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Schools in Nottingham are being encouraged to sign up to a pioneering new Charter that aims to reduce pressure on teachers in the city.

The first of its kind, the Fair Workload Charter has been devised by Nottingham City Education Improvement Board in response to a growing shortage of teachers.

Many teachers are leaving the profession across the country – blaming long hours and increasing workloads. In Nottingham City, recruiting and retaining teachers is seen as vital in order to drive up standards in education

It was identified as a key priority of the EIB.

Click here to see our Fair Workload Charter

Originally launched at a special EIB conference of head teachers in Nottingham on 16 September, the Charter has received the support of teaching unions and education watchdog Ofsted. Since the conference, we have listened to the feedback we have received on the charter and have now published a final version of the charter which we hope schools will now take the appropriate steps to adopt.

Schools and academies are being asked to sign up to the charter which pledges to give teachers:

  • a fair and reasonable workload
  • high-quality training and professional development opportunities that meet the needs of individual members of staff
  • a pay and rewards package that is at least in line with the national agreement for teachers and the Local Authority pay scale for support staff

Click here to see the adjudication process for monitoring the charter

Click here to see answers to some FAQs relating to the charter

Launching the Charter, Education Improvement Board chair Sir David Greenway – who is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham – said: “We carried out a consultation to help determine our 10-year strategy to raise standards in education. It was important for us to hear the views of parents, teachers and the wider school community. One of the messages that came through from the consultation was about the need to tackle the workload, pressure and stress placed upon our teachers.

“We have developed the Charter because we want to ensure that in Nottingham we protect and nurture our teachers. We would urge head teachers – and their school governing bodies – to sign up to the Fair Workload Charter to make sure our teachers can focus on providing the best possible education for children and young people in our city.”

Since the launch of the charter, we’ve been really pleased with the press coverage received of the charter itself and following our appearance at the Education Select Committee on 19 October 2016. Click here to see a summary of the press coverage.