Time-Saving Classroom Tips

Time is our most precious resource as teachers. Teaching is a job that is always in danger of getting in the car with you and coming home! So let’s look at some practical ways to make the most of our time. 

Establishing routines 

My class knows that when they come in first thing, there is always something to do. It’s often a warm-up arithmetic activity or a second chance to try a skill we found tricky recently — these SATs Morning Starters for Maths and English are a great option for this. And we all know that half-way through the first lesson, there’ll be a daily assembly, which gives us a much-needed brain break.  

(If you need to save time planning assemblies, have a look at these handy assembly ideas.) 

Establishing routines in classroom management is the backbone to saving time, cutting the chat and getting through more learning. Sweat the small stuff at the start to establish routines and you get time back over the year. With pupils delegated to help, they become owners of their learning space and take pride in doing a job well, and now you can help a pupil or get something marked instead of handing out books or equipment. Having a “Jobs Board”, so everyone knows who’s responsible for what helps with this. 
 

Planning and preparation 

Planning ahead is another way to save time. At my school, we include a brief bullet point or two of what we are trying to achieve in each day’s lesson in a weekly timetable. This is saved in a shared space so it can be accessed by anyone covering your class. It’s a standard template document that can be easily reused by everyone.  

Any longer-term planning is written once and stored centrally to use year after year. Each time we reteach a topic, we edit and improve the activities we already have. We use CGP+ to find resources and inspiration. By centralising lesson materials, we have an archive of things any future teachers can draw upon and adapt. This kind of collaborative teaching means there’s never that blank-page moment.  

Quite often, this means batch-preparing printouts. I try my best to have things ready a few days in advance and make some time before the bell or after school to get as much printing and organising done as I can. It does mean I’ve got the title of Photocopier King, but if you pick a time when it’s not as busy – I’m a morning person, so that’s easy! – then you can get things done without upsetting someone else’s routine. But my one abiding tip for this is do not over-prepare. Don’t waste time stuffing too much into one lesson. Achieve one main objective and do it well, so that you don’t have to do it again. Have a bank of activities, like these interactive games or SATs Questions Videos, that you can use if the lesson needs a bit more to fill the time. 

Assessment  

Marking can take up a huge amount of time, but it’s possible to have pupils do a lot of their own marking. Marking in the moment is a great way to establish how the lesson is going, who is making progress and who needs extra help. We use a ticket system, so if you make a mistake, you put a little snip of sticky note at the top of that page with the question number on and come back to it later. This might be during our routine the next morning, or it could be with myself or a teaching assistant later if it needs more attention. Pupils marking their own work also allows them to peer edit, reading each other’s writing and giving tips, spelling help and general feedback. 

Marking can be cut down using pen colours. Pupils at my school edit in blue pen, staff in green pen (for growth) and pink pen (for positives). We use stickers, stampers and very simple, succinct marking symbols that we’ve established from the beginning to cut down the workload. If a pupil reads out their work, we might display it on the screen and model how to edit it or mark it there and then using our symbols.  

If you can get into the habit of travelling around the room during learning, you can get so much quality marking and interaction done and save time having to reteach objectives later. A pile of books is anonymous, whereas marking in situ with the pupil is a golden interaction. It can also be enlightening to see if the same misconception has arisen across the room. This can help you to plan for tomorrow’s lesson where you might try a different route.

Time for differentiation 

Making sure all learners can access the objectives can cut demands on your time. Lots of activities on CGP+ have foundation and stretch versions, and there are SEN versions of many KS2 Maths and English resources, so you can spend less time creating these from scratch. You can also pair pupils who are more confident to work with those who need a bit of support. Establishing what is helping your partner and what is doing it for them is a fine line to walk, but when they get it right, pupils love to show others how they aced something. 

If you are lucky enough to have a teaching assistant, you can maximise their time with a to-do list or a mini timetable so that every second counts. For example, if we are all doing quiet reading, my TA will hear pupils read, mark some work or take over the photocopier for ten minutes. They might go over a ticketed item in a pupil’s book, as mentioned earlier. It might sound like there is no let-up, and that is true to some extent, but pupils and people who work with you soon get up to your speed and settle into your routine.  
 

Sharing top tips for timekeeping 

Do you have time-saving tips to share? Occasionally in staff meetings we share something that has made the job a bit easier. This may be new resource types, new equipment, a book or blog, or a place on our shared space that people can access and add to. Sometimes the discussion highlights something that doesn’t work. It can be a lively discussion and it is a great way to share some small gains, which is usually the best way to chip away and take back a few extra minutes of your precious time. 
 

I have been a teacher for 28 years, deputy head for about twenty-four of those, and taught from Reception all the way up to Year 6. In this time, I did a two-year stint with my local authority as an adviser for ICT, working in a wide range of schools with teachers and children. I have always been a class teacher at heart, inspired by the wonderful minds of pupils, which makes teaching such an intense but creative and satisfying career. 

Take a look at CGP+ resources by Simon.