Why do so many teachers leave teaching? : February 27, 2013
Apparently 50% of teachers leave the profession within their first 5 years.
I’ve heard this statistic bandied about for quite a while, and while you can argue the exact figure back and forth a bit (some estimates put the figure at 40%) either way it’s a bloody big number.
Here’s another perspective: 404,600 fully trained teachers under the age of 60 are no longer teaching, compared to around half a million still actively working in English and Welsh schools. So that’s almost half of the qualified teachers in the country not actually teaching. And it’s getting worse: some 47,700 teachers left their jobs in the year 2010-11, up from 40,070 in 2009-10. That’s a lot of teachers.
This begs two immediate questions: what are they doing? And, more importantly, why aren’t they teaching?
As to the first. I’ve no idea. Maybe all teachers leaving employment should be asked to complete an exit questionnaire stating their reasons for leaving and details of what they’re going to do instead – this, I’m sure, would make fascinating reading.
Neither am I sure why they leave. It’s something of a cliché that teaching’s a tough gig: yeah sure, it’s stressful at certain points in the year, and the workload can sometimes seem overwhelming, but is it really that bad? Of course I’ve read some of the horror stories on the TES forums, but are these really representative of most new teachers’ experiences?
Maybe they are: a recent NASUWT survey showed that 84% of teachers felt demoralised and de-professionalised and that over 50% of teachers had seriously considered leaving the profession in the previous 12 months. I’ve heard countless tales of burn out, appalling student behaviour and workplace bullying, but without hard data any solution will be based on the twin devils of hearsay and rumour.
And if these are the sorts of reasons teachers are abandoning ship in droves, this is surely a savage indictment of the profession, and something of which we should be collectively ashamed. This kind of attrition can be ill afforded – training and recruitment surely outweigh the costs of retention? It’s all very well Michael Gove wringing his hands, but if we’re forcing decent teachers out, this is something which needs to be urgently addressed. Gove does at least accept some responsibility for this saying, ”The Government must take responsibility for driving so many experienced professionals out of the classroom by tying their hands in red tape and watering down their powers to keep order.” Quite so, except that this was an attack on Labour back in 2010!
It seems that the pressure on new teachers to be ‘outstanding’ immediately is enormous and that those who struggle in the early years are all too often chewed up and spat out rather than nurtured and supported. Speaking for myself, I was an atrocious teacher in my first few years; I can’t look back on the bewildering array of all the things I had no idea about without wincing. These days I consider myself to be an at least halfway decent teacher but it took me at least 5 years to get to that point. I had a pretty rubbish experience as a trainee and NQT and put a fair amount of effort into leaving teaching. I spent a year as a supply teacher before landing a job in a school which promptly went into Special Measures. Thankfully, causation is not the same as correlation, and this was the first time in my career that I really felt that anyone was investing anything in my development as a teacher. It was a slow process, but this was the start of my journey towards being good at what I do.
But maybe teachers’ reasons for leaving have nothing to do with dissatisfaction. Maybe they leave because they see teaching as a stepping stone to something better? This certainly seems to be the philosophy behind Teach First, who look to “provide participants with a development programme that will be respected and valued by employers should they decide to move on to work in another area or profession.” In other words, participants can keep their options open. Of course they don’t all go on to bigger and better things after their two year tour of duty, but how many do?
Are there teachers who leave the profession only to return a few years later? Certainly a lot of women must do this, but does anyone keep any data on teachers returning (or not) from maternity leave?
Possibly many of the teachers deserting the classroom are a bit rubbish, and maybe we’re better off that they’re doing something else? It’s a bit of a long shot but perhaps this level of wastage is a good sign?
I’m afraid I don’t really have any answers and am unable to provide any kind of solution, but whatever the reasons, I’m concerned. It strikes me that if we agree that teacher quality is the most important factor in school improvement and student achievement then it behooves us to do something about it. Maybe the first 5 years of teaching need to have a much more structured approach to professional development with teachers expected to take part in continuous critical reflection of their practice? What if teachers were given opportunities to work in a variety of settings in order to gauge what suited them and where they would be best placed? This is all taken for granted during a PGCE course, but the moment you’re branded a Qualified Teacher, you’re left pretty much to the mercy of school you work in as an NQT. You might be lucky, but then again, you might not. Leaving teachers’ careers to chance in this way can’t be good.
Anyway, I’d be very interested to hear the story of your first 5 years, as well as any suggestions you might have for reducing the turnover of new teachers.
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Thank you for taking the time to craft this post David. It seems like yesterday when I stepped into the classroom for the first time in 2009. As a man old enough to be the parent of most of my colleagues, It is interesting to observe prevailing anxieties that get shared among vocational peers.
