There are very few advantages to a recession, but one seems to be that teacher retention levels rise.

In July 2020, a nationwide survey of teachers conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found that the proportion of teachers considering leaving the profession was 15 percentage points lower for primary and secondary from the previous year. Two months later, it predicted retention will remain high for 2020-21.

Yes, after seven years of missed teacher retention targets, things finally seem to be on the up.

Uncertainty sparked by the Covid pandemic hasn’t just made teaching a more attractive prospect to those already in the profession, but to new entrants, too. From the start of the first lockdown to July 2020, 21,410 graduates applied to teacher training programmes - a massive increase of 65 per cent on the five-year average.

But how long can we expect those trends to continue? Samantha Twiselton, the director of Sheffield Institute of Education at Sheffield Hallam University, says she was already concerned by the surge in applicants into the profession and is now troubled by the prospect of a possible exodus.

“I always worry when figures go up dramatically that people are choosing to apply for the wrong reasons. We know enough about the challenges of teaching that you’ve really got to want to do it,” she says.

The pandemic has exacerbated many of those challenges, and the retention picture is not looking as rosy as it did last year. Indeed, a survey carried out by the Education Policy Institute in January revealed that teachers were almost twice as likely to say they were intending to leave in the near future as they were before the pandemic, and there was a staggering 16-percentage-point jump for those planning to leave by the summer of 2025.

Twiselton says there is also increased talk of early retirement among middle and senior leaders. Why? Well, in the EPI survey, 71 per cent of respondents listed the government’s response to the pandemic as a reason.

Stress test

Even though schools are back open and somewhat running as normal, James Zuccollo, director for school workforce at the Education Policy Institute, warns that we’re not out of the woods yet: the potential for stress and disruption remains.

“For senior leadership teams in particular, it has been exceptionally difficult having to respond to constantly changing government guidelines. The pressure on the people who have had to stay on top of these requirements, and administer the necessary changes, has been enormous,” he says.

The impact on teaching and learning - as well as on retention - is massive here, he adds. “If you simply make teachers work harder, then their motivation is going to drop, so you’re not getting better teaching from doing that. More teaching does not necessarily equate to more learning.

“If you lose your good teachers because they, as hardworking, motivated individuals, have options elsewhere, then you are not going to have good teaching. You need to support the teachers in order to help the children.”

And if people do have an alternative, will they just walk away? Last year, the NFER reported that the regions with the highest increase in teaching applicants had also seen the highest increases in unemployment benefit claims. So, when the labour markets open up again, new teachers could be offered the opportunity to return to their previous professions or to apply for less taxing roles. What we cannot predict, says Zuccollo, is whether they will take these chances.

So, the recruitment picture isn’t quite so rosy after all. But what can be done to prevent more teachers from leaving as the economic effects of the pandemic begin to fade?

Top priority

The Department for Education has already pledged to make teacher recruitment and development a priority. Writing for Tes last month, Robin Walker, the new minister for school standards, stated that the development of the school workforce, “including support staff, teachers and leaders”, will be “right at the top of my priorities”.

In October, the DfE backtracked on a decision to cut teacher training bursaries in some subjects by up to 73 per cent. They also changed the eligibility requirements for their national professional qualifications (NPQs) to make the courses available to staff in all schools as opposed to only staff in more deprived areas. And last week, chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that a freeze on public sector pay would be lifted, and the government would push ahead with plans to raise teacher starting salaries.

According to Zuccollo such changes are a step in the right direction, but more still needs to be done: the DfE could make the profession more attractive by listening to teachers, setting out clear plans and sticking to these as far as possible, he says.

Twiselton, meanwhile, advocates a radical overhaul of the teacher recruitment model. “If I were the government, instead of thinking about what incentives I would turn back on, I would be rethinking the whole thing,” she says. “I would not be thinking of these as incentives, but as enablers. There have been a lot of comments about people who have been prevented from joining the teaching profession [because of the entry requirements], for example.”

She also calls for a reduction in accountability to combat teacher stress and lack of confidence. “I think that the Ofsted visits should not feel quite so high-stakes and should be more constructive. Teachers shouldn’t feel as if their heads are on the block,” she argues.

Educational coach and consultant Sharon Monaghan agrees - and says that inspections when large numbers of pupils and teachers are off isolating don’t help anyone. Instead, she thinks that Ofsted should take a more diagnostic, supportive role at the moment rather than a judgemental one.

In addition, Monaghan is a believer in supporting recruitment and retention through “grow your own” models, training existing school support staff to be teachers through schemes such as the postgraduate teaching apprenticeships (PGTAs).

Writing in a recent issue of Tes, headteacher Amanda Wilson described such training routes as “crucial” for the profession. However, there are resource implications for schools here. For example, for the PGTA, you’d need to find cover for “at least a day and a half each week for each apprentice - and meet the costs that come with that,” Wilson pointed out.

These cover implications can be particularly problematic for small schools, says Aimee Tinkler, head of school at Carsington and Hopton Primary School, in rural Derbyshire, which has 28 pupils on roll. That applies to leadership training courses, too.

“I’m desperately trying to get the DfE to see that there is no way small schools can benefit from [the NPQs], even if the course is free, because small schools can’t afford supply and many of the senior leaders teach every day,” she explains.

Tinkler worries that, without additional funding for cover, the limitations of access to training could make the recruitment and retention situation worse for schools like hers.

“If people start to feel they will have no development opportunities in small schools and that all the big school staff are getting lots of career development, the recruitment crisis is going to get worse - especially [for] senior leaders,” she says.

Effective CPD

Funding for training is clearly an issue. However, schools can also work to improve professional development opportunities for staff that don’t rely on formal qualifications, Monaghan points out.

Earlier this month, a report from the Education Endowment Foundation into effective professional development set out three recommendations to help leaders improve the decisions they make about training (see box, below).

Monaghan also stresses the importance of access to peer support. Leaders should make the most of the local school hubs, she says, as they can be brilliant for networking and providing a sounding board for any issues.

Classroom teachers, meanwhile, need to be “armed with the skills to survive”, Zuccollo says, and SLTs need to ensure they constantly offer support and keep communication channels open. Here, mentors can play a crucial role, says Monaghan - and schools should make use of others in their area.

“The mentor needs to be someone who is not the [person’s] line manager, because otherwise they can’t be honest about the systems. A school-to-school model would work well in this situation,” she adds. “I set up a supervision and mentoring network between four local schools. There were no costs apart from the time involved. It worked well because we ensured it was a confidential space to get support. We all had training in supervision so we were qualified to do it. It’s about upskilling staff to be able to provide their own support networks.”

Ultimately, changes need to happen at governmental and school level if education is to turn the tide on recruitment and retention. Zuccollo has a long list of things he would like to see introduced: financial support, headteacher support, a degree of autonomy and a framework for the future, including how student assessments will look, as tenets to motivate teachers to stay in the profession.

Whether all, or some, of those changes are introduced, he is clear that something needs to happen. “We won’t have any statistics on retention for another year or so,” he says, “but we need to act now to avoid any severe consequences.”

Katie Scott is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 5 November 2021 issue under the headline “Tes focus on…Teacher retention”