When technology adds work: start with the duplicate task

A new system can make a report look better while leaving the work behind it untouched. Someone still collects the information, checks it and pastes it into another document.

Ask what will stop

Before adding a tool, name the task it will remove or simplify. If the answer is another dashboard, keep asking. A staff member should be able to explain the benefit in terms of their working day.

Our suggested review follows one recurring process. List the inputs, handoffs, checks and outputs. Ask why each step exists. Some are essential; others may survive because nobody had permission to stop them.

Keep staff involved

The DfE maintains workload resources for schools. Use that wider guidance alongside the team's own experience. A technically elegant workflow that ignores the timetable or access arrangements will not help.

Include occasional users and the person who covers absence. A process that works only for its designer has a handover problem.

Measure the whole job

Check time spent preparing, entering and correcting information. Notice whether work moved from a teacher to an administrator rather than disappearing. Review accuracy and whether the output is actually used.

Agree a short trial and a decision date. Keep, adapt or stop the change based on evidence. Schoolgle should earn its place by helping with a real task, not by asking schools to maintain another layer of reporting.