To assume teachers will leave private schools

I accept a lower salary and not being in TPS because I absolutely love my teaching job in a private school. I can’t imagine going back to bigger classes - 14-20 in a class where I am means I get to know the children so well, and I really enjoy the freedom I have not to follow the national curriculum and explore the children’s interests. Plus I teach a specialist subject to 3-11 year olds and this job is much harder to find in state schools. I am lucky thought that I’m not the main earner in our house.

Not so lucky is that my school is a small stand alone prep that is feeling the impact of VAT and other factors so will be making redundancies this year…

By the way, my own children are in an excellent state secondary so I’m not anti state!

How rude. My dds state school is really good they are very fond of their teachers and vice versa.

The other negative about teaching in private is nightmare entitled parents. They are basically customers so
its a different dynamic to state. One friend who teaches in one has had parents yelling that they pay and are paying for those 9s!

I've worked in both. The idea that private sector teachers have an easier workload is laughable.

In state there are plenty of challenges - behavioural, social (extent depending on the school and area), large classes makes behaviour management and quality teaching more difficult because there's more to differentiate.

Private - a lot more marking (despite smaller classes because its expected more frequently), longer holidays but a much higher workload in the termtimes, longer days and longer weeks, especially in boarding schools as there are compulsory extra curricular, boarding duties, weekend school and so on. Parents are very demanding.

Pay pretty comparable, state generally better pension but private has put in other perks in lieu of the good pension eg health care cash plans, fee remission.

Most teachers I know it's just about where a job comes up at the time they are looking unless they are ideologically opposed to private or they teach a subject rarely found in state like Classics. Both sectors are really struggling to recruit.

The big difference for me is that private schools like to hide from the parents how much they overwork their staff.

I'm sure some teachers would rather chop a leg off than go back to state schools!

I know loads of teachers at various schools. A couple at comprehensives especially in the inner city schools have struggled with behaviour and one left. She didn't feel supported. However I have relatively recently had a
friend leave a well respected private school for state because she found the attitudes of the children difficult. She is a very experienced teacher but couldn't take the way the kids (secondary) acted. Rude, entitled and treated teacher with contempt. Also said there was as much bullying as her previous state school and more drug use. It's not all roses.

@BagGreen24

I would have thought that potential applicants will look at the whole package on offer, as people do for non teaching sectors. Benefits such as fee discounts, gym membership, free meals, discounted accommodation, BUPA etc at private schools will be very appealing to some.

The majority of state secondaries can also employ non qualified teachers. Academies and free schools are able to do this and account for around 82% of schools. The figure is around 43% in state primaries.

Teachers don't leave teaching because of the students. They leave because of the crazy, unmanageable workload.

Private schools accept untrained teachers. Not necessarily unqualified in their subject, but without PGCE or QTS. So lesser conditions and at times even lower salaries work for them.

As harsh as the state system is for teachers, it does tend to recruit quality teaching staff. It just lambasts their ability to do a really good job with the ridiculous workload and class sizes loaded on them.

What a ridiculous sweeping summary. Behaviour is not bad in state schools- the vast majority of schools 88% are rated good or above and behaviour is scrutinised to get good. Not all private schools are lovely environments to work in either. I’ve got friends who removed children due to bullying and poor behaviour not being dealt with in the private sector for fear of upsetting fee paying parents.

Anybody suggesting pay and pension shouldn’t be very high on the priority list in this climate are being ridiculous and clearly talking from a place of privilege.

teacher recruitment & retention is definitely a thing in both sectors

We still get loads of applications for posts too. And I know that I earn more here as a classroom teacher than I would as HoD or subject leader in other local schools, so it varies a lot. A big successful independent school is still a secure place to work.

The possibility of smaller classes, better behaviour and a nicer working environment in general can attract staff even if the salary is lower.

TPS has become unaffordable for lots of private schools since the increase in employers’ contributions. Fortunately ours allows existing teachers to remain in; different scheme for new colleagues. I think this is common. Salaries are generally higher than in state sector though. Plus you get reduced fees for your own children. So, no incentive for me to leave or move schools.

OP it sounds like you need to do a bit more work to understand what the private system is and how it works. Comparing pay and pension alone is very short sighted and overlooks a lot of differences in working conditions and expectations that add up to the general situation that no, teachers are not leaving in droves.

You also need to consider holidays, teaching hours, class sizes, discipline, student motivation, staff morale, CPD opportunities, facilities depending on your subject, and I’m sure many more factors.

You also need to understand the school’s selection process and academic ambitions to determine how much pressure there is to achieve results.

If you don’t have this information then you can’t make a balanced judgment on what working conditions will be like and you certainly can’t assume that people are leaving in droves (they’re not). If you’re not keen on engaging with that information then private school is probably not for you.

The parents pay a lot of money to have teachers who want to be there for the right reasons, and it’s the schools job to make sure they create an environment that’s conducive to that. Generally I think they get it reasonably right, the govt could learn a lot of lessons from them.

Often teaching at a private school means the teachers’ kids can study there at a heavily discounted rate. And lots of other perks.

It depends what you want though. Since private schools usually have smaller class sizes, that's a lot less taxing on the person teaching them and trying to control behaviour etc.

Plus, it sounds as if state secondary schools are even more challenging to be in than ever, post Covid.

Is that even after adjusting for longer holidays?

I'm nor a teacher but have daughters in 3 different private schools and any vacancies, which are probably 1 or 2 every 3 or 4 years to date appear to be snapped up. Local schools if the papers are to believed have long term vacancies which aren't being filled.

Most teachers in my children’s private school have children there on 50% fees and a subsidised house. That’s worth way more than the pension. They have also been out of TPS for many years - hasn’t affected recruitment, in fact, they had over 20 candidates for a maths post recently and maths is notoriously difficult to recruit for.

Teachers Are leaving state school in droves. Who would want to teach there with all the bad behaviour? We had a child expelled last week for constantly low level disruption since September. They take no messing. Private school is generally a lovely environment to work in.

I got offered a middle leader job at a private school. Had to turn it down because they were offering less money than I was on as a classroom teacher at a state school. Less pay, less pension, longer school days.

The fee discount is a big pull for many teachers in private schools, as well as accommodation & longer holidays

I always thought private school staff were paid less because of the benefit of smaller class sizes and lower workload. I have a friend who works on reception in a private school and had to go to her union as she was getting paid lower than minimum wage!

I was talking about this with my brother recently, he is a deputy head at a Scottish private school, his school is still part of the 2015 teachers pension scheme, pays between 5 and 7% above the state school pay grades and teachers get 60% off school fees. As a result they have the best teachers in the area, they are never short of excellent applicants.
The great teachers mean very few pupils have left due to VAT, those who have have been quickly replaced by kids on the waiting list. They have higher fees (by quite a bit) than all the other schools in the area.
I think that some schools are going to have change how they approach things, as clearly in this case at least, compensating the teachers well has paid off and they are coping with VAT just fine while other schools in his area are on there knees (two of them have decided to merge from 2026, another small one is close to closure).

I think an Academy Trust has looked at opting out of TPS. At 28% employer contributions it is horrendously expensive for employers