Teachers in this country are being overworked according to the Government’s own Teacher Workload Diary Survey, which found that the average primary school teacher is now working nearly 60 hours a week.

This excessive workload is undeniably having a negative impact on teachers; an NUT survey found that 90 per cent of teachers had considered giving up teaching during the last two years because of workload and 96 per cent said their workload had negative consequences for their family or personal life.  A number of teachers have written to me personally, testifying that the excessive workload is detrimental to their ability to teach and to their personal lives as well.

Teachers are an incredibly important part of our society and have a vital job moulding young minds, which is why it is imperative that teachers feel motivated to go to work. They don’t want to be bogged down in form filling and unnecessary bureaucracy, they want to do what they went into the teaching profession to do, teach.

This is why I have written to the Secretary of State for Education, asking her to look at the NUT’s proposed eight step plan to combat this problem. If she doesn’t support this plan, then I have asked her to tell me why and how she plans resolve this issue in other ways.

For too long the government has been working against teachers, not with them, whilst bringing in sweeping reforms of the education system. In the future, governments need to work teachers more to formulate policy, as they are the people who will have to implement these policies and live with them.

By reducing this excessive workload, we can create an education system that works for teachers as well as students.