Most people working in education will recognise that ‘Time’ is a common cry from teachers, support assistants, students and all who work in schools. I was having a conversation with a colleague today about encouraging staff and students to develop relationships (via activities) and the only real problem is that, as she said “we need to create time”.

It’s impossible, of course, to create time, so what we’re really saying is ‘prioritise’.

At our school in previous years we’ve had a challenge day towards the end of the year. This is where students compete against each other in a host of challenges which test different learning styles. Part of the purpose is relationship building, part is about developing awareness of learning styles in staff and students, and part is about encouraging colleagues to take a risk and do something a bit different – so that they might use that in their lessons. And of course it’s partly about having fun. The challenge day model is a bit tired in our school now, and so we need to do something different. I still absolutely believe that the development of positive relationships is important – it’s no accident that teachers who go to see the netball team play are the same ones that have few behaviour problems. So we were talking about the potential of having a day a week where our timetable is different…. the conversation arose out of next year’s timetable, where she is going to have a difficult Year 9 group in History on a Friday.

So on a normal day we have 8.45-9.05 registration
9.05-10.05 Period 1
10.05-11.05 Period 2
11.05-11.25 Break
11.25-12.25 Period 3
12.25-1.25 Period 4
1.25-2.15 Lunch
2.15-3.20 Period 5

We could do the following
8.45 Period 1
9.45 Period 2
10.45 Break
11.00 Period 3
12.00 Period 4
1.00 Lunch
1.30 Period 5
2.30-3.30 Relationship building

Of course, this would require some goodwill on the part of colleagues – it’s extra and it’s been taken off the lunchtime and breaktime.
An alternative is to remove period 5 and have 2 hours of relationship building in the afternoon. Of course this could mean that whatever is timetabled period 5 will suffer, but in reality you could miss period 5 one week, period 4 the week after (so the four periods are subject 1, subject 2, subject 3, subject 5), period 3 the week after and so on.
Or remove period 5 and do it on a Friday one week, a Thursday another week, a Wednesday another week, and so on.

By ‘relationship building’ this could mean just playing table tennis with a group of students. Our playground has been redeveloped with multi-sports areas and table tennis tables and as a result, several staff have been out at lunchtimes and the atmosphere is really improved as a result. I also have no doubt that those colleagues will benefit in their classrooms from this time they’ve given up to spend with students involved in play and leisure.

So the afternoon activities or ‘relationship building’ could replace challenge day. I might test the waters with a few staff to see whether I’m likely to get a frosty reception if I propose it!