SYDNEY, Nov. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A Federal Government funded program has been found to significantly improve teacher wellbeing and save teachers nearly 100 hours a year.

It's a well established fact that Australian teachers are struggling to balance an ever increasing workload, including finding the time to prepare their lessons.

A 2021 Grattan Institute survey found that 86% of teachers did not have time for high quality lesson planning and preparation. This pattern applied as much to experienced teachers as to early career teachers. Grattan also found that a lack of high–quality curriculum resources is felt most in disadvantaged schools.

In 2023, a Federal Government funded grant program responded to this need by funding a year's access to high quality, ready-to-use teaching resources, provided by leading Australian education resource provider Inquisitive.

Over 15,000 teachers in more than 1,000 schools with the greatest socio-educational disadvantage participated in the 2023 program.

An independent evaluation by the Center for Evidence and Implementation found that access to Inquisitive resources significantly improved teachers' personal wellbeing and self-efficacy. Teachers had significantly more time for high-quality lesson planning when using Inquisitive and increased their use of high-impact teaching practices, meaning that not only were teachers feeling less stressed, they were also more confident in the quality of their teaching.

Separately, teachers were surveyed on how much time Inquisitive saved them. The findings were that an astonishing 94 hours a year, on average, were saved due to access to quality resources, a saving of $86 million annually in teacher time.

The research has highlighted that helping schools to access high quality materials for all learning areas could save 20 million teacher hours a year.

Inquisitive Co-Founder and Head of Education, Sarah Rich, agrees that funding access to quality resources is the biggest return on investment in education today.

"Teachers need high quality lessons and supporting materials that are easily accessible, curriculum aligned and adjustable as they juggle the demands of the job."

This view is supported by teachers on the ground. Trisha Chapman, a teacher from Tom Price Primary school in WA says "So much to love about Inquisitive! It's a brilliant and valuable program for all educators. It has honestly alleviated so much stress and planning time this year and allowed me to have a greater work-life balance."

Echuca East Primary School agrees. After a year's access to Inquisitive programs, the school decided to base all of their units of work on the Inquisitive lessons because of the benefits it gives its teachers. "It saves us so much planning time that we can now dedicate to looking at data and the needs of the students".

About Inquisitive

Inquisitive is Australia's leading creator of exemplary quality lessons and assessments for primary schools, with world-leading lesson delivery and planning tools.

Founded in 2016, Inquisitive has grown to be used and trusted by 70% of Australian primary schools, and saves classroom teachers 94.4 hours a year.

About the Center for Evidence and Implementation

CEI is a leading global not-for-profit, working with government and non-government clients to trial, test and evaluate policies and programs to drive more effective decisions and deliver better outcomes.

About the Emerging Priorities Program

The purpose of the Australian Department of Education's Emerging Priorities Program (EPP) is to fund projects that assist school communities to respond to emerging priorities in school education. The EPP Open Competitive Grant Opportunity was conducted in early 2022 to fund on-the-ground support for schools.

Additional background information - Grattan Institute:

Making time for great teaching: How better government policy can helpEnding the Lesson Lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools