Our research found that it helped to think about there being three main types of workload for teachers. One is the practical work – for example how much marking there is, and this is often the part of workload people talk about.
But there is also emotional work. Teaching is all about relationships – with students, with parents, with other teachers and with leaders. And for many teachers this was an overlooked part of their workload.
As well as this there is also cognitive work, the thinking work needed to understand topics, plan lessons and react quickly in a classroom.
Thinking of workload in this way helps us to ask the right questions. So, for example, which aspects does a teacher need help with? And, if we make a change in one kind of work will it cause extra work in another area. For example, if we make changes to the way homework is set in order to reduce workload, it might mean that students and parents are unhappy which affects the amount of emotional work that teachers have to do. And if we make big changes, such as the subject or awarding body, then we need to understand that this is likely to lead to practical, emotional and cognitive work and that teachers might need more time and support to deal with all of this at once.