Here in Ontario, there has been a glut of teacher candidates. It seems like the government granted licenses to so many universities in order to flood the labour pool. The result here has begat rancorous discord,anti-union legislation, imposed contracts and ultimately a widening sense of distrust aimed at the current provincial government. Talk about distraction, disdain and discouragement for a profession that has to bend to the whims of all day kindergarten and standardized testing.
Factor into the job, an integration of more students with special needs into the everyday class, helicopter parents, under-funding (no text books, no options for tech replacements either), and a generation of anxious learners who want to know how their learning is relevant to their future.
Thankfully, I love this job. Talk about laying out a challenge for the mind, a battle to be my best and the opportunity to do it all over again the next day.
True, newer colleagues tread on pins and needles their first years. There are 2 assessments by admin. and most days you leave so exhausted that you’re falling asleep on the way home.
Coupled with meetings, ongoing training, assessment, reporting and clubs, it is no wonder teaching in the first 5 years is more like a war of attrition than an exciting step into the best job on the planet.
I think that the more we edify each other when times get tough, the easier it becomes to face tough(er) times when they happen.
I look forward to reading more here and via Twitter. Thank you for your encouragement and wisdom from across the pond.
Thanks for this blog post, it’s a really important topic and I pretty much agree with what you have said. However, stats are deceptive they lack the human factor.
Some PGCE students are just doing it and “banking” the certificate. It is, after all, a good back up. Some do it to teach overseas because they want to travel and having the proper PGCE adds to the salary they can command. Some just drift into it and find out they are not cut out for it when it gets hard. Some really want to teach and just find they can’t do it. Every one of these examples I draw from real experience.
That said, even removing those people from the stats you are left with the same problem: lots of people leave. It’s not only an easy job but more importantly it’s a job that does not get the respect it deserves. If you look at the big international surveys you see that the countries which do best are the countries where teaching is regarded as a high value profession socially.
I don’t think it is the NQT year that is hard, it’s the year after when all the support drops and that’s it, you are left on your own. The prospect of that stretching out before you for the rest of your life is so intimidating that many just quit a few years in. We need to work on a supportive school community to keep people in the profession. Sadly, the pressure of performance does not help at all. Teachers are seen as akin to nurses rather than Doctors. We need to elevate the perception of the profession to retain the talent, to give them opportunities to develop.
I really wish I has an answer. I thank you for provoking the debate.
Will- I understand the drop out rates are similar in the US so clearly it would make sense to look for common causes.
Paul – I’d agree that people leave for all sorts of reasons but I feel a bit stumped at the thought that trainees go through PGCE just to bank a qualification – it’s not like many post grad courses in that it’s so demanding in terms of time! I’m amazed that they can be bothered.
As the NQT+1 being the crunch year, I completely agree. Hence my suggestion that we extend the NQT period over these first 5 years.
The problem with elevating the profession’s status is often to do with how teachers see themselves. All too often there is a lack of responsibility for our own professional development – teachers need to raise their game and be supported in this endeavour. Maybe it should be expected that teachers take part in research and further professional qualifications?
Could it be that some teachers will LEAVE teaching because they LOVE teaching; as the reason why I am in the job, it is the non-teaching aspects that are less interesting than the interaction during lessons (and, in my subject, on fieldwork, for example). From the outside, and from our own experience as a child at school, a teacher Teaches. The reality of the job, however, is that much of one’s time does not involve teaching. In many schools, the emphasis on classroom management, as a proportion of teacher time (and energy) in a typical lesson will lead to some teachers leaving teaching because what they actually love DOING is TEACHING. Hopefully this makes sense. Must dash – no more Teaching to do today, but still six hours of work to do, if you catch my drift.
Ben – you suggest that teachers might leave teaching due to frustration with the lack actual teaching they get to do but if that’s so, what do they do instead? Do we count state school teachers who leave to work in the independent sector?
Obviously some jobs may be comparable but for the most part leaving teaching co you love would appear to be self defeating. Or am I confused?
David: My point is that what some teachers may expect from the job is not what they will actually experience. Especially if they have not experienced other jobs, simply having moved straight from school through University and teacher training, they may leave teaching believing that there is another job/career that is more ‘what it says on the tin.’ I think many may be mstaken, regretting the leap of faith.
I admit it’s quite strange that some people enter into it wanting to “bank” a qualification. The thinking seems to be “If I don’t like it I can always leave and if I ever need a job in the future teaching is always available to me.” Yes, sounds crazy but people do think that way. They tend to be people like Ben was talking about who come straight from Uni, frequently with no idea what they actually want to do with their lives.
I think extending the NQT to 5 years is a bit much perhaps, 3 might be better. I would like to see teaching schools like teaching hospitals where you do the PGCE and get a feel for the day to day responsibility for classes. Not just the very contained placement experiences they get now.
As to the profession, it’s a tough one. There would have to be a big shift as who really has time to do extra work on top of teaching? Some people manage it but it can’t be that many. I had quite high hopes when Scotland introduced Chartered Teacher status, even though it was more money and pension enhancements it was openly admitted that the uptake was very low. Probably because people didn’t feel they had the time.
I think many teachers also experience problems when trying to move up the career ladder. What might have been perceived as excellent in one school may be perceived mediocre in another, depending upon the differing circumstances of the schools. Such is the subjective nature of our profession.
Personally, I felt incredibly supported in my first 4 years of teaching, and was provided with excellent CPD opportunities. Within the supportive environment of my first school, I was well respected by colleagues, successful in the classroom and repeatedly told that I should look for a promotion. Yet when I sought that promotion – in another school – I found that the expectations of my new employer were wildly different, and ended up in a situation where I was belittled and bullied to the point of handing in my notice. Under those conditions I went from outstanding to inadequate, simply because the support structures fell away as I moved up the career ladder. Combine that with persistent poor behaviour from the students, and it’s no wonder that people leave in droves. It seems that in teaching, because each school is run independently rather than all being run as one organisation with the same levels of support, it is easy to fall foul of inconsistent professional development.
It is true: there are a few PGCE students who saw teaching as a stepping stone. A handful of people on my course had a career mapped out as a literacy advisor or in publishing resources for schools while they were studying. They saw teaching as the starting point of something else. Sadly, I don’t know whether they made it or not. Surprisingly, I didn’t keep in contact as they devalued what I was doing.
Why are so many teachers leaving schools? Teaching can be a thankless and unending task. It is never finished, completed or resolved. You rarely step away from teaching thinking I have done my best. There is always so much more you can do. You never finish on a Friday and rush off and forget everything until 9 am on a Monday. Plus, you rarely see the benefits of your hard work immediately. Think of the praise we give in lessons. Do we see that praise reciprocated? At times, teaching can seem like a lighthouse – you stand alone against a dangerous storm. It has rewards. It is a selfless task, but every now and again you need a positive comment. The media attacks. The politicians attacks. Where are the people praising teachers for what they do? Don’t get me wrong – we do have supporters but they are not as loud as those who think they know better. We need reassurance in some form. If you haven’t got a supportive environment, then you are more likely to move.
The rate of change. Most businesses do not make major structural changes on a weekly or daily basis. In teaching, each week focuses on something new. As a teacher, that is soul destroying. As soon as you get used to one thing, something new appears and you have to change all your planning, teaching and resources. If you like routine, order and structure, then avoid teaching. It is like water. It doesn’t sit still.
Before teaching I sold bricks, now I teach and I’ll never go back, because I was bored. I have never been bored in teaching, but as soon as it gets boring I’ll consider changing career.
Loved the blog, David. Lots of food for thought. There is a real problem here, I think.
Chris
Hi David,
I’ve been a teacher for 12 years now. 6 of those years have been as part of SLT. I completed my PGCE year in the school where I have spent my career. The deputy was my mentor. My PGCE (GRTP) year was immensely structured. I was observed daily by various teachers and allowed to observe as many teachers as I wished. I was encouraged to suggest any CPD I felt would further my career. I was given peer mentoring and the whole experience shaped me in to the teacher I have now become. On the final week of the year Ofsted came. They visited me 19 times in the 4 days and actually apologised for the number of times I was observed. I was unphased by their presence as I was used to be being observed.
My HT has since told me that he believes that new teachers should be supported for 5 years including NQT year. He argues that it takes 7 years to train a good teacher and teach them how to progress in their own career and be the best teacher they can be. I had this level of support and it did me no harm. It made me stronger and more confident to cope with the lows when they arrive.
(This would have made an excellent #blogsync).
)
I should also blog my own career path
Great post, and a fascinating discussion.
Speaking from personal experience, I was very lucky in that the school I ended up in was very supportive, although looking back now I too wince at some of the mistakes I made along the way.
Another aspect of the five year point is that for many that is the point at which they get their heads around teaching and look to the future. But for many the pay scale means that they’ll struggle to get teaching jobs in other schools. So it’s management, or you’re stuck. And while management may suit some, for others it’s the thing that takes them away from the classroom which is the bit of the job they most enjoy.
