To support the well-being and counter the national recruitment crisis in education, teachers at the Highcrest Academy along Hatters Lane will be given a it's a nine day fortnight

The scheme will mean that staff work nine days across a fortnight and can use the 10th day to either rest, or to carry out work that would usually have to be completed during evenings, weekends or holidays, interrupting important family time.

The school’s headteacher, Mr Glen Burke, said: "At Highcrest, we are committed to the wellbeing and mental health of our staff and understand the limitations that working in education can place on individuals in terms of time.

“To this end, we are always looking for ways to improve working conditions and to offer our staff incentives that are not always available in education.

"We all hear a lot about the long holidays, but we don't hear as much about the fact that many staff use these holidays, and indeed their weekends, to complete marking and other administrative work.

"Therefore, to help our staff manage this ever-increasing workload, we are implementing a 9-day working fortnight for all staff within the academy.

“The premise of the scheme is simple; our staff will work nine days but be paid for ten, using the tenth day to 'reset', thus giving them the opportunity to manage their work-life balance more effectively."

The timetable has been completely restructured to enable the scheme to be implemented.

However, student timings will remain the same and students will still attend school for the same amount of time across an academic year.

Mr Burke added, "It was important to us that provision for our students was not negatively impacted by this scheme, and their school day will remain exactly the same."