A NATIONAL union has said a Bradford school trust's plan to introduce nine-day fortnights and personal days for teachers is "interesting".

Earlier this week, Dixons Academies Trust, which is based in Bradford and has several schools across the district, announced its new "flexible working plan" at the start of the next academic year.

Research shows it is possible to reduce teachers' working hours and not just try to fit 10 days into nine, said the trust.

They also added that it would not impact students' contact time.

Teachers will be offered personal days during term time so they are "not restricted to only take time off in the school holidays".

Remote working and artificial intelligence are also set to be implemented from September of this year.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Dixons City Academy.

"It is an interesting proposal," said Tom Bright, Bradford branch secretary of the National Education Union (NEU).

"There are positives and negatives when it comes to this.

"It would not be impossible to organise people's time to make sure they taught on nine out of 10 days."

He added: "Teaching is a hard job. Anyone who thinks it's five-week half terms then they get a break, it's not. It is five weeks of hard graft.

"The school holidays are not there to make life easy for teachers, they are there to recognise that intensive work of teaching is quite difficult. You need the recovery time."

The plans were met with a mixed reaction by the Telegraph & Argus readers.

"It is ridiculous", said Joan Hanson.

Marjorie Hall added: "I think they get very generous salaries, more holidays than anyone else and good pension pots. I know it's not easy, however, it's the same for everyone nowadays."

Meanwhile, Asim Rashid said: "Being a teacher isn't exactly easy, especially with all the marking, planning and preparation they have to do outside of school hours."

The trust says they have been focussing on flexibility and workload for a while, this includes class feedback, behaviour management, cross-cutting teams, and limiting meetings, but now they want to be "more ambitious".

A statement from the trust said: "At Dixons, we have been focusing on prioritising flexibility for our teachers to support greater work-life harmony.

"As a result, we are excited to launch our new flexible working plan which will come into effect in the next academic year (24/25) and includes working towards a nine-day fortnight for teachers. 

"We want to be bold in our approach. Our ambition is for teachers to be afforded the same flexibility that’s available in many other sectors and now even expected in the post-pandemic world.

"Given the nature of teaching, we know that the scale of this flexibility will not always match what others offer outside the sector, but making these changes will go a long way in making a difference."

It added: "In line with our deep commitment to self-determination, we want to give our teachers more agency over their roles by offering a flexible working plan that will give them time back.

"Nine-day fortnight: We are working towards a nine-day fortnight for teachers without impacting students’ contact time. As far as possible, we want this to be a genuine reduction in working hours and not just trying to fit 10 days of teaching into nine. The analysis we have been conducting shows this is possible in many of our schools.

"Remote working: We are pushing forward with a plan that allows remote working during non-contact time, which includes giving more PPA (planning, preparation and assessment) and making it manageable from home or another remote location, and where our teachers want to do this, compressing the free hours or non-contact hours so that they can be away from school for longer periods of time.

"Personal days: We want to offer personal days during term time so our teachers are not restricted to only taking time off in the school holidays.

"Artificial intelligence: We will look to use technology, where possible, to reduce teachers’ contact time and provide greater flexibility. We want to harness technology more widely to free up more time and allow our best teachers to influence more students than just those physically present in their classrooms."