How reducing teacher workload can improve student outcomes

At Charles Dickens Primary School, we have been working for five years to reduce teacher workload. We started with written marking and have subsequently addressed planning, displays, reporting to parents and writing assessment. Over this period, we have seen student outcomes improve in English and maths and, more recently, in foundation subjects. Teachers report to us that they have the freedom to focus on developing their practice and on actions that have a strong positive impact on the students in their classes. Charles Dickens retained its ‘Outstanding’ judgement following an inspection in September 2019, and the average combined reading, writing and maths outcomes over the last three years are more than 20 percentage points higher than national figures. Our journey to reduce teacher workload started almost by accident. In 2015, teachers started a Journal Club, in which staff met on a termly basis to explore a piece of educational research. In spring 2016, we discussed the Ed