I love the idea of some kind of five year development programme. I’d also love to see a system which allowed teachers to do exchanges between schools, and even between sectors – for me if was the afternoons I spent volunteering in a local primary that reignited my love of teaching and kept me in the job. I wonder what’s worse – the good teachers who leave, or the ‘stuck’ teachers who stay without a love of the job?
It’s no good Mr Gove wringing his hands; I love teaching having gone into it at 30 and until his new circa 1950 primary curriculum, have never wanted to leave the profession. It is hard to do a good job teaching without putting in ridiculous hours term time. Expectations from society to solve all its ills can be frustrating and irritating. However it is the rhetoric and misuse of data (eg. international tests) by Mssrs Gove and Wilshaw that really make me want to throw in the towel. Comparing us to Finland when Finns enjoy cross party agreement to keep education out of politics, a 50% tax rate to fund their world class education and a society who values and supports learning is an insult to our intelligence.
I am a head now and we have a highly motivated, dedicated team of teachers and support staff. It is the lack of respect for our professionalism that gets our goat: 9 years developing a curriculum for our children in the locality repeatedly described as excellent by Osfted and the new government curriculum drives a plough through all our work. Each new government rips up what went before and talks it down in order to let their own ideologies which drive policy look good (evolution of humour: ridicule makes you look good without doing much at all). We have a team of newly qualified and highly experienced staff. Constant reinvention of what’s good means we constantly work in a climate where we feel lacking in experience, however many years we have under our belts. Yes the first few years are really tough and experienced colleagues have a duty to nurture new staff. They don’t get the best climate to undertake this role while we are constantly novices due to inspection frameworks that don’t last a year and curricula that seem to be dreamed up by the Secretary of State one day and changes are announced before the consultation is even over (since publication of DRAFT National curriculum there have been yet more pronouncements on teaching cookery). Children are fat, get the teachers to sort it out.
I love going to work. I love teaching. I work in a dedicated team. Yet I’m currently surprised it’s only 50% of teachers who do one within the first 5 years.
Interesting discussion. The irony for me is that I’ve been trying to get back into teaching (secondary English) for a while now but it appears to be practically impossible. I left full-time teaching a long time ago in order to do a MA in Literature which I did in a year whilst also teaching a 0.7 timetable. I then moved to the south west, as husband’s job had changed, and did a maternity cover. After this I did various supply/short term contracts, had two children of my own and set up my own resources website *boo hiss I know
* and now find I can’t get back into teaching because the curriculum/specifications/examinations have changed so much. I’m not an NQT so wouldn’t get the support I know I need; on application forms I don’t have any relevant CPD to record; I have no recent teaching referees to use; my supermarket job (because it has fitted in around a whole host of family commitments) doesn’t look great as my current employment; I can’t find any Return to Teaching courses; MAs in Education are only suitable if you’re already teaching and can gain access to schools for the practical aspects (as I’ve learnt to my cost having signed on to one and now deferred due to not having access to any real students!). I’ve been accepted as a GCSE examiner but I think that’s the closest I’m going to come to any students’ work for the forseeable future. Depressing? Yes, absolutely.
I’ve been teaching for 35 years and I believe that one of the reasons that so many teachers leave the profession, especially in their early years of teaching, is that many have unrealistic expectations about what it is all about.
I have been involved in a lot of initial teacher training of those new to the job and one piece of advice I always give is to forget a social or family life for the first year at least. And, each time you change job, get a promotion, take on a new responsibility, again put your life on hold for a while.
It may not be fair, but teaching is not like any other profession. Your responsibilities to your charges are so important that the effort required to do the best you can cannot be skimped. Planning, thinking, preparation and reflection take time – without the marking, assessment and reporting that follows.
Perhaps many of us went to schools very different to those in which we are employed. Perhaps situations in school have changed in the intervening period. Or perhap some of us were tempted by long holidays, half-terms and a reasonably good salary and progression structure.
Hi David,
I’ve read your two posts about teachers leaving the profession several times and have been mulling them over. I’m in my fifth year of teaching and am working in the third school of my career. My experiences so far have been a mixed bag, but my current school is very well managed and I can’t imagine being any happier anywhere else.
I absolutely love teaching and spending my day with children. At no point during my 5 years have the children been the cause of my stress, and I worked in a particularly challenging school for 3 years; building the relationships with my class and seeing them make progress is an amazing experience. Having said that, I frequently think about leaving and using my psychology degree to do a Doctorate in Ed Psych because I can’t see how I can keep up this lifestyle and stress for another 30 years (I am 29).
