"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
I 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.
Jan 31, 2026 10:17I 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
Totally. When I started my career it was pretty common for teachers to strategically plan an easier lesson by setting some sort of extended task involving research and then perhaps a group presentation. Could take up the whole lesson. You just had to keep an eye on things. Not any more.
Ha I remember doing that for my back-to-back Fridays
Right. When I first went to Ark Soane I was completely convinced but major concern was “how are we going to get teachers who are 60 doing this for 5 hours a day?”
Exhausting for the YP as well!
I don’t think so - only in the sense that thinking hard is harder than not thinking hard
Yep. More cognitive labour all round. This is a bigger ask for some inds & groups than others - eg YP who are already maxed out in schools.
Just to be clear, are you saying learning is cognitive labour that sone young people should be doing less of?
Hi Ed. Great q. I think we can safely say that learning involves cognitive labour? Can we also agree that YP have a great many other demands on their senses, energy, emotions etc at school? In the case of
#autistic YP, for instance, the sensory burden of being in a classroom can be massively
demanding/depleting in and of itself. How the (additional) cog burden of the actual lesson content lands on these YP will vary according to eg teacher communication style, the intrinsic interesting-ness of the topic, accessibility of the learning resources, nature of task etc etc. Ime it’s not
easy for eg neurotypical teachers to have an instinctive feel for how these cumulative demands will be experienced/how much/what kind of labour we’re actually requiring. So no, I’m not saying cog labour is a bad thing - obvs it’s necessary. But I am saying we need to recognise how close YP may be
to capacity for more demands, esp over time (eg because of
#burnout risk). Like many, I find
#spoontheory super helpful with this. Hacks are always possible - eg thru
#reasonableadjustments. But
#pacing & having boundaries re additional demands are also important strategies.
What's spoon theory? The metaphor helping people with chronic illnesses and disabilities plan their days
The #spoonies hashtag unites people who struggle with energy management.
Sensible. I suppose the point I would make is that these are not arguments for abandoning a pedagogy that requires students to think hard a lot but rather for flexible adjustments for some students within that, based on need.
Agreed. Hard thinking and on-demand hard thinking are different things.
#monotropic learners (eg many neurodivergents) will quickly run out of
#spoons if they are frequently having to switch up their attention against the grain of their own interests/focus, but will do well when given time & space
to think hard on an intrinsically interesting topic. This can actually be a win-win situation because ALL learners - not just monotropic/ND - do well when learning is interest-led. It’s just that NDs are more disadvantaged than NTs when pedagogy is rigid.
autisticrealms.com/neuro-affirm...
Neuro-Affirming Research in Practice: Supporting Autistic Students, Embracing Monotropism In The Classroom And Beyond | Autistic Realms
Written by Tanya Adkin and Helen Edgar, based on the presentation we delivered to the National Autistic Society Professionals’ Conference in March, 2025. Sh ...
