Three ways your MIS should reduce teacher workload and improve wellbeing

Amy Underdown - 8 November, 2023

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Category : Blog

Three ways your MIS should reduce teacher workload and improve wellbeing

In a recent survey by TeacherTapp, 46% of respondents said that teacher workload was the biggest problem facing their school. 

At the same time, teacher vacancies are at an all time high, as record numbers of teachers are leaving the profession. 

According to Gov.uk, 32.7 hours a week are lost to non-teaching tasks in schools. At Arbor, we believe that your Management Information System (MIS) should do the heavy lifting when it comes to administrative tasks so that you can spend more time where it matters most – in the classroom. 

Though this by no means entirely removes the problem of workload in schools, we believe that by reducing time spent on busywork and giving teachers an MIS they actually enjoy using, an MIS can have a positive impact on teacher wellbeing. 

But what does this really look like? 

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Automation of tasks

Simply put, there are some tasks that your MIS can, and should, do for you. Whether this is scheduling reports to other staff members, or having automatic communications driven by specific behaviour types when you log a behaviour incident. You can also have a bank of ‘snippets’ in Arbor, which are forms of written feedback and comments. This means you don’t have to write them out each time. 

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Intuitive system

Of course, not everything can be automated. When this isn’t a possibility, it’s important that the systems your school is using are intuitive. This way, tasks not only take less time, but staff are more likely to adopt all areas of the MIS. Plus, a more intuitive system means you can stress less. There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing what you want to achieve but not knowing how to get there!

In Arbor, all the key information teachers need is in one place, from student profiles to seating plans. Teachers particularly like how easy it is to contact parents and guardians from our MIS. 

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Joined-up working

Collaboration is often talked about as one of the key elements of a successful school. But legacy MIS and processes can make it hard for teams to work together seamlessly. Accessing data is difficult, reporting is complex and over-customisable, and student data is spread across multiple systems instead of being in one place. All of this leads to high workload and unnecessary stress, with roles becoming isolated, and staff singing from different hymn sheets. Crucially that means important information about students falls between the cracks. 

Having a shared workspace with everyone in your team makes sharing information easier, more efficient and more accurate. This means your team can break bottlenecks and support each other where needed. No more sending spreadsheets back and forth, waiting for the right data from another member of staff, or delivering information on paper. 

Want to find out more? Get in touch with us here to learn how Arbor could help your school.

Or, click here to read our report on how much time and money Arbor is saving schools and trusts.