During term time, it is very difficult to have a decent social life because of workload and I resent that when I see other people my age managing it. Perhaps it is just perception, and ‘grass is always greener’, but it seems others who are similarly or lesser qualified than me earn more money and have a better work-life balance; it’s hard not to feel this is unfair.
The constant changes made by the DfE mean nothing gets the chance to embed and this is extremely frustrating when you have no control over it, and feel that the decisions they are making are poor and won’t benefit the children. The threat of Ofsted hangs over your head continually; the anticipation of this may be worse than the actual event but it’s always there in the background.
Having worked in two schools where I received very different observation results, performance related pay worries me a bit – I know I would have earned more in my previous school than my current school because of different expectations in teaching standards. I know I am a better teacher now, and I am extremely glad of this, but it shows the difficulty of having this as a national approach to pay. The article in the Independent today talks about exam results linked to pay, but all that will mean is constant teaching to the test – unfair on pupils and horrendous extra stress to put on us all. Seems like they forget we are only human sometimes.
Constant pressure to make progress, progress, progress is phenomenal. If I’d known exactly how target driven teaching is, I’m not sure I would have done it. I worked in a recruitment agency briefly and it seems similar to that sales environment of hitting targets to receive a bonus. Sometimes it seems you can do absolutely everything you can to teach a child a skill and it still doesn’t work, but the statistics don’t show that. I teach Y6 and my constant focus is percentages at level 4 and 5, and floor targets and last year’s results at the moment. I don’t like the way the pressure of this can affect teaching content and classroom ethos, as sometimes it is hard not to let the stress creep in.
I seem to have written a lot of negative bits there! I don’t mean to be – I honestly love the job, and I think you have to in order to stick with it and be a good teacher, but I put so much into it that I worry I will burn out before I get to 35 because of the demands that are put on us as a profession. Perhaps one reason why so many people are leaving is simply because it seems less common to stick with one job these days; my parents had the same jobs for their whole lives but re-training seems to be much easier and more frequent now. Just a thought.
I rack my brains but have no ideas how teachers could be kept teaching unless there is a huge change in the way schools are compared and held accountable, and if the DfE took advice from educational experts rather than it all hingeing on politics. A DfE that was cross-party and didn’t change after every election might provide some more stability and consistency, as well as being more balanced than suddenly changing to only teach British history.
I’m sure I haven’t said anything you haven’t already heard lots of times; however, I wanted to email because I’m really enjoying reading your posts via twitter. They always make me reflect on my own practice and I know that the point at which I stop doing that, or stop trying to improve, is the time to quit.
Hi Anonymous F,
Relieved to see I am not the only one with these perceptions. I completely understand everything you’ve said in your post, but even more, I understand the contradiction in feelings between loving teaching, learning and children yet feeling this isn’t sustainable. It’s interesting that neither of us feel comfortable being known.
At the point when I left the secondary classroom I was teaching part-time and each year faced a different timetable. Never knowing from one year to the next whether I would have an increased or decreased timetable, or even how many days it would be spread across was frustrating and with a small child I could no longer manage it.
As well as this though I think I was bored. Others have said how teaching is never boring and day to day I would agree. The days flew by and I never clock-watched. I was an art teacher so the curriculum was fairly flexible and projects were changed every year, different artists chosen to focus on etc. But after a few years being in the same school especially, the routine of the school day and year started to become monotonous.
As others have said, the overlap of teaching into your private life is also very pervasive. We had very good systems for efficient marking and preparation but I still found the planning and ‘thinking’ a drain which made me apprehensive on Sunday nights or in the last days of a holiday.
And so although it wasn’t my preferred choice to leave at the time it has in fact been really good for me and I have been able to explore other options.
David, having visited your school yesterday for the SSAT conference I would say that it appears that your staff are very lucky indeed: I cannot imagine how invigorating it must be to work in an environment where learning and pedagogy are discussed, researched and acted upon wilfully and passionately.
Perhaps I only have limited experience. I spent 3 years at my first school which suffers from monumental social deprivation. I learned a huge amount about positive relationships and the pastoral side of education, but during those three years I had such limited genuinely positive CPD experience that I felt my teaching was regressing. On my PGCE I was regarded as the ‘academic one’ – the chap who read journals and research and would go on to one day to study for a doctorate. However, by the end of my first year I felt as though I had not developed this at all. By the third year I wanted to leave the profession, but this was nothing to do with the particularly ‘sparky’ students. Why?
