Stroud News and Journal January 2007

Head hits out at school paperwork

By Liz Weafer

RECENTLY appointed headteacher Chris Raymond has hit out at Government education chiefs for inundating schools with mountains of paperwork that take staff away from teaching children.

Mr Raymond, who took over as head at Nailsworth Primary School 18 months ago, says he and his staff are becoming increasingly frustrated because they are so bogged down by bureaucracy.

His concerns are shared by many teachers in the UK - a recent ballot showed that nearly every member of the National Union of Teachers supported a campaign to tackle excessive workloads.

Mr Raymond spends up to five hours every day trawling through reports and filling in endless assessment forms.

"I realise we must be regulated to an extent," he said.

"But this is excessive and it's assessment for the sake of it - I could spend the next two weeks in my office and I still wouldn't finish it all.

"Everything has to be done to the nth degree but we know what we are doing and we need a bit of space to do what we were trained to do.

"This is all in preparation for our Ofsted inspection in the summer - everything has to be justified and sometimes I think we should be trusted to do our jobs properly."

Mr Raymond and his staff work after school and during weekends and holidays to free up enough time to spend with pupils.

"It would be so easy to be one of those headteachers who spends all their time tucked away in an office but the children always come first in this school," said Mr Raymond, a former professional rugby player who has three children of his own.

"I eat lunch with them every day and speak to them during playtime and assembly - it's important to get to know them.

"I used to try and do it all but after 18 months I'm starting to realise you can't so I try to keep the paperwork to a minimum and only do the things I know will be used."

The Government says it is aware of the problem and is working with an expert panel of heads to slash the bureaucratic burden.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Reforms are turning the tide on teacher workloads and ensuring that teachers can focus on what theydo best - teach.

"They remove a whole range of administrative tasks from teachers, give them 10 per cent of the timetable to plan, prepare and assess work outside of the classroom."