1/2? in 5 teachers leave 'teaching' within 5 years

[IamRechargingthankYou]

Would anyone be kind enough to direct me to the
evidence please? I'm not Michael Gove, nor journalist,
I just want to know why, and in order to know I need to
start with the evidence for this. Any links to the evidence
would be very much appreciated.

Please note I have asked for evidence, not opinion.
Many thanks

[Delphiniumsblue]

If you Google it you find plenty of evidence. You only have to talk to teachers. They want a life in addition to work!

[Glossolalias]

Why do so many teachers leave teaching?

[meditrina]

I tried googling. I havene't found anything well sourced for UK (inc on TES and NUT) but did find it in US research from the mid-00s.

[balia]

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/182407/DFE-RR151.pdf

[Keepcalmanddrinkwine]

I am seriously considering leaving the profession. My home life is almost non-existent. The final straw was spending most of Mothers' Day planning instead of enjoying quality family time. It really got me down. I am not in a minority.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Please miss I don't understand the title.

I was qualified teacher (still am) I suppose.
I did my first year and then left.
I was post compulsory if this makes any difference.

[phlebasconsidered]

I did 7 years, had 5 years off, and have been back 2 years. After July I am seriously considering never going back, or if I do, only to supply. I haven't really seen my kids since I started back. And I'm stressed to the hilt.

[Delphiniumsblue]

You don't really need to google it, just talk to teachers. They generally love the classroom, it is the paperwork that gets them down.
Any job ought to give you time to socialise in the evenings and the weekend.

[makemineapinot]

And the fact that in west central Scotland at the moment there are no permanent contracts available so people are are shoved onto supply and short term contracts with no stability/continuity for them or children. Older teachers wanting retirement are not allowed to retire early. Society ver negative towards teachers through bad press/holidays/strikes etc. Dare I mention paperwork?!! Love my job, hate that it takes over my life with little money, and that no-one here can get a permanent contract (essential for mortgages etc) yet are expecting to sweat blood and tears then fill in yet more forms about it...

[LostInMusic]

I started at my school with 7 other NQTs (variety of subjects)...2 left teaching after that first year and on Friday, after 7 years, I will be leaving teaching too...!
I am leaving because of the ridiculous workload, over reliance on meaningless data and constant criticism from every angle. Full-time English teaching is totally incompatible with having a husband and son who I actually see.

[rollonthesummer]

I started at my school with 7 other NQTs (variety of subjects)...2 left teaching after that first year and on Friday, after 7 years, I will be leaving teaching too...!
I am leaving because of the ridiculous workload, over reliance on meaningless data and constant criticism from every angle. Full-time English teaching is totally incompatible with having a husband and son who I actually see.

Such a shame, Lostinmusic; it's happening at my place, too. Do you have another job to go to?

[Merefin]

I left after 20 years. I'd never go back. My two super talented committed friends from my last school both leave this term. Neither going back. Wonderful kind intelligent teachers. Burnt out and miserable.

It's a tragic situation at the moment.

Friends of mine in school management are getting almost no applications for teaching posts, and that's in good schools in a 'nice' area.

[rollonthesummer]

It's awful :(

Have you seen the post on here from a teacher whose children's school are changing lots of their holidays so many will be different to hers. This is going to be another big issue for teachers in the future.

[Kendodd]

I have to confess I have never really believed the figure. I know sevsn teachers socially, two had career breaks when they had their children, then went back. I know two other people who have done teacher training, one left very soon after qualifying and one didn't do her NQT year (does that means she's qualified or not?). I don't know anyone else who has been a teacher or even just done the training then left. Nobody at my children's school as quit teaching since mine have been there although a couple have moved to other schools.

Can I ask the people who left teaching, what job do you do now?

[mummytime]

I think Scotland is a very different situation from England at present. (I am one of a number of trainee teachers I know who are highly qualified but quit during training due to the stress/never seeing our children.)

[LostInMusic]

Rollonthesummer - I've signed up with a supply agency (who have said they've got more work than they know what to do with...) and I'm doing 2 lots of exam marking in the Summer. My plan is to just keep myself ticking over while I hopefully have the time to think and look for jobs... I still feel quite sad about my decision, really, but I just know that I simply can't carry on as I have been doing...

[GoodnessIsThatTheTime]

I took time out with the children and realky don't want to go back. I've done a little adult ed but I will need a proper job soon.

I'm still not sure what to go into. It's so diffdrent being a mid 30s mum to a shiny graduate.

[Wendydog]

I started my NQT year with 5 others and 6 years on 3 (including me) have left teaching.

[GoodnessIsThatTheTime]

I made 6 years, so just over the 5 - but some of it was part time...

[Cernabbas]

I have been teaching 14 years. In that time I have known quite a few teachers leave within 3-5 years. The really sad thing is they were brilliant, enthusiastic teachers. It wasn't being in the classroom that wasn't for them, it was all the paperwork and bollocks from up high that finished them off.
It isn't the same profession as it was when I started. We are portrayed by media as glorified babysitters who are being greedy about pay and pensions. If Gove's plans come into force our education system is going to fall apart as more and more fantastic teachers leave.

[makemineapinot]

Euphemia, still no one available short term on supply... Not worth it, so people are quitting and finding alternative careers with stability. Really don't want to move as it will affect my own dc but need a permanent job!

[chicaguapa]

Tbf it could be 0.01% of teachers leaving, but if they were fantastic teachers who made a difference to many children's education and left for the 'wrong' reasons, ie paperwork and not the teaching, it's a tragic waste and 0.01% too many.

It shouldn't be a survival of the fittest profession. Valuable teachers who make such an impact of children's futures should be nurtured like the children they're teaching. We'd be lost without them.

DH is hanging in there after 4 years. I don't want him to leave because teaching is his dream and I don't know where that would leave him if he lost it. But our home life has suffered for it. He should be fulfilled, not burnt out.

[stillenacht]

I am seriously considering getting out of secondary music to teach peripatetically in primaries and secondaries. Can't be doing with impossible targets, kids doing no wrong, endless paperwork and more and more required for lesson obs and schemes of work, pressures to do concerts, tours and trips, paperwork for trips being burdensome, policies being counter productive. 18 years over and out.