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Who said no to unpaid hours
Break free from the relentless cycle of overwork. You’re a teacher, not a machine.
Be a Great Teacher.
And Still Have a Life.
Some of your workload genuinely needs doing. Some of it technology can take off your plate. And some of it has quietly crept in over the years. PPA Buddy helps you tell the difference. Sometimes the answer is AI. Most often it isn’t.
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Calculate the True Cost of Your
“Curious how much time (and money) you’re giving away? Let’s find out, and get it back.”
That number’s only half the picture.
The PPA Log tracks the time that gets taken off you week by week, so you end up with a record rather than a rough sense of it.
Calculate the True Cost of Your
Unpaid Hours
Your hidden unpaid days:
(days per year)
61
Your unclaimed salary:
(£)
£ 15,047
That’s 61 days and £15,047 you should be keeping — not giving away. PPA Buddy helps you reclaim what’s yours.
But That’s Not All
“Teaching Shouldn’t Take Everything You’ve Got. But Right Now, It Does”
You care deeply about your students. You want your teaching to be the best it can be. But you can’t keep giving when you’re running on empty.
It’s time to make a change, without losing your standards or your spark.
We support you in six core areas to help you stay in the job you love, without losing yourself in the process:
01.
Before You Hit the Wall
Most teachers don’t leave because they stopped caring. They leave because the job stopped fitting around a life.
This is about catching that early.
02.
Workload Reduction
From endless paperwork to pastoral demands, teachers are asked to absorb more every year. Some of that workload can be cut, some can be automated, and some of it shouldn’t be yours at all.
We help you work out which is which.
03.
Planning Without the Blank Page
Spend less time planning and more time teaching. PPA Buddy gives you prompts that adapt to your subject, key stage and learners, so you start from a solid draft instead of a blank page.
No more late-night Googling or Sunday scaries.
04.
Work-Life Balance
Your job matters but so do your boundaries. Our support is designed to help you finish work on time, manage tasks without overwhelm, and build routines that protect your energy.
Because teachers deserve evenings too.
05.
Safe AI, Without the Safeguarding Worry
The bit that stops most teachers trying anything. We show you where the line is, what stays out of the chat box, and how to use AI in a way you could explain to your Head tomorrow.
Confident, not cautious.
06.
Supportive Community
You don’t have to do this alone. Join a growing community of teachers who are building healthier teaching careers together.
It’s the kind of staffroom we all deserve.
An Open Letter to Teachers Who Want Their Evenings Back:
I Was a Teacher on the Brink of Burnout. Then I Found a Way to Reclaim My Life.
I know the Sunday scaries. I know the feeling of a to-do list that never ends. I know what it’s like to pour your heart into your students all day, only to spend your evenings buried in planning and marking.
That was me. As a teacher in the UK system, I was losing the passion that brought me to the classroom in the first place. I was doing the job badly and living it worse, and I couldn’t see how that ended well.
I knew there had to be a smarter way – a way to be a brilliant, effective teacher for my students without sacrificing my own health and my life outside of school. So I started changing how I worked. I built systems, worked out which tools actually helped and which just moved the job around, and got deliberate about protecting my time.
PPA Buddy is the culmination of everything I learned. It’s the system I built to save my own career and reclaim my evenings.
Now, I want to share it with you.
Because you deserve to be a great teacher and have a life.
— Claire Biesty, Founder of PPA Buddy & Fellow Teacher
Reclaim Your Evenings in 3 Simple Steps:
Step 1:
Cut the unnecessary
Triage what matters, spot the tasks that don’t move learning forward, and stop “nice to do” becoming “must do”.
Step 2:
Automate the repeatable
Use teacher-safe AI workflows for planning and feedback, with your judgement at the centre. Less blank-page energy. More consistency.
Step 3:
Protect the boundaries
Scripts and routines that help you hold the line calmly, so extra requests don’t quietly become your new job.
You don’t need to work 60+ hours to be a great teacher.
PPA Buddy gives you the tools, time, and support to teach well and still have a life outside of school.
Take Back Your Time
“Imagine a teaching life where you can…”
- Leave school at a reasonable hour most days, with evenings that belong to you.
- Start planning from a solid draft instead of a blank page, using prompts you could explain to your Head.
- Walk into school on Monday morning feeling prepared, confident, and in control – no more Sunday scaries.
- Have the energy for hobbies, friends, and the life you love outside the classroom.
- Connect with a private, supportive community of UK teachers who are also doing the same thing.
- Still like the job in five years’ time.
“The Evidence is clear: Teaching Needs to Change”
Teachers are working longer hours than ever, losing time, money, and energy. But it doesn’t have to stay this way. We help you plan smarter and reclaim your time without sacrificing your impact in the classroom.
Education Support, 2024
0
77
%
"77% of teachers experience physical, psychological or behavioural symptoms due to their work"
TUC, 2024
0
15
k
“Teachers lose an average of £15,047 a year in unpaid overtime, working the most unpaid hours of any UK profession.”
DfE, 2024
0
41200
"41,212 teachers left last year. That’s nearly one teacher leaving every 13 minutes."