How to improve teacher retention

The challenges around teacher retention are greater than ever:

More teachers are leaving than ever before: 27% more teachers left the profession before retirement in 2014-16 compared to 2011-13 (1).

Teachers are leaving profession earlier: 26% of teachers left the profession within three years, up from 20% in 2009 (2).

Competition from the international schools’ market: international schools currently employ c.430,000 teachers. By 2021, this will be close to c.580,000 – a 36% increase (3).

Increased competition between schools: between 2011 and 2015 teachers moving between schools within the year nearly doubled (4).

There’s a link between engagement and retention

When you look at retention: if your teachers are engaged, 90% of them won’t consider leaving your school, compared with 25% if your teachers don't feel engaged (5).

Facilitate increased collaboration and teacher networking

Teaching can be a lonely profession; a feeling of isolation can often drive teachers to leave. You can have a direct impact on your teacher retention rate by facilitating greater collaboration and teacher networking.

We’ve launched Team Groups to help you retain and empower your staff.

It’s an internal communications and messaging platform that helps keep your teachers engaged and helps foster a sense of community between staff.

Team Groups brings your teachers and their conversations together in one place. Unlike other school communication platforms – which usually rely on internal email – Team Groups host all messages in one, easy to access place, on a platform you’re familiar with – Tes Portal.

Your teachers can:

Beat loneliness: your staff can chat with other teachers in their subject area or across their school/MAT without having the need to see them in person.

Share best practice: if teachers want to give or ask for support, have a great idea, or find a resource which may help their colleagues, they can share these in a dedicated group.

Socialise: Team Groups encourages teachers to set up social groups that match their hobbies and about topics they care about to connect with like-minded teachers in their school/MAT.

(1) School Workforce Census, November 2016;

(2) gov.co.uk, ‘Analysis of teacher supply, retention and mobility’, May 2017

(3) DfE, ‘Factors affecting teacher retention: qualitative investigation Research report’ March 2018

(4) Schools workforce in England 2010 to 2015: trends and geographical comparisons

(5) National Federation for Educational Research, 2016