WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
I feel like having a right old moan about how much I’ve got to do, how little time I’ve got to do it… but I won’t. It doesn’t do anyone any good; we know that teachers (and students, for that matter) are tired at this time of year. That’s why it’s better to focus on how to make things better. 
First, though, some observations. These are gleaned from working in a number of schools including my current one. I’m sure most places are fairly similar, really. We’re all human beings after all!
Observations
- It seems to me evident that the school system is built around this particular half-term before Christmas. It’s the worst in terms of staff absence, I’m sure. Therefore, the system has to be able to cope in terms of student behaviour, having enough qualified adult bodies to cover lessons and *gasp!* allow some actual learning to take place.
- The weather and amount of light around affects people a lot. At the start of the Life in a Day video a couple of weeks back I showed how I’ve got a light which gradually brightens to wake me up. It helps. I’m not saying that everyone’s got Seasonal Affective Disorder, but we are not automatons insensitive to environmental changes. Everyone’s a lot mardier and snappier around this time of year.
- This term is ‘dead time’ up until Christmas. Staff are usually preparing GCSE and AS/A2 students for mock exams so KS3 students can be neglected somewhat. As the next thing they’re looking forward to is Christmas (snow and presents!) they’re not overly focused on school/homework.
Possible solutions
- Build in ‘redundancy’. Give teachers more non-contact time. One of the great things about my current school is that, compared to other schools, we’re ‘overstaffed’. This means that students who have a cover teacher are more likely to end up with one whom they know. It also means that if there are less absences, more staff get free time. It’s a virtuous circle!
- Recognise that human beings have different needs at different times of the year. Why should the school day be uniform year-round? What about having standardised terms (as some local authorities are experimenting with) to stop having the ‘long-slog-until-Christmas’. It’s crazy that we usually have a 9-week Spring term but a 15-week Autumn term…
- Abolish Christmas! No, not really.
Engage KS3 students with some cross-curricular project work instead. Futurelab’s Enquiring Minds project is perfect for this, as is something like the Cabot Competency Curriculum, based on the RSA’s Opening Minds curriculum.
What do you think? What structural problems do you face when teaching? How could they be overcome? 
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