Anecdotes and my own experience suggest to me that career-driven heavy SLTs have much to answer for. My NQT professional development was a box ticking exercise organised, if one can use the term, by a person who’d seemingly hopped through every TLR available without ever pausing for thought over a 30+ year career. In the first six months we’d only covered health & safety and the Bristol Code – what about reflections on our practice and the learning progress of children? I don’t think I’ve ever had school-centred CPD regarding this most central of themes – we’re all assumed to be able to teach (because of the PGCE, that work-heavy but reflective-lite certificate) and told to get on with it. What is it people say about assumptions?
The experiences I have had of SLTs, along with others, show that just as there are teachers who tick boxes of ‘taught’ content (never mind learned, appreciated, manipulated, evaluated) to pick up their salary, there exist also leaders who are happy to pick up their TLRs with minimal understanding of the requirements of the roles or their direct responsibility to the learning of children. Many of these appear to be teachers who don’t necessarily lack experience, but do lack either the ability, desire or vigour to invest time into professional development. I know of one AH who openly admits that he/she has never had to work so little to earn £50k. Perhaps more leadership teams should take more responsibility for their own professional development, as the R in TLR implies?
Now, like you say, we lack solid, collated evidence that this goes on everywhere – in fact, I’m sure that it doesn’t. But that some governing bodies, HTs, soon-to-be defunct LEAs and even academy sponsors allow their staff to cross thresholds simply due to experience or box-ticking as opposed to drive, verve and passion demonstrates poor planning, financial mismanagement and a lack of true regard for the professionalisation of teaching. That teachers’ experiences seem to differ so hugely from school-to-school suggests that those up top must be scrutinised for the lack of care paid to their staff, especially those new to the profession.
I would also say that the desire among many young teachers for a position of responsibility is an understandable financial one – I started on around £21k and could barely pay my rent for the first year: I couldn’t afford a TV licence, internet access etc., let alone a holiday which we teachers take all the time (First World Problems, I know)… This is something that needs to be looked at as it does affect the decisions staff take, especially in smaller schools where it might be easier for for the HT to allow stacked TLRs, etc.
Would young teachers get a fairer deal in a school where the staffing structure was based on merit, or perhaps to put it more scarily, ‘business-like’? Maybe – certainly, there might be greater accountability for training and professional development as SLTs might view their staff as assets. This does not mean I’m a Tory (I don’t understand how any history teacher could be) or an advocate of business sponsored academies – far from it. I also cringe at the frightening reports of exam-related pay progression – in the context of this piece that might well lead to more overtly industrialised vacuum-packed examanoids (children) shipped off under a Mr Monopoly SLT.
So what has this all been about? Where is my answer!? From my point of view a leadership team must be a cohesive unit, focussed on aggregational marginal gains which includes the professional development of their staff to encourage innovation, creativity and pedagogical reflection.
If I hadn’t left that first school when I did then I would not be teaching now, and that was purely down to mismanagement.
I am so glad to find out that not every school is like my first experience – but I would bet that for many it is.
I finished a PGCE in Secondary history at Oxford Uni in 2003, and went straight into a job at the school I went to as a pupil. By xmas I decided that teaching wasn’t for me, but I struggled through the rest of the year to get full QTS, and because I don’t like quitting halfway through things. Toughest year of my life, without a doubt, and I left in July 2004 feeling a total failure. I have since gone back into teaching in around 2007, starting with some supply which led onto a job in SEN at a school where I’ve been for 3 years.
I could write thousands of words on why the NQT year was so tough, but you could boil it down to the usual suspects – workload (crippling, depressing, unmanageable) and behaviour (more later on in the year when it really started to wear me down).
When I left teaching I found it really odd that no-one seemed interested in why I was l leaving, or wanting to do anything to stop me leaving. It seemed such a waste of that expensive qualification (both for me who left a well paid job to teach, and for the govt), but I just knew that a second year at that school would damage me – physically and mentally. There does seem to be an attitude of “if you can’t stand the heat…” which must drive out so many people who just need time and decent support to find their feet.
You’re absolutely right, it takes years to learn how to be even competent at teaching. A few naturally gifted people are competent early on, but for me classroom management took so, so long to learn, and none of the advice I got in it helped. The only way I got any good at it, was by lots of painful, hard experience – by making every mistake in the book and learning from each one. I came out of Oxford buzzing with fantastic pedagogical ideas and fell flat on my face as nothing that I had been taught actually worked. NQTs should be encouraged to teach in as simple way as possible at first, stick to books, worksheets and writing while they learn how to be the person at the front of the room.
More businesslike . . . Like bankers? Perhaps I am old and idealistic but I went into teaching in the State sector because I wanted a job in public service. The serve bit ismimportant to all good teahcers. Business is not service as it necessitates making more from customers than you provide and I do not like to think of educating the next generation through such an exploitative lens. The NHS and run for profit academies and free schools will find this out before the sun sets on this hideous government.
