In 2018 the OECD TALIS report of international teachers showed that 53% of Primary teachers and 57% of Secondary teachers in the UK felt their workload was unmanageable. Despite a Government Teacher Retention and Retention Strategy and the introduction of the Early Career Framework recent media coverage of the teaching profession shows that such initiatives are not yet having the desired effect. With a recent report in the Guardian showing a third of teachers who qualified in the last decade having now left the profession.

There are a multitude of reasons why teachers might be considering a switch away from the classroom. The Department for Education published data in April this year that highlights a number of key issues.

Bullying;

Unfortunately despite the fact that many classroom teachers in the UK feel supported in their roles work place bullying and harassment is unfortunately still prevalent in some schools.

One in ten teachers reported experiencing bullying in the last 12 months with 8% experiencing discrimination. Those from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely than white counterparts to report bullying.

Health & Wellbeing;

Teacher and Leader wellbeing in English State schools is lower than in equivalent wellbeing scores for the UK Population according to the Office of National Statistics. The relentless pressures of the job is clearly having an impact on teachers quality of life compared with those in other professions.

Many teachers felt their work was having a negative impact on their health and wellbeing.

Mental health.

56% said that the job impacted their mental health. Senior Leaders and Heads felt that the job did not give them sufficient time for a personal life.

59% of Head teachers stated that the job negatively affected their mental health.

Staff in schools with a history of underperformance or a poor Ofsted rating have lower wellbeing scores than those with better Ofsted gradings.

Under Valued;

69% of teachers feel the profession is not valued by society with one third of these was respondents disagreeing strongly.

3 in 10 teachers feel that their school does not reward high performance.

Pay;

The majority of teachers are dissatisfied with pay. 61% did not agree the salary they were given for the work that they did was satisfactory.

Future Intentions;

25% feel they will consider leaving in the next 12 months. This was higher for teachers in secondary settings. A high number 41% of teachers stated that they would consider leaving in the next 5 years.

In 92% of cases workload was cited as a reason for leaving followed by policy changes (76%) and pressures relating to pupil outcomes or inspection (69%)

The most common reason for Early Career Teachers who were considering leaving within the first year was workload at 91%.

27% of teachers between the ages 25 – 44 wanted to leave.

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