18 March 2021

Newport Girls’ High School (NGHS) has been named as one of just eight UK Flexible Working Ambassador Schools (FWAS) and is supporting the Department for Education (DfE) to heighten awareness of the difficulties faced by talented staff who have to juggle family commitments with their employment in schools or who leave the profession because such requests are refused.

NGHS has a very accommodating approach to matters such as part-time requests, flexible timetabling, family absences, gradual retirement planning, compressed working weeks and remote working for support staff and will now receive a grant from the DFE to help improve policies, practice and culture around flexible working across the Midlands and well as founding a support network for Heads and Trusts to learn more about ways to timetable more effectively to best consider the impact of requests for flexible working. Most of this will be done online through webinars and training beginning in May.

These webinars will be free and further details will be circulated in due course. Schools from all sectors are welcome to be involved. NGHS also aims to host a Flexible Working Conference for school leaders across the region in 2022. 

If any school leaders from across the Midlands are interested in sharing their positive stories around flexible working, need timetabling advice/support, have ideas to share with other schools or want to find out more about the FWAS project, please get in touch with Michael Scott, Headteacher via headteacher@nghs.org.uk.

More information can be found here