What are you doing with the time once Year 11 leaves?

Andy McHugh

There is a shift that happens every year, but we rarely talk about it properly: Year 11 leave. The corridors feel different, the pressure drops just enough for us to notice and almost immediately, schools rush to fill the space they leave behind.

On the surface, everything looks purposeful. People are busy, lessons are happening, etc. But a lot of that time slips past without leaving anything behind that genuinely improves what we do in the long term.

That matters, because this is one of the few moments in the school year where time loosens its grip slightly. Not enough for us to relax completely, but enough for us to think more clearly about what actually needs attention.

So what are you going to do with it?

For classroom teachers: improve something that actually matters

When Year 11 leave, the intensity of the timetable changes. There is still plenty to do, but the constant edge softens just enough to create some breathing room.

The instinct is to keep doing more of the same. More lessons. More marking. More of the tasks that keep everything running. That approach fills the time, but it rarely improves anything.

A better use of this window is to focus on one part of your teaching and deliberately refine it. That might be how you explain a concept that students regularly struggle with, or how you check whether they have really understood something before moving on. It might be your routines at the start of a lesson, or how you bring a class back together after independent work.

This is not about overhauling everything. It is about choosing one area and working on it properly.

There is also real value in stepping back and looking at your curriculum with a bit more honesty. Which lessons always seem to land well, and which ones never quite do? Where do misconceptions keep appearing, no matter how clearly you think you have taught something?

This is the kind of thinking that usually gets lost in the rush of the year. Here, you have the chance to capture it. Write it down somewhere that will still exist in September. Build a record of what you are noticing and how you are responding to it.

For some teachers, this is the point where a bigger idea starts to take shape. You might begin to sketch out a resource, a sequence of lessons, or even the early stages of a book. Not because you suddenly have time to sit and write for hours, but because you are finally noticing patterns in your practice that are worth developing.

If you prefer something more structured, this is also a strong moment to begin or progress a National Professional Qualification. The connection to your day-to-day work is immediate, and the reduced pressure makes it easier to engage with it properly rather than treating it as something to squeeze in late at night.

For heads of department: deal with what you have been avoiding

Every department carries a quiet list of things that are not quite right.

Units that never quite deliver what you hoped. Assessments that generate data but do not really tell you what students understand. Topics where results dip each year without a clear fix.

During the main part of the year, these problems are acknowledged but rarely addressed. There is always something more urgent that demands attention.

This is the point where you can finally give those issues the time they need. Not in a rushed conversation squeezed into a busy week, but with proper thought and collaboration.

You might revisit the order in which content is taught and consider whether it actually builds understanding in the way you intend. You might redesign an assessment so that it reveals something more useful about what students know and can do. You might look again at the resources you rely on and decide whether they are genuinely helping or simply familiar.

Department CPD can also become far more purposeful here. Instead of general sessions that try to cover everything, you can focus on the specific areas that would make the biggest difference for your team. That might involve looking closely at how explanations are modelled, or how questions are used to probe understanding. It might involve sharing what is already working well within the department and making that practice more consistent.

The key is that this time allows you to be precise. You are not just keeping things going. You are improving them.

For SLT: make the decisions that shape next year

Senior leaders spend much of the year responding. Issues arise, and they need to be dealt with quickly. There is rarely the opportunity to step back and think about the bigger picture.

This period offers a rare chance to do that, but only if it is used deliberately.

It is very easy to let the space fill up with more meetings and more operational detail. If that happens, the opportunity disappears.

Instead, this is the moment to address the decisions that have been sitting in the background. Behaviour systems that are not quite working as intended need to be examined honestly. Curriculum structures that have been causing problems need to be reconsidered. Staffing decisions for September need to move from tentative conversations to clear plans.

Waiting until the summer often feels safer, but in reality it leaves too little time to make meaningful changes. Acting now creates the possibility of a more settled and purposeful start to the next academic year.

Whole-school CPD also benefits from this shift in thinking. Rather than organising sessions that feel broadly relevant, there is an opportunity to focus on what will actually improve classroom practice across the school. That requires clarity about priorities and a commitment to revisiting them over time, rather than treating CPD as a series of isolated events.

Whole-school and personal CPD: use the space properly

This part of the year can support development that works at more than one level.

Across the school, there is room to create time for departments to work together in a way that is rarely possible during busier periods. Priorities can be revisited with greater focus, and professional development can be tied more closely to what teachers are actually doing in their classrooms.

At an individual level, the same principle applies. The reduced pressure makes it easier to engage with development in a way that feels meaningful rather than rushed.

That might mean committing to an NPQ and giving it the attention it deserves. It might mean reading with a clear purpose, linked to something you are trying to improve. It might mean writing, reflecting, and capturing your thinking so that it becomes something you can build on.

There is a particular value in writing that often gets overlooked. It forces you to be precise about what you think. It exposes gaps in your understanding. Over time, it becomes a record of your development that you can return to and refine.

So what will you do with it?

This time will not stay empty. It will either be filled with activity that keeps everything moving, or it will be used to make changes that carry into next year. Both options feel familiar, but only one of them makes a lasting difference.

And if we’re being honest…

Most of us already know what we should do with this time.

The difficulty is not a lack of ideas. It is the pull of habit. It is easier to keep doing what we have always done, especially when the year has been long and demanding.

Choosing to use this period differently requires a bit more intent. It means protecting time when it would be simpler to give it away. It means focusing on improvement when it might feel easier to coast.

Year 11 leaving is not just the end of their time in school. It is a brief opening for everyone else. Whether anything comes from it depends on what we decide to do next.