Reducing Teacher Workload
The role a teacher plays in their student’s life is becoming increasingly multifaceted, with pressure extending far beyond the classroom. Teachers are expected to not only be experts in their subjects but also pillars of support for students going through any number of personal challenges.
Student needs and admin impact on teacher workload
Teachers must individualise their teaching to cater for the diverse learning needs and abilities of their students, which can require significant time to plan and deliver differentiated teaching and creation of activities that address each student’s unique requirements.
Additional admin, such as preparing for the annual performance management review or appraisal can create additional stress: gathering evidence of what has been achieved and attempting to align this with long-forgotten objectives can be very time-consuming, particularly if the process is paper-based or requires collating documents from disparate systems.
“BlueSky allows us to ensure that all staff are treated fairly. With BlueSky, everything is on one system, from application to approval to evaluation, so the whole process is much, much simpler.”
Daniel Brown
Director of Professional Learning and Development, Dulwich College Singapore
Did you know?
74%
of leaders consider teacher development to be important for school
improvement purposes. (Source)
However…
48%
of teachers don’t feel as though their professional development is prioritised
by education leaders. (Source)
Freedom to educate
BlueSky supports a culture of ‘improve not prove’, enabling teachers to showcase their continuous professional development work and eliminate the last-minute rush to compile evidence.
The streamlined platform allows school staff and leaders to document professional growth and development as they happen, making it significantly easier to gather evidence for reviews. This reduces the impact of time taken to prepare for appraisals and managing teachers’ professional development.
We’re not just removing layers of administrative burden for teachers; we’re making professional development an integral and seamless part of their daily routine. By taking away the pressure of gathering months of evidence at the end of each development cycle, we reduce the workload for Senior Leaders by up to 5 hours per week, and allows teachers to focus on what they do best: teaching.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you had any more questions that were not answered above, please get in touch.
A centralised hub for excellence
BlueSky provides professional development solutions that support teachers to develop their practice and ensure their students thrive.
BlueSky Learning offers easy access to flexible, bite-sized continuous professional development (CPD) modules that directly support classroom practice. Each research-based module is designed by a leading practitioner, with inter-session activities that help to embed learning. All activities and evaluations are automatically tracked in the platform, meaning staff can access their records with no extra hassle.
BlueSky empowers staff and school leaders alike. With a centralised hub for performance reviews and development tracking, our platform simplifies the bureaucratic and time-consuming world of appraisal and professional learning admin.
Why Choose BlueSky?
BlueSky Education’s award-winning platform helps school leaders to streamline appraisal and performance review processes. The built-in reporting tools allow school leaders to gain a deep understanding of progress on school priorities at the touch of a button.
BlueSky Education allows schools to design a tailored approach to teacher appraisal that aligns with the culture of the organisation, whether the school uses annual performance reviews or a continuous professional dialogue throughout the cycle. Our flexible platform encourages staff to align their own professional objectives to school and trust priorities and helps to create an open and continuous dialogue with their coach or manager.
BlueSky is used by thousands of schools, trusts and groups around the world. It is the leading online solution of its kind – and has previously won top awards including a Bett Award for Leadership and Management.
