The perfect companion to help you understand the benefits of flexible working in education and how to make it work in school.

Finding the right balance between your life and your job is not easy. Many teachers and leaders leave the profession due to the lack of flexible working opportunities that could help them find that balance.

In this practical book, Lindsay Patience and Lucy Rose will guide you on how you can make flexible working work for you, take you through the different kinds of flexible working and their benefits, and explain how to improve recruitment by offering flexible working to suit your school context. Featuring real life case studies, examples of best practice and a how-to for successful implementation of flexible working in schools, this book is the go-to manual for anyone interested in improving working culture in education.

Lindsay Patience is a secondary teacher and co-founder of Flexible Teacher Talent.

Lucy Rose is a secondary teacher and co-founder of Flexible Teacher Talent.

About the Author
After studying Economics and Management at Jesus College, Oxford, Lindsay Patience trained to teach Business Studies and Economics through the Teach First programme. After 10 years working is schools as a teacher and senior leader, she found herself looking for a part time leadership role in education after she had her first child. She was shocked to find that there were no roles available and struggled to find a part time job even as a classroom teacher. When talking to others, she realised she was certainly not alone in this and began to hear more and more how limited flexible working opportunities were in schools. This came at a time when the recruitment and retention crisis in teaching was really starting to ramp up and frustrated by the issue, she began a project with the Teach First Innovation Unit to research and develop solutions. This is where she met Lucy Rose and their work really crystallised the link the between the retention and wellbeing of teachers and the outcomes for pupils and how important flexible working was to improving these. She now works part time as an Economics and Business teacher at Putney High School. Lucy Rose joined the Teach First programme in 2004 and trained as a teacher of Spanish and French. She shared the school journey from Special Measures to Outstanding working in a variety of roles as a middle and senior leader. After having her son, she was disappointed to find resistance to flexible working and a strong culture of presenteeism which was difficult to navigate. She left full time teaching after her daughter was born and during this 'break', she retrained as an English specialist, became ridiculously interested in timetabling and met Lindsay at the Innovation Series. Lucy now works flexibly teaching English at a London secondary school.

Reviews

Flex Education is a great read either for those who are already fans of being flexible or for those who need ideas on how to move forward with it. It contains many different practical strategies which link flexible working with well being and family friendly schools. What's not to like about that? Even for someone who has had flexibility at the heart of school - there were still new ideas to learn and suggestions that I will be looking to take forward in my school. I really liked the sign posting throughout the book, it made it a very user friendly and easy to access book. I just wish this book had been around when my children were young!

-- Sue Plant, Headteacher



Book Information
ISBN 9781529744866
Author Lindsay Patience
Format Paperback
Page Count 136
Imprint Sage Publications Ltd
Publisher Sage Publications Ltd
Weight(grams) 250g