Education charity Teach First has called on the government to implement a £30 million per year pilot aimed at reducing teachers' timetabled hours in some of the most disadvantaged schools in the country.
The idea was supported by more than half of the 6,000 teachers polled by Teacher Tapp and appeared as part of a wider Teach First manifesto published by the charity last month.
Other recommendations include calls for better funding across the board and alterations to the education recovery plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pilot proposes that the hours worked by teachers in one per cent of the most disadvantaged schools are reduced by 20 per cent.
Teach First argues that this would allow for "more time on planning high quality lessons and professional development, which would improve pupil outcomes”.
Bantock Primary School is located in an area of high social deprivation in Wolverhampton, and places in the lowest six per cent in terms of deprivation nationally.
The majority of students at Bantock face multiple barriers to learning, including socio-economic deprivation, low prior attainment, social care involvement, and mental health issues.
In response to the new Teach First manifesto, headteacher Harvey Sarai told the Leaders Council that support for disadvantaged schools is welcome, but that greater autonomy is more important than a specific measure.
"The intensity of each of these barriers and number of barriers is faced by all children at some point but is disproportionate for disadvantaged children which leads to disproportionate gaps in learning.
"This gap has now further increased by COVID 19. Although I wholeheartedly agree that further change is needed for schools in disadvantaged areas as the Teach First article states, and improvements need to be made to the government's recovery package, no one strategy can be implemented as contexts of disadvantaged schools differ and therefore improvement strategies will differ.
"Schools should have the autonomy, financial support and access to quality bespoke professional development to strategically plan improvements for children based on individual social, emotional, behavioural, and academic needs of their own children."
Through her work at Bantock Sarai has plenty of experience in supporting children with barriers to their learning and finding solutions.
Looking at how the government can help schools in disadvantaged areas, she said that often "bespoke" approaches are needed depending on unique context.
"A school with a large proportion of disadvantaged children will always be proactively transforming the way children learn and will be adapting to their individual needs," Sarai said.
"This transformation in learning can include a number of strategies which are bespoke to the school context. They are reviewed and adapted as children's needs change and the school context changes, therefore no one strategy is adopted but a number of strategies. These are heavily reliant on school budgets, staffing levels and staff expertise - but most importantly, providing consistent social and emotional support for all children so that learning can take place.
"As for a reduced timetable, as suggested by Teach First, thought would need to be given to how it would be implemented as this would be crucial to the success of this particular strategy in closing the learning gap."
In closing, she said that her team was committed to doing what it takes to support their students, "irrespective of workload".
"We are still committed to making a difference for all our pupils which translates to planning for the range of learning needs and a range of strategies for the 'whole' child irrespective of workload," Sarai concluded.
"No one size fits all, no one strategy fits all, no one barrier fits all - each child, each school, each member of staff, each leader will continue to transform and adapt all the strategies available to them in order to close the learning gap, new or old."