I have worked in several primary schools and don’t recognise the lack lack of CPD, discussion of pedagogy and dodgy SLTs described. Maybe this is why we have a low turnover, super retention and most turn over is for promotion. Our SLT have the job of keeping teaching and learning the only business we all discuss in any detail and the priority in all activity. All teachers and support staff lead an area and are supported while not micromanaged. We are very clear that we are not a business and get uppity if business models are suggested. Children are not dishwashers and professional judgement and a diverse range of approaches are needed for different subjects, cohorts and for teaching, managing pupil behaviour and the curriculum.
A recent Governor questionnaire (on Internet so anonymous) told us morale is very high and people all enjoy work, teaching and non teaching stff alike. We all work very hard (service) but SLT and governors are attentive to small gains (sorry the planning, prep, marking and assessment all has to be done). Small gains, especially in use of ICT hardware and software for teachers, makes a massive difference (not carrying round a knackered old laptop like a dead albatross and having to plug in every morning with varying degrees of success) to workload and the perception of the job as a profession. However we are all frequently depressed by the sorry state of the DFE and what often feels like a government conspiracy to make us demoralised and fed up. Never thought I’d look back at David Blunkett with nostalgia.
There’s a lot of research on this. Behaviour, lack of support, loneliness (i.e. not much company from other adults), lack of autonomy are all biggies. As someone said above “it’s not like people expect” is also a big one – many people go into teaching because they think it will satisfy *their* need for respect, control, dominance, progeny. When they realise that it’s actually about respecting the needs of others, and that any respect they might gather is actually from young naive minds rather than the prestigious ones they are seeking, then they leave and try to find the things they were looking for in a more appropriate place.
One other thing to think about that is less commonly raised but may be important. New entrants are overwhelmingly female. Many women have children and – given that the profession is about children – I wouldn’t be surprised if teachers often had *more* children than women in other professions. Some of those women will take time out of the paid labour market to look after their children – this feeds into the turnover numbers too. [Some men do, of course, take time off from work too when children are young but sadly the number is far far smaller than for women, and given that women are so much a higher percentage of the teaching workforce it seemed relevant here to talk about 'women' and 'men' rather than 'parents' in general - which is actually my preference].
On TeachFirst, having been through the programme I never at all felt that we were ‘pressured out’ or that teaching was made to seem like a ‘first step’ – I think that’s an unfortunate consequence of the name but not at all the philosophy. What is true about TF is that it takes *young people* and young people are more likely to move jobs – any job – in the start of their career now for a whole variety of reasons.
Laura – thanks for that perspective. Can you point me in the direction of some of the research on this?
I touched on the maternity issue above but yes, you’re right – I hadn’t considered the fact that there are more female teachers. Do we have figures on the ratio?
Here is some good healthy bias….bland are some of these posts…
Why do people leave teaching:
At the primary level… too much prescribed learning…and not enough exploration of ideas, arts and crafts, sports or morals. i.e. missing the woods, trees and all the marvelous species inside.
An erroneous view that ‘academic’ test performance is the best measure of success for young children’s education.
Class sizes…
Parents…
Children
SEN…
Marking…
The idiotic idea that individuals should teach groups…Groups are better at teaching groups…IMO. For example a internet forum will solve most problems quickly….
The ridiculous idea that because its a good idea in one setting that it will be a good idea everywhere.
Bloated Ofsted
Unrealistic expectations
Widespread bullying.
In addition there is no ‘consultant’ in the word team.
Wilshaw and Gove are public enemies
These are but a few. And I could spend weeks on this…
Lucky that I like learning.
@ Mrs Sue
My wife is a secondary science teacher, chemistry specialist.She is in her 7th year of teaching and it has got dramatically worse in the last 3 years, so you are wrong to suggest that teachers who rail against the 70 hour week had incorrect expectations at the outset.
She handed her notice in yesterday, she would like her life back.It’s not asking too much is it?
Interesting post – I stumbled upon when searching for ‘how to survive my last year of teachiing’ !! Came into the profession late and gave up my life for 5 years as suggested above. Regretted it tremendously as my children grew up downstairs while I worked away in the loft, and then I managed to address some balance by moving to a school closer to home.
Once when a Head was dumping a ridiculous situation on me they said ‘we are responsible for our own work/life balance’. Right I thought, you want that, you get it. And basically since then I have done enough for the kids to learn – usually a bit more because that bit matters – then I decided for myself when enough was enough.
What I am saying is don’t let them them push you around – very often SLT have pushed their families into the background, you don’t have to do it too. The Head I referred to above was left by their partner and the children went awol – so remember your kids matter too.
