By Emily Crow
Charles Dickens Primary school, in central London, is part of
The Charter Schools Education Trust and is one of the 12
Flexible Working Ambassador Multi Academy Trusts and schools
appointed by the Department for Education to help school leaders
implement flexible working.
Emily Crow, deputy director at London South Teaching School
Hub, shares Charles Dickens’ approach to flexible working and her
experience of the benefits it has brought to the school
community.
Our approach to flexible working
As an organisation, we understand that colleagues’ commitments
and demands on their time will change throughout their careers,
and that it’s important we are in a position to provide support
when needs and wants arise.
We’ve strived to normalise flexible working and have worked hard
to create a culture where we champion flexible working for all.
We’ve achieved really strong retention as a result of this
approach, and staff wellbeing has increased. This is evidenced
through surveys, staff meetings, and a wellbeing steering group.
What flexible working looks like in our school
This academic year,13 of our 69 colleagues have formal flexible
working arrangements, mainly part time and compressed hours, and
all our staff benefit from informal flexible working.
We have examples of colleagues working flexibly for caring
reasons. For example, a senior male colleague is working part
time, initially as shared maternity/ paternity leave, and then a
four-day week achieved through flexible PPA and compressed hours
to share parenting and to support a work/ life balance. He coined
these “Daddy Fridays”.
Of course, flexible working is not just for those with caring
responsibilities. We have an example of a colleague who worked
flexibly to pursue their field of study. This colleague worked
part time to complete a PhD in Creative Arts. She’s now returned
to teaching full time and this CPD is really enriching her
practice as well as equipping her to offer broader CPD to our
school, and more widely across our trust. This example highlights
that flexible working can be for a fixed amount of time, if
that’s what works for the individual.
We also offer informal or ad-hoc flex. For example, within the
Trust, one colleague wanted to run the London marathon but was
not keen on training in the dark during the winter months. So, we
supported informal flex arrangements to support her to balance
her training with teaching commitments.
‘We care’ offer
We also have a whole school, full time flexible working offer,
which we call our “We care” offer.
Every colleague benefits from gifted days, and these might be
used to attend a child’s sports day, pursue an interest or
travel. These days are a reason-neutral offer and acknowledge the
additional commitment, ‘the above and beyond’ that colleagues
invest into making our organisation rich e.g., parents’ evenings,
school discos, international fairs, school performances etc.
This offer extends to all colleagues.
‘Stay meetings’
The headteacher ensures that we have one to one conversations
with staff about how to support them to stay in the trust, and we
call these “stay meetings”. These happen regularly throughout the
year and aren’t part of performance management, but provide an
opportunity for the headteacher to really understand the needs
and wants for each of our colleagues. It also supports us to plan
staffing and resource in a really helpful, sustainable way.
An evolving journey
I think it’s really important to say that this culture change and
perception shift hasn’t happened overnight. It really has been a
journey that we’ve been committed to. And it is a journey that we
will continue on.
I can honestly say that this has made our organisation richer and
has helped us to make better decisions, underpinned by our ‘we
care’ culture.
Hear more from Emily about flexible working in
Charles Dickens, by listening to this podcast
Find out how to access support with flexible
working About | Flexible working
in Multi-Academy Trusts and schools
(flexibleworkingineducation.co.uk)
