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Reflections on organising duty rotas and leading duties

A few thoughts that may help anyone building a duty rota or considering how duties operate in their school.

This would usually be a job for June/July but late recruitment this year meant our teaching timetable was only published near the end of term.


1. Format and clarity

We use a spreadsheet as each tab covers a duty type - before school, break, lunch, after school. All visible in one place and my fantastic colleague Edd helped with a lookup so staff can enter their staff code (initials) and their duties are highlighted. Quick and easy for everyone. We have both 'field open' and 'field closed' tabs so no grey areas when its raining. Each post has a clear description of what is expected including a route for walking duties. This is prescriptive but it's based on our experience of which areas need greater presence at which times and how busy they become during breaks.


2. Visibility

We use the same electronic document every year so the link we publish is always correct and we don't end up with lots of old versions flying around. We also have a permanent QR code in our staff planner. At the end of the year save a copy for reference but put the new rota in the old document. Display a paper rota in a frame at each duty point so there's total clarity on who is supposed to be there and makes it easy to call someone who may have forgotten.


3. Sense check your duty points

Any tweaks needed from last year? We ask our students if there's anywhere they feel less safe and we increase duty presence in these places (e.g. toilets). If you have good CCTV coverage a post watching this helps to proactively address any issues (make sure this post is in phone contact with your duty lead). It's also appreciated by pastoral staff if issues are spotted live meaning they don't have to trawl through CCTV later.


4. Ask your staff

I used to look across everyone's timetables to try to find the best days for them but now I just put out a Google Sheet and ask staff to add their names to their preferred day as well as a second choice. Everyone gets one or the other. I also try to accommodate preferences for indoor or outdoor as happy duty staff always do a better job.


5. Assigning posts

Firstly I assign specialist staff to key locations (SEND, interventions, etc). Can staff get to and from their post quickly at the start/end of break? I then look to mix experience and roles. Colleagues who don't normally get to work together can build rapport and also less experienced staff can learn from longer standing colleagues. This helps to build camaraderie across teams. We always have SLT presence in areas that could be hotspots and an SLT lead visits each duty point across the break/lunch as well as holding our on call phone. The lead can also cover a colleague who might need to run to the toilet.


6. Communication

SLT duty leads send an email to their duty team on their allocated day. This acts as a reminder but also highlights any gaps that day where duty points might need to shuffle around. The routine of the email ensures the senior leader is thinking about this in the morning. I also include a light hearted comment on the weather forecast which means everyone is aware of what to do if its raining that day (especially if calendar events impact indoor spaces that might otherwise be used - it ALWAYS rains on vaccination days)


7. Training

First and foremost training helps to explain why duties are so important and how doing them well improves and sustains student culture. They can easily become the extra thing that gets done badly so take the time to explain the why and the how and then model and rehearse break/lunch scenarios with staff. A confident and skilled duty team helps to keep students feeling safe, happy and behaving well.


Context:

- We're a c.1100 student school with a very large site
- All teachers do 1 break duty per week. Breaks are 20mins long
- A mixture of teaching and support staff do voluntary paid lunch duties. SLT and LPs do unpaid duties. All staff receive a free duty lunch.
- Before and after school duties are carried out by SLT, LPs and support staff


I'd be very happy to share rota and poster templates, and welcome any feedback or ideas for development. Please get in touch on Bluesky: @m-wo.bsky.social