Staffing the Future of Saturday Sport
Saturdays have changed significantly in independent schools in the last 30 years. Morning school has become a thing of the past, except in the fullest of boarding sectors. Its loss was little bemoaned. However, other dimensions of Saturday school – principally sports fixtures – remain intact. There may be more in the morning than in previous years, but the majority of schools still operate a significant part of their inter-school competition at the weekend. Other schools never had Saturday lessons, but always operated inter-school sport at that time.
This creates a challenge for staffing. When the majority of teachers conclude their week between 4 and 5 pm on Friday, those returning to accompany teams on Saturdays – morning or afternoon – can feel that expectations are unfair.
Sport in the independent sector emerged on the assumption that classroom teachers would willingly dedicate their time and expertise to weekend school sport. And that PE teachers would see every Saturday as part of the job. Neither of these assumptions is any longer valid. The contribution of generalist teachers to games coaching is still an aspiration of most co-ed and boys’ schools, but cannot be depended upon.
Expectations have given way to incentives. Schools are looking for ways to encourage and reward contribution to extra-curricular activities in an era when goodwill is no longer sufficient motivation. A number of mechanisms have been trialled, though none has solved this sector issue.
Attempts have varied. Some schools have sought to offer financial recognition. This is sometimes in the form of expenses to acknowledge additional travel in attending school for six days, rather than five. Some go further to offer a token financial consideration to all. Intended as a goodwill gesture, this rapidly backfires, as it is soon calculated into an hourly rate, which rarely looks attractive. Shifting social norms into economic norms exacerbates the sense of injustice. How can a hockey match be compared with a 50 over cricket encounter? But what if the Cricket is rained off? Or the opposition cancel on a Friday? Or are bowled out for 20? Should Hockey coaches do two or three consecutive games? The model is nowhere near robust enough to survive these complexities without giving rise to resentment.
A further complication is the expectation of the specialist sports staff. Should they share this recompense, or is it reasonable to extend the historic expectation that this should be regarded as part of the job? The boundary between contractual expectation and discretionary effort has never been satisfactorily established.
Other schools attempt to establish co-curricular involvement as an employment norm. Systems of tariff points seek to standardise expected contributions, and maintain the elusive sense of fairness. Running a Netball team may attract more tariff points than the lunchtime chess club, but the balance between time-intensive activities such as sport and outdoor pursuits is not easy to agree. A spirit of trade unionism will defeat the best efforts to establish fairness.
This problem is not going to go away. Co-curricular activity is part of the DNA – and the business case – of independent schools. Trends towards inclusivity only compound these demands. At the same time, staff sensitivity to work life balance and mental health make contributions difficult to compel.
Probably a wholescale revision of expectations, contracts and emoluments is necessary to get to grips with this situation. However it is resolved, it will change the character of independent schools forever.
There will be a webinar for PADSIS members on structures for rewarding co-curricular sports contributions on Monday 21 November at 5pm. Find out what other schools are doing then