It’s that time when headteachers watch nervously for colleagues approaching, envelopes in hand, as the resignation deadline for this academic year approaches. Since the numbers leaving the profession for non-retirement reasons continues to cause alarm, and since more teachers are leaving the profession than joining it, maybe we need a radical approach to flexible working - particularly for teachers who are also parents.

The Department for Education tell us that 27 per cent of those leaving the profession for non-retirement reasons are women in their thirties. It’s not difficult to see why. And the issue’s been highlighted in Tes recently - in response to an editorial on flexible working, many teachers spoke out about the stresses of balancing their jobs with family life.

As Tes editor Ann Mroz pointed out in her article, it’s an issue that isn’t talked about much. So my heart went out to a new trainee in November last year when she broke down three months into her training, I listened to her reasons for wanting to leave her course: the workload, the demands of the school and the pressure. But she actually broke at the point when she said: ’I haven’t taken my children to school all term. I am exhausted when I am putting them to bed at night before starting work again.’

I’ve thought a lot about this trainee. Would one late start each week, to allow for her to be a parent first and take her children to school, have made a difference? Instead of being told that she’d have to get used to it, would hearing that she was entering a supportive profession, in which teachers who were also parents were treasured, welcomed and indeed highly valued, have made a difference?

At South Yorkshire Futures, a social mobility partnership dedicated to raising attainment and aspirations, we’ve been asking aspiring and current trainees, as well as newly and recently qualified teachers, about their motivations to teach and their thoughts for their career in teaching. And their responses have underlined the concerns expressed in Tes.

Among current teacher training students, when considering applying to teach, their biggest concerns about the profession were overwhelmingly about workload. When asked to rank their concerns, 67.2 per cent out of a total of 357 respondents cited the demands of the job when qualified as their top concern.

And, alarmingly, when our survey - carried out in February this year - asked those currently in training how long they thought that they would stay in the profession, some were already citing their desire to have a family as a reason why they might leave in the first five years.

Reassuringly, across South Yorkshire, we found that almost nine out of 10 new or recently qualified teachers were satisfied with their job. But, more worryingly, almost half had considered leaving the profession already in their training year, and of those who had considered this, one in five said they would definitely or probably leave in the next five years. Workload and work-life balance were cited as the key factors, but raising a family came through as a concern.

‘Letting my family down’

When we asked what factors would have the greatest influence on people choosing to leave, one current trainee responded:

“Reducing workload would make me much more likely to stay on as a teacher as I know that later in life once I have children of my own it will be too much.”

Another asked: “Can I work less than 70 hours and take care of my children?”

And a third concluded: “If the workload is so overwhelming that I have to choose between my daughter and my job - my daughter will come first.”

One PGCE student spoke of already feeling stretched: “I have carer responsibilities at home and feel that I am letting my dependants down at present because I am working very long hours and I am unable to spend enough time with my family.”

So, it seems to me that when we look at teachers who are also parents, they have a dilemma. They are passionate about the power of a great teacher to transform lives but there’s a systemic conflict between their need to raise their own children as happy, secure, loved individuals and the need to meet the same needs in their children at school.

It’s no surprise, then, that teachers who are also parents find managing the demands of teaching alongside the demands of being a parent overwhelming. 

Creating parent-friendly workplaces

We have a decision to make. Do we accept that being a teacher is not compatible with being a parent (or being a parent is not compatible with being a teacher?) Or do we grasp the nettle and decide that our schools should put energy into creating places of employment that are parent-friendly, that flex to meet the needs of teacher parents, and that cherish and value them?

Is it OK to suggest that teachers have to get used to the inflexibility? 

I’m sad to say, being in initial teacher training and working with trainees and new teachers for a number of years, I’ve almost felt it was seen as part of the initiation of teaching. I’ve heard people say:  ’If you can survive the PGCE year you can survive anything.’ And: ‘Teaching is hard - you just have to get used to it.’

In my opinion, that’s not good enough. There is no badge of honour for not seeing your children from one half-term to the next. If we carry on down this road, everyone loses. Children end up being parented by exhausted anxious parents and taught by exhausted and anxious teachers. And the profession loses out because it loses a wealth of expertise and experience. It costs on every level.

Schools, settings, and training routes have to respond, they have to adapt. They have to think differently.

We have to challenge the view that anything less than full-time, late evenings and at least one day each weekend is somehow second-rate. I’ve heard all the reasons why some heads don’t want their staff to job share or work part-time (continuity, parent satisfaction, etc). But those reasons are valid only if we keep on doing what we’ve always done. It may take some radical thinking: what if a five-day teaching week were not the norm but the exception? What if we provided training and support for successful job-share opportunities? What if all teachers had the choice to work from home one-half day a week? What if, what if…?

Highly-motivated, talented teachers want to make a difference to young people’s lives, but not at the expense of their own children. And when it comes down to it, when the choice has to be made: what would you choose?

I’m hopeful that plans for extended training into induction for newly qualified teachers will make it easier to enter the profession, and that workload initiatives from the Department for Education will make a difference. But let’s not wait. Headteachers and principals should all be asking themselves a question: “If I have the power to make teacher parents life more manageable now, what can I do differently”?

Sue O’Brien works at the Sheffield Institute of Education and is also a strand lead on their South Yorkshire Futures Partnership