ÌÇÐÄVlog

It’s no secret that teacher recruitment and retention is a growing problem. In our 2026 Wellbeing report, 50% of teachers told us that that they don’t plan to stay in teaching long-term. Many cite workload and stress as key contributing factors.  

Improving timetabling at your school can go a long way in improving these pain points. In fact, your timetable can be the difference between your staff feeling nurtured and supported, or hopelessly overworked.  

How can timetabling improve teacher retention? 

Here are six ways better timetabling can help you to improve teacher wellbeing at your school: 

1. Make flexible working easier 

Flexible working is becoming an increasingly important part of attracting and retaining teachers. However, flexibility creates obvious operational challenges for schools, where leaders need to balance individual needs with curriculum requirements, staffing availability and the needs of students.  

Flexible working can help schools to retain teachers, promote wellbeing and improve work-life balance in an industry where teachers tell us that only 4% manage to work within their contracted hours, mostly due to heavy workloads. 

Timetabling is an important part of making these arrangements work in practice. Smart timetabling software allows you to factor in staff availability, preferences, constraints, job shares or variations to working hours whilst maintaining curriculum demands. 

2. Reduce unnecessary movement between classrooms 

A teacher’s timetable isn’t only about how many lessons they teach. The way that those lessons are distributed throughout the day (and week) can also impact wellbeing.  

Regularly moving between classrooms can make an already busy school day more difficult to manage, particularly when teachers need to transport resources or prepare different spaces between lessons. 

Smarter timetabling enables schools to consider room allocation alongside lessons, staff availability and other scheduling constraints.  

3. Give teachers better access to specialist spaces 

From science laboratories and technology workshops to computer suites and sports facilities, some lessons depend on access to the right environment and resources, – but these spaces aren’t always available at the right time.  

When multiple classes compete for the same specialist spaces, timetablers have to balance room availability against curriculum needs, teacher availability and other restrictions. Poor room allocation can create additional work for teachers if resources have to be moved or lessons adapted around the space available. 

Smarter timetable software provides a greater visibility of these spaces and helps timetablers to prioritise specialist spaces and make better use of the available facilities. 

4. Create a fairer approach to staff duties 

Teaching time is just one demand on a teacher’s working day. In fact, 42% of teachers describe themselves as being very or extremely overwhelmed by workload.  

Schools and timetablers need to better account for additional duties, meetings and administration. When they are accounted for separately from a teacher’s day-to-day timetable, it can be difficult to see how the demands placed on individual members of staff fit together.  

Taking a more joined-up approach gives timetablers greater visibility of staff commitments and can help schools distribute responsibilities more thoughtfully. Rather than treating duties and lessons as isolated elements, schools can consider the shape of a teacher's working day as a whole. 

5. Make space for staff and team meetings 

Meetings are necessary, but when they routinely extend the working day, they can contribute to workload pressures. 

Timetabling can help schools look beyond individual lessons and consider when departments, year teams or other groups of staff are available at the same time. Where the wider school timetable allows, protecting shared time can make it easier for colleagues to collaborate without automatically extending their working day. 

Scheduling regular meeting time isn't possible in every timetable, but making it one of the considerations during timetable construction can help schools take a more deliberate approach to how staff time is used. 

6. Create more balanced working days 

One thing to be mindful of is that a timetable can meet every curriculum requirement and still create a difficult working day for an individual teacher – consecutive lessons, inconvenient gaps, room changes and additional duties are all factors.  

Timetablers need to look at the distribution of commitments, rather than teaching hours alone as this can help to identify potentially difficult patterns and where adjustments can be made. Student outcomes will always remain the priority, but making staff experiences a consideration can help to improve wellbeing, in time also improving retention.  

Build a timetable that works better for your staff 

You can’t timetable your way out of every teacher retention challenge, but you can avoid creating unnecessary workload, stress and inflexibility through smart timetabling.  

ÌÇÐÄVlog Timetable provides powerful solutions designed to tackle even the most complex timetable and can help you prioritise teacher choices and welfare, as Sue Plant, Head of School at John Taylor Free Schools, explains: 

"ÌÇÐÄVlog Timetable is so time-efficient and the outcomes it generates are significantly better than I have experienced previously. This will positively impact both students and our staff, and in wellbeing, retention and teaching quality."  

Give your staff a timetable that better balances the needs of teachers, students and your school. See how ÌÇÐÄVlog Timetable can help you manage complex scheduling requirements while supporting a more positive working experience for staff. 

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Originally published in June 2024