101 Ways to Leave Work at School (Without Guilt): A Menu for Teachers - PPA Buddy
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There’s a reason teachers search for ways to leave work at school. Sunday night dread has become a ritual.

It even has a name in the wider world — “Sunday Scaries” — that anticipatory anxiety before the week begins. 

And there’s a reason workload feels endless.

Research has found teachers in England work around 47 hours per week in term time on average — with a chunk working far more. 

More recent Department for Education workload waves report full-time teachers averaging 50+ hours in the reference week. 

So if your laptop is “just coming home for a bit”… it’s not you being disorganised.

It’s the job expanding to fill every gap you leave unprotected.

This isn’t a list of things you must do.

It’s a menu. Pick what looks tasty. Ignore the rest.

Some are mindset shifts. Some are boundary hacks. Many are specific AI prompts you can use right now to cut corners without cutting quality (and without touching identifiable student data).

 

How to use this playbook to leave work at school

  • Don’t binge it. You don’t have time.

  • Pick the section that hurts most right now (marking / planning / admin).

  • Try one tip tomorrow.

  • Go home on time.

 

Want the full 101 Ways to Leave Work at School?

It’s an unlock inside my PPA Buddy Skool community (Level 4).

Join the Community

 

Teacher testimonials from the PPA Buddy community

Kate, Y1 Primary

“The prompt pack helped me create phonics resources to make sure all children can access the learning. It saved me hours of typing and editing and helped me create ready to use resources!”

 

Debbie, Secondary Art

“PPA Buddy has saved me a lot of time when planning new schemes of learning and creating lesson resources. It has also helped me focus on extending students use of tier 2 and 3 subject vocabulary.”

 

Helen, Y4 Primary

“I was terrified of using AI wrong in school. Claire’s guides make me feel totally safe.”

 

Tom, SLT

“Last year I never saw the playground, the sunshine or my own kid’s smiles. Claire helped me change that. Now I leave on time and have a life.”

 

Michelle, SL in Food

“The GPT’s save so much thinking and doing time! Start using them now, there’s so many positives that can help in planning, teaching and delivery.”

 

1) Mindset & boundaries (the boring bit that changes everything)

If you don’t respect your time, nobody else will.

A few boundary moves that punch above their weight:

  • “No” is a complete sentence. Use it with SLT. Use it with yourself.

  • B-minus planning changes lives too. A-plus planning burns you out.

  • Email on your phone = anxiety in your pocket. Delete the app.

  • Set an alarm for home time. When it goes: pack up.

  • PPA is sacred time. Door closed. Sign up. No covering.

  • Stop checking emails after dark. Nothing good arrives at 9pm.

  • Your job is what you do, not who you are. Protect the human.

 

Try this tomorrow: pick one boundary and make it visible (sign, calendar block, autoresponder).

 

2) AI planning & resourcing (let the machine do the heavy lifting)

Blank-page planning is a trap. Start from a scaffold — then make it yours.

Steal any of these prompts:

  • Lesson skeleton: “Create a lesson outline for [topic] with: Do Now, I Do, We Do, You Do, exit ticket.”

  • Hook generator: “Give me 3 curiosity-based hooks for this objective: [paste objective].”

  • Misconception buster: “What are 5 common misconceptions Year 8 have about [topic]?”

  • Retrieval starter: “Write 6 retrieval questions based on last lesson on [topic], mixed difficulty.”

  • Reduce cognitive load: “Rewrite these instructions for a pupil with slow processing speed. Keep it to 4 steps.”

  • WAGOLL trio: “Generate 3 model answers: weak, secure, exceptional — then add 3 teacher feedback points for each.”

 

Safety note (keep it squeaky clean): never paste names or anything identifying. Use anonymised or fabricated examples.

Want the full bank of prompts (and the “copy/paste” versions teachers actually use)?

Join the Community 

 

Promo graphic on ways to leave work at school, featuring PPA Buddy and a teacher holding a mug, highlighting safe AI planning to reclaim 3–5 hours weekly.
Stop taking work home: practical ways to leave work at school with AI planning, marking shortcuts, admin & emails support, and better mental health.

3) The marking beast (feedback matters — ticking every page doesn’t)

Marking is where your weekends go to die — unless you change the rules of the game.

Here are a handful of marking shortcuts that save serious time:

  • Stop ticking everything. It’s evidence for adults, not feedback for kids.

  • Live marking wins. Feedback is best served hot.

  • Whole-class feedback > 30 individual essays of pain.

  • Code marking (Sp / Gr / ? / ^) instead of paragraphs.

  • Self-marking quizzes (Forms) as standard retrieval.

  • Mark one deep, skim the rest. Not everything deserves a novel.

  • Set work that is easy to mark. If you set an essay, you’ve set yourself an essay.

 

AI prompt you can use safely:

“Create success criteria for a strong [task] in pupil-friendly language, with a self-check checklist.”

 

4) Admin & emails (touch it once, then move on)

Your inbox will take as much time as you offer it. So offer less.

Quick wins that don’t require a new system:

  • Touch it once: reply, file, delete. Don’t “leave it to think”.

  • Batch email windows: 8:00 / 12:30 / 15:30 — tab closed outside that.

  • Schedule send: write at 4pm, send at 8am tomorrow.

  • Newsletter summary prompt: “Summarise this into the 3 actions I must do this week.”

  • Templates for everything: missing kit, homework, meeting request.

  • Tone check prompt: “Make this email professional, calm, and firm (not cold).”

 

5) Classroom & behaviour (calm teacher = calm classroom)

You don’t need to be stricter. You need fewer decisions to make when you’re tired.

A few low-effort, high-impact defaults:

  • Seating plans are your #1 behaviour lever.

  • Routines save your voice.

  • Wait for silence — don’t talk over them.

  • Use scripts: “I need you to…, thank you.”

  • Keep logs factual (behaviour, not character).

  • Finish on time. Don’t punish the next teacher (or your own break).

 

6) Sustainability (because we need you to stay)

This isn’t fluffy. It’s retention.

Education Support’s wellbeing research has repeatedly raised the alarm about staff mental health and stress in the sector. 

Things that keep you in the job without losing yourself:

  • Find your Marigold colleague. Avoid the Walnut Trees.

  • Keep a “Nice Things” folder (emails, cards, photos).

  • Book something on the horizon. Even small.

  • Batch your worry (10 minutes, then stop).

  • You can’t save everyone.

And the line most teachers need tattooed on the laptop lid:

The job will replace you quickly. Your family won’t.

 

Want the full 101?

The complete playbook (all categories + the copy/paste AI prompts) lives inside my PPA Buddy Skool community as a Level 4 unlock.

If you want to leave work at school without lowering standards, this is for you.

 

Join The Community

 

(You’ll get the full 101, plus support to actually implement it — not just read it and feel guilty.)

 

FAQ

Is it really possible to leave work at school as a teacher?

Yes — but it usually requires changing the defaults (marking approach, email boundaries, and planning systems), not working harder.

 

Will AI actually reduce teacher workload?

It can, if it’s used for scaffolding (planning, quiz generation, rubric drafts, clarity rewrites) and you keep data protection tight (no identifiable student info).

 

What’s the fastest change with the biggest impact?

Batching emails + switching to whole-class feedback are often the quickest wins.