"Every adult is being used for every minute of the day" is an excellent thing to consider for anyone who wants change in schools. The pace and intensity of work in schools is remarkable. It shocks people when they first experience it.
Also, in a one-form primary school (or smaller), who do they think is facilitating this and where is it happening? Most primaries do not have staff available to support this nor do they have spaces for it to happen. Every adult and every space is being used, every minute of the day.
A day's work as a senior leader in schools must be the most intense work experience outside of the armed forces/emergency services.
Teachers too. The added complication of slt is how one event can happen that is then your whole day gone, unplanned, with no extra time to catch up the stuff you should have got done.
Yeah no shade on non-slt teachers. That's intense enough. And also with slt, the need to sort dozens of little things minute to minute as you go, each one mattering a lot to whoever needs it.
There is good data to support this:
www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/asset...https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1309455/4_Intensity_Minireport_Final.pdf
Not surprising but powerful seeing it in black and white
Right. I found this study when I was looking for data about something else but then saw the teacher numbers!
Hard to imagine things have got better since 2017 either
Jan 31, 2026 10:13I was just going to make the same point: would love to see hard data, but can only imagine the trend for teachers will have been upwards, especially since Covid.
I think it is also underrated how much more intense (for teachers) “explicit direct instruction” is as a mode of instruction - especially if you are new to it
Before we all became virus testers and bubble experts 😂
