To ask: how many good teachers are we losing this year?

[SachaStark]

I am one of you.

Asking partly out of a place of seeking solidarity as I plan to leave a profession I love very much, but which has exhausted me both mentally and physically in just six years.

And partly because I think many parents still need to be made aware of how many teachers their children will lose over their school careers these days. I think, really, we need to rely on their voices to speak up in vast numbers before any changes will be made in state education.

We are a month now from the end of the school year in England, so notice hand-in period has ended, and I wondered how many, like me, who are passionate teachers, who in another life would have spent another few decades in the profession, are going?

Well done on 6 years. I managed 3!

Me! My mat leave is almost over and I'm not going back. I made it to 12 years so I've done more than most these days.

I work in children’s services and and link worker for several schools as are my colleagues and we are losing loads of senior leadership team staff including heads at the end of this year

Me. I'm leaving too after16 years.

Can you share what made you give up? I loved teaching but things are very different nowadays.

I would love to leave but simply can’t find anything else I want to do that pays enough to pay the mortgage. I can’t afford to do another degree to retrain.

I wish I could have taught when I was at school in the 1970s-it was a different job then, I think.

In Wales our curriculum is changing vastly over the next year or so. As a result a lot of teachers near to retirement are bailing before having to adapt again to new changes.

@Mammajay, I suppose the most basic answer is that I don’t think I can continue subsisting on a few hours of sleep a night due to trying to keep up with the workload for much longer. Even in a great school, as I am now, I don’t see this as a sustainable lifestyle anymore. And it really is a lifestyle!

The longer answer would include many more things I don’t agree with on a more political level, such as children treated as data, “teaching to the test” rather than to instil a lifelong love of learning, being told how to do my job by people who’ve never set foot in a classroom and who never seem to have even MET a teenager, etc.

Our pretty lovely, still LA, Ofsted 'Good' and we're losing 3x Maths (including HOD), one tech. Apparently this is brilliant as many schools roundabout losing many more. All moving to alternative careers.

I'm leaving after 15 years. Want some work life balance back!

I'm very close. Over a decade and I've just been given my gained time tasks; basically rewrite 4 schemes of work and organise all of my A level (2 subjects) with an extra 8 hours a week. I cried, I'm not going to lie. New HoD parroting how we must do all of this 'for Ofsted'. Fuck the kids and their needs, or the appalling behaviour that is making me want to drink. I have given so much this year and those 8 hours a week were going to give me time or organise our A Level. Tough shit.

This makes me so sad 😞

I should add... we have 22 new staff joining our large but not massive High school to replace the ones driven out. Many of them at random points during the year leaving us with over 15 rather poor supply teachers. I say poor because the good ones (bar 2 who i love) walk in and then walk out.

I know this won't be helpful for everyone (and certainly doesn't solve the wider problem) but I'm 15 years in with 11 of those in independent schools. After the last year back in state sector I'm running straight back to the private sector in September. If I had to stay state I would be leaving the profession n 4 weeks time as well.

I left the state system after 18 years at Xmas. Moved to an online school, teach from home and feel as though I have my life back. I think I have found the only solution that would have allowed me to remain a teacher.

Ah, if I agreed with private education, I’d probably be running there with you!

I'm going to be an advisor for the la. I love teaching but I love my kids more and I want to spend a bit of time with them occasionally and not be exhausted at the time!

2 colleagues are leaving the profession, one is an NQT! Another 2 are going to Qatar. Better pay (by a considerable way), paid for apartments, better holiday and a return flight home twice a year. I honestly don't know why unattached teachers would stay in the UK with the working conditions and the entitled attitudes of some children/parents.

You used to be able to be creative. Yoiu used to be able to take the children outside to deliver various topics... (maths to geography to science to language)

I left over a decade ago. people ask if I want to go back. not while I have disabled children, no. I had to go part time for the last few years after nearly burning out. it is just not sustainable.

Me.

I’m the total opposite to all of you in that I want to go back! I stopped last year because I couldn’t find any wraparound childcare for my own son to use- I taught in a different school to his. I couldn’t drop him off anywhere early enough to get myself to school in the morning. He’s now moved to my school and I get breakfast/after school club free, but they don’t need me back next year- who wants an expensive part time teacher who’s a mum and has to leave at 5pm? Far better just to get a sparky 22 yo nqt with bags more energy for a fraction of the price. I feel like I’m on the scrap heap and I am only just 40 😔.

There must be something else we can all do- good luck everybody x x x

Left two years ago. Our school wasn’t as difficult as many I know. It had also been classed as outstanding by Ofsted on its last 4 inspections. But, the work load was so draining, the lack of sleep plus loosing at least one day at the weekend that I wanted to spend with my family made the teaching life unsustainable.
I noticed that they are advertising for three new teachers again this year. Three more outstanding colleagues have left.

I’m not a teacher but a parent and I appreciate the hard work all teachers put in. My two dcs were born 4 years apart and saw how the curriculum changed and feel that kids are spoon fed to pass a test, it’s all about data. Poor teachers and kids don’t really get the chance to explore and learn in fun and creative ways.
So I thank you all for doing your best with a broken system and I don’t blame any teacher that decides a change of direction is what’s needed to save their sanity.

I don’t have a problem with private education; if you had a choice about removing your child from disruptive, indifferent classes with a lack of engagement and one harassed teacher trying to meet the needs of 30+ children, wouldn’t you? I know a number of parents whose children have additional needs who have opted out, purely because of the child’s peers.

I was a teacher. Left to take over family business but would have left anyway.
We got a new head. Useless with children , staff and parents. Loved data, targets and initiatives.
Deputy head - early retirement.
Teacher 1 - left to do supply.
Teacher 2 - stuck but desperate to leave.
Teacher 3 - became a deputy. Left to do supply.
Teacher 4 - left to do supply.
Teacher 5 - 30 years experience. Leaving....to do supply.
A stream of NQT's keep being taken on. Most leave teaching after 1 or 2 years.