and nine schools are about to start filling it in.

What the leader doesThe director filters the return before it reaches schools, pre-populates data the trust already holds and replaces four overlapping central requests with one controlled route, without weakening assurance.

What success looks likeBy day 30 one controlled route should replace four overlapping requests; by day 60 every school-facing request should be filtered centrally first; by day 90 headteacher workload feedback should improve with no missed assurance.