There is a quote that is attributed to George Bernard Shaw: “You see things, and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were, and say, ‘Why not?’ Here is one of my 'why-nots'.

Why don’t we give teachers a two to three-month sabbatical every 10 years or so? The case for doing so is strong.

Studies suggest that teacher improvement plateaus after four to five years. What might a period out of the classroom to reflect, research or re-energise do to improve this?

We are losing too many good teachers. We all know about the 40 per cent who are lost within the first 5 years. We don’t generally talk about the other 15-20 per cent who go in the next 15 years. Less than half of those teachers who are over the age of 50 will still be teaching aged 60. Would giving some of these teachers breathing space help to reverse that trend? 

Read more: What ‘burnout’ taught me about being a happy teacher

More views: 'There is no such thing as teacher-tired'

Background: New research to begin on boosting teacher retention 

Why it almost certainly can’t happen

I want to recognise that there are some very significant potential obstacles to the plan

• Firstly, consider the cost. If a typical teacher earning £30,000 to £40,000 is given a three-month sabbatical that would cost £7,000 to £10,000 to fund. That’s per teacher – so assume a national cost of millions each year. Who pays?
• Then consider the cover arrangements. We don’t have enough teachers as it is without taking a number of them out of the classroom for several months. Who would cover the classes?
• Finally, consider the impact on learning. We might be risking two to three key months in the run-up to GCSEs and A levels. We might be bringing unnecessary disruption and change to a reception class that has just settled with their teacher. How much learning would be lost?

So conventional wisdom suggests that this may a nice idea but is just too impractical to carry out. But please indulge me for a moment.

How sabbaticals work in other professions

Sabbaticals are commonplace in universities; they manage to make them work. However, my understanding of sabbaticals is taken from Christian ministry. I have a brother-in-law and a couple of friends who are ministers.

This means that every seven to 10 years, they have time out from their churches – about 3 months – to engage in study, personal development and reflection. In that time they have gone on pilgrimages, completed an MA, written books, and toured with Christian musicians playing non-church venues. They have thus returned to their parishes refreshed and reinvigorated with new ideas.

Teaching is not dissimilar to ministry. Once you are in the post, you are never totally off duty – your mind is always on the job. Other than the holidays it can be hard to pause and reflect. During the holidays you are too knackered to pause and reflect. Both professions suffer high rates of burnout; as caring professions, the question that is often unanswered is “who cares for the carers?”

How it could work in teaching?

There are a number of things that teachers could do if they were given a sabbatical. They could update subject knowledge and/or pedagogical skills perhaps by doing a further qualification either in their subject area or in education.

A science teacher might secure an industry placement for a few weeks or a RE teacher might spend time with a religious community that they are less familiar with.

There are no magic wands, but here is how some of the challenges might be overcome:

• Cost: We know the financial cost of giving a sabbatical. We don’t know what the costs of not having sabbaticals is. Each time a teacher leaves the profession it costs around £23,000 to train a new teacher. If we could lower the leaving rate, it would in principle be possible to calculate the cost of Sabbaticals or indeed the money saved.
• Cover: This is more difficult to overcome although if eventually, we are able to retain more teachers through sabbaticals and more importantly other improvements to teachers working conditions then eventually we ought to have more people in the system.
• Impact on learning: It should be possible to minimise disrupted learning by forward planning. If a staff member is due a sabbatical then perhaps they teach year 10, not year 11, year 5 not year 6. The timing of the sabbatical would not be set in stone but there would be a window in which it should be taken and heads would need to balance this along with other competing demands. It is important to note that the impact would not be solely negative. The member of staff in question would hopefully be re-energised upon their return.

In my blue-sky world, I see a sabbatical after the first five years are complete – an incentive to hang in there – and a further mid-career sabbatical after 15 to 20 years but I am not prescriptive about this.

The important principle is that we give experienced teachers space and in doing so, we may give the profession a further selling point for those contemplating whether teaching is a career for them.

Chris Eyre is the curriculum manager for humanities at the Stoke Sixth Form College