See how other schools and trusts flex working arrangements to recruit and retain skilled teachers
Could flexible working solve teaching’s recruitment and retention crisis and restore a better work-life balance for burned-out staff? Possibly. Yet most teachers either don’t have access to flexible arrangements or believe that teaching and flexibility are incompatible. So, how can schools make flexible working a realistic option?
Recruiting teachers with the right skills – and keeping them – remains an ongoing challenge. STEM subjects, including maths and science, are facing shortages that have left schools in some areas unable to offer higher-level qualifications. In chemistry, the situation is worsening: 33% of science departments in the 2024 Royal Society of Chemistry Science Teaching Survey reported understaffing for chemistry teachers – up from 30% the previous year.
Reports often tout flexible working as a solution. In 2024, the National Foundation for Educational Research recommended that school leaders consider ‘adopting a wider range of flexible working practices’ to improve teacher retention.
Government research supports this. 76% of teachers surveyed (figure 10 of the report) said flexible working would make them more likely to stay in the profession long-term. 82% of school leaders agreed that it helps to retain teachers and leaders who might otherwise leave.
Recruiting teachers with the right skills – and keeping them – remains an ongoing challenge. STEM subjects, including maths and science, are facing shortages that have left schools in some areas unable to offer higher-level science qualifications. In chemistry, the situation is worsening: 33% of science departments in the 2024 Royal Society of Chemistry Science Teaching Survey reported understaffing for chemistry teachers – up from 30% the previous year (rsc.li/46k0muc).
Reports often tout flexible working as a solution. In 2024 the National Foundation for Educational Research recommended that school leaders consider ‘adopting a wider range of flexible working practices’ to improve teacher retention (pdf: bit.ly/4mcgu5K).
Government research supports this. 76% of teachers surveyed (figure 10 of the report) said flexible working would make them more likely to stay in the profession long-term (pdf: bit.ly/4mbZTPX). 82% of school leaders agreed that it helps to retain teachers and leaders who might otherwise leave (pdf: bit.ly/40whnxF).
Only four in ten teachers report any access to flexible working
Ollie Marston, a chemistry teacher at Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire, now works a four-day week thanks to whole-school flexible working policies. Speaking on his day off to Education in Chemistry, he explained how it helps him manage his workload more effectively.
‘I’ll be doing some marking after this, which means I don’t have to do it in the evenings, so I get more time with my children, and I can do school pickups and drop-offs.’
Ollie adds that his more flexible schedule helped his wife return to work after several years as a stay-at-home mum. He sees flexible working as a ‘no-brainer’ for schools struggling to recruit and retain skilled staff. ‘There are so many experienced people who want to work flexibly,’ he says. ‘They want to start families and balance their lives.’
What are the barriers to flexible working?
Yet Ollie’s situation is uncommon. Only four in ten teachers report any access to flexible working. Nicola Pease is lead principal consultant at the non-profit organisation Timewise, which contributed to a government toolkit on flexible working. She explains that many schools assume flexibility is too hard to implement due to the structure of the school day and the need for pupil contact time.
Balancing the pros and cons
Yet Ollie’s situation is uncommon. Only four in ten teachers report any access to flexible working (pdf: bit.ly/4o925cq). Nicola Pease is lead principal consultant at the non-profit organisation Timewise, which contributed to a government toolkit on flexible working (bit.ly/46WH7qN). She explains that many schools assume flexibility is too hard to implement due to the structure of the school day and the need for pupil contact time.
‘I’d say those are the biggest barriers,’ she adds. ‘There is also resistance around – as you would expect – continuity for pupils, the impact of potentially having multiple teachers and inconsistency in learning outcomes.’
But what if consistency comes at the expense of quality? Nicola argues that two outstanding chemistry teachers working part time are better than one teacher doing a full-time job while exhausted. ‘They’re not tired by Friday afternoon and they’re not distracted by whatever else is going on in their lives,’ she says.
‘One reason is not more important than another. So what if someone wants to leave early on Thursday for a gym class?’
Flexible working doesn’t just mean job shares. It can include remote planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time or dropping just a few weekly periods. Dixons Academies Trust, based in Bradford, has introduced a nine-day fortnight across all its schools from 2024 – allowing staff a regular day out without reducing pay. And while a common complaint about such non-traditional schedules is that they make timetabling too complicated, the trust leaders argue in their YouTube video that it is far from impossible.
Timetabling is one of the issues addressed in a 2022 report from Timewise’s Teaching Pioneers Programme, which supported flexible working in eight secondary schools across three trusts. The report highlights that early informal conversations helped resolve scheduling challenges well in advance of the next academic year. In schools involved in the programme, the report notes, ‘When the requests were made formally, they were already expected, and most of the thinking around how to make them work had already been done.’
Coordinating staff
Timetabling is one of the issues addressed in a 2022 report from Timewise’s Teaching Pioneers Programme, which supported flexible working in eight secondary schools across three trusts (pdf: bit.ly/4m6CHBU). The report highlights that early informal conversations helped resolve scheduling challenges well in advance of the next academic year. In schools involved in the programme, the report notes, ‘When the requests were made formally, they were already expected, and most of the thinking around how to make them work had already been done.’
At Ollie’s school, the science department uses careful timetabling to prevent cover lessons. ‘The worst situation would be a non-specialist covering,’ he says, noting that the practical element adds to these considerations. Despite these challenges, most of the department makes use of the flexible working policy.
Are you a decision maker?
- Read Timewise’s Adopting a whole-school approach to flexible working headteacher’s guide.
- Watch the videos on flexible working and timetabling on Dixons Academies Trust’s YouTube channel.
- See what the Education Committee’s recommendations to the government are in the Teacher recruitment, training and retention report.
Timewise recommends a proactive, whole-school approach built on good communication, open dialogue and reason-neutral acceptance. Nicola explains: ‘One reason is not more important than another. So what if someone wants to leave early on Thursday for a gym class?’
Flexible working may not fix school staffing issues overnight. But anecdotally, it is helping. Staff at Dixons claim their nine-day fortnight reduces burnout and stress, while Ollie believes flexible working has made a ‘huge difference’ to his workload – and stopped him from job hunting.
Hayley Bennett is a science writer and editor based in Bristol
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