How to Overcome Challenges Facing the Education Sector

With this alarming number of teachers leaving, what can you do to improve the running of your school day?

With this in mind, we’ve highlighted some obstacles and tips for how to overcome some of the challenges that teachers face in Education below:

How can you keep your school safe?

A major fear facing education today is safety, not just for the children but also for staff. According to gov.uk, from April to June 2023, the number of children and young people causing assault to staff rose by 8%. In the same period, it states that the annual rate of assault on staff per 100 children and young people rose by 33%. It is no wonder why so many teachers want to leave the profession, but what can you do to increase safety measures in your school?

It is essential that procedures are put in place for different types of emergency. Whether there is violence within school, an intruder or gas leak, children and staff need to be prepared with rehearsed protocols carried out. At Bodet Time, we understand the importance of a different type of alarm for each emergency, including lockdown, evacuation and fire bells, for clarity on which action to take. When an emergency is taking place, the last thing that is needed is panic over what is happening leading to staff lacking control.

With the concerningly prevalent increase in the need for lockdown, whether foreseen or unexpected, communication is key. As well as internal alerts, it is just as important to be protected when teaching outside, for example in Games lessons or Forest School. Outdoor speakers and visual alarms can reduce this risk.

Teachers may feel vulnerable outside as the only staff so enabling an alarm to be triggered by app or remote control, as well as push button, can put anxious minds to rest.

Violent acts in schools can take place anywhere, putting a panic alarm in reception will alleviate concern at the front of school and aid protection at the school entrance.

It is also useful to know that, under section 8 of the Education Act 2005, if Ofsted have received complaints about concerns regarding the safety of pupils and/or staff being at risk, they can carry out an urgent inspection.

How can you ensure maximum learning time?

Chaotic corridors full of children walking to and from their next lesson at different times when their previous lesson over-runs, disrupting the next lesson when they arrive late and missing essential learning time has consequences over time.

According to the Teaching Union, NUSUWT, in a poll conducted in January 2024, 71% of teachers said that they didn’t get a guaranteed lunchbreak, 10.8% never had a lunchbreak and 46% said that they had to supervise pupils during their lunchtime. It is often the case that pupils that don’t finish their work during lesson time are kept in to complete the activity at lunchtime. While this ensures work is completed, both children and staff are missing their needed break from teaching and learning and contributing to a lack of staff retention.

With Bodet Time’s synchronised clock Systems, the time is exactly the same across the school, even across multiple buildings on the premises. Improved time management across the school would limit number of missed minutes by maximising the allocated lesson time.

Having these precious extra few minutes each lesson, add up to five saved days of learning per year.

Those seasonal times of the year when the clocks change can be a disruptive nightmare, however, using Bodet Time’s clocks mean that this change takes place automatically.

How can you reduce distractions for children?

While the Aztecs may not be top of Generation Alpha’s list of interesting subjects, there are other reasons that children may be distracted from lesson time. Attention may be pulled away with the previously mentioned lateness, unsettled children, bells ringing at different times throughout the day giving different alerts to different groups, or reception staff coming to deliver messages.

These distractions could be removed with alerts set up to only play to individual zones, as well as the whole premises. A melody and visual alert may be played to different year groups or key stages to announce class change. Similarly, a PA system from reception is helpful in sending individual messages to classrooms, rather than staff rushing around school deliver messages to multiple individuals and disturbing each class along the way.

How do you reassure parents?

Parents and carers like to ensure that their child’s needs are met academically, socially and in terms of safety and rightly so. Communicating to parents that their child is in safe hands with preventative measures in place, including lockdown and evacuation practice and corresponding alerts, can reduce a big burden, for staff as well as parents.

Informing parents of another detention for lateness can be draining for staff, having an efficient clock system in place for class change goes a way towards reducing some of this.