Stephen Timms, the schools standards minister, has announced the names of 32 schools which will explore new ways of working to tackle workload, in order to free teachers to teach and raise standards in the classroom.

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, NUT general secretary, told ePolitix.com: "While I welcome the pilot, the government has missed a chance to examine the ways in which teacher workload can be reduced."It has prevented the 32 schools in this pilot from testing the proposals of the teacher unions and the employers to limit the teaching load and the working week as a means of reducing the burden on teachers."Yet again, the government has shown itself only willing to consider its own ideas rather than being open to solutions from those who understand the needs of teachers.

"It should have been prepared to pilot the proposals, which are supported by the employers, of a limit to the teaching week and a limit to the teachers' working week."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary of the PAT, told ePolitix.com, "We welcome the pilot scheme, and the fact that the DfES has taken on board many of PAT's ideas in the scope and running of the scheme.

"We are particularly pleased to see greater acknowledgement and involvement of teaching assistants and other support staff, and the allocation of extra resources. The recognition of the vital importance of training is also welcome.

"There is an exhausting demand on teachers to sustain a 'performance' for several hours a day and many do not feel able to be in control of their workload as they are faced with a plethora of new government-driven initiatives."As the outcome of the ongoing negotiations on workload and this pilot scheme, we would like to see for all teachers a limit to pupil contact time, to allow more time for marking and preparation, training and professional development.

"We also want to see guaranteed preparation and marking time in a proportion of 1:2 hours taught, half of this to be within the school day, together with an entitlement to administrative support - thus removing from teachers many of the mundane tasks, such as photocopying and filing, that are a poor use of their time.

"The PAT also endorses a limit in the number of hours in which teachers can be expected to carry our other duties and believes that tasks that should not be routinely carried out by teachers should be defined, and limits to the duties expected of teachers."We recognise that some of these changes will not happen overnight and will need a matching commitment on funding, but there is a real opportunity here for reform of the teachers' contract to tackle the workload issue."