PS – will do my very best next year but can’t wait to go.
A really interesting piece and lends itself well for further study. Whilst undertaking ITT myself 5 years ago it became apparent that behaviour management and pastoral care were severely limited in the ITT curriculum. It was only because I was working in an environment where there were behavioural and pastoral issues that enabled me to find my own way to deal with them as a professional. Another additional factor is life experience as I came into teaching later on (early 30s) and I’m certain that supported me in problem solving and the ability to empathise; two features I feel are essential for teachers.
From small scale studies I have carried out myself, related to the demands placed on teachers, it would appear that teachers feel unprepared for the demands of teaching that are outside of perceived ‘ideals’ of the profession such as excessive administration, behaviour, pastoral care and aggressive target achievement. All too often support networks are weak and teachers are left to their own devices which can become extremely stressful when newly qualified or practicing in a different place of work. It would appear that ITT needs to embed the practicalities of teaching alongside theory to provide a foundation for practice as theory will struggle to provide a strategy for dealing with the day to day demands of teaching.
Hi,
I have really enjoyed reading this thread as I too am thinking about leaving the teaching profession.
I am in my third year (primary) and have had enough. I love my class to bits and my day to day routing with them and my amazing teaching assistant are the only things that keep me sane. I have a great realtionship with colleagues, get good feedback from observations and in general seen as a good teacher.
Following on from a previous post, I think it is fair to say that the reason I want to leave is because I love teaching.
I find I am becoming increasingly resentful of the meetings, paperwork and constant scrutiny of absolutely everything. I can’t think of any other jobs that are scrutinised as much as ours is.
Going home in tears every night due to work stress and deadlines is not the kind of life I envisaged for myself and I am not willing to continue down this stress riddled road until I burn out.
Since I have made the decision to leave I feel much happier and more positive about the future. I don’t know what is going to happen work wise but I do know I would much rather work in Tescos than teach at the moment.
Many people don’t understand the hardships of being a teacher. Holidays? You can keep em. They are not worth it. The pay is not worth it. Even the beautiful smiles of my class are not enough to keep me going anymore.
Feeling excited about the future.
I agree, particularly, with Uphill Struggle’s comments, being an experienced teacher who worked at the same school for 16 years, where there was a professional learning community and I was well respected in my job. I moved to care for aging parents, after being hired on the spot due to the sudden resignation of the previous teacher, and the fact that I was National Board Certified. My experience at my new school was very humbling with minimal support. My evaluation took the form of a seeming forced resignation. I wonder if principals consider it more work to develop the talent at hand rather than discarding it to start over from scratch? And this is to say nothing of the destruction it wreaks tearing that teacher away from the students he/she has bonded with or helped.
Goodness reading through all of these posts are so refreshing and have made me feel so much better!!
I am a secondary art teacher in my 5th year and 2nd school.
I work in a lovely little school in Kent which I love being a part of and cant imagine that i would want to leave for another school any time soon.
I have been seriously thinking of leaving the profession for the past two years as I have been really rather unhappy.
For me it boils down to work load, plain and simple.
I can cope with being observed and having targets. I can deal with bad behaviour and SLT who are not consistent etc etc etc.
For me to be able to do my job properly in any given day I will have had to spend hours at home in evenings and weekend planning the things that I turn up to school to deliver (not to mention marking) If I dont spend the time at home preparing the things that my job is all about then I will have nothing to teach the kids except the things in my head.
THIS CANT BE RIGHT!!! I get three frees a week. Thats three hours to plan and mark for 22 lessons a week. This is of course me pretending that I dont have to input data, reply to copious amounts of emails, phone parents, create stock orders for the art room and all the rest of the stuff we meet in the day that isnt teaching and learning.
How can it be remotely ok that for me to be able to do the job thats asked I have to prepare for 90% of the job at home?
I worked out the other night that if I (or you) did one hour a day extra work it works out a whole days labour (and I do mean labour) for free a week. And you can bet your bottom dollar a) most of us do more than that a week just to ‘get by’ day to day and b) any other profession would tell you where to stick it if you asked this if them.
I feel so very strongly about this. I love the kids dearly and love love love my subject. But I am sick of sitting at home feeling genuinely guilty in my tummy that Im not fdoing school stuff. I mean its saturday night now and in th back of my head my brains saying ‘hurry up. youve got that year 7 project to plan for next term’
So for me thats why I am personally going to leave. I can work as hard as the rest of them but when I get home I want to be able to live for me and not constantly for my job.
@lynn I wish we knew each other and could sit down for a coffee, what you said struck such a cord with me!!