Third of England’s teachers who qualified in last decade ‘have left profession’: DfE data

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www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/09/third-of-englands-teachers-who-qualified-in-last-decade-have-left-profession

Nearly a third of teachers who qualified in the last decade have since left the profession, according to Labour analysis that has been released as the party attempts to shift the political focus on to education.

With the results of strike ballots by teaching unions due in the coming days, Labour intends to use a Commons vote this week to push their plan to impose VAT on private school fees, which they say would help pay for new teachers in the state sector.

According to a Labour analysis of Department for Education statistics, of just under 270,000 teachers who qualified in England between 2011 and 2020, more than 81,000 have since left the profession, or three in 10 of the total.

Why didn't Sunak make sorting out the absolute crisis in staffing in education one of his New Year promises?

DD qualified two years ago (secondary English). She's already decided that being an LSA is better for her because although the pay is less, the stress and worry and general conditions of teaching is not worth the relatively small bump in salary.

She says she'll return to it if and when things get better but for now it's too much. The staff shortages at her school are so bad she's called on to teach most days anyway, as she's the only LSA with a teaching qualification. Often she's asked to take lessons that aren't even her subject.

I agree, but surely he and his ilk will have to care when young people dont have the education required to staff the businesses and services upon which thier wealth & privilege's is predicated?
Or will every thing be automated by then?
Or will they just import educated youngsters from other countries?

Completely and totally agree. ECT2 here. Fellow ECT2 is leaving at end of year.

I qualified in the early 90s and I left over ten years ago.
My main reason for leaving was number crunching data etc and it having less and less to do with the children
Nothing mattered other than what you could prove and it's only got worse

A friend has worked various schools after giving up her once lovely job.
The children are horrible and although it only takes one to ruin a class she says there's not enough support from the head. The nice kids suffer whilst the teacher is writing up incidents because the two parents do not want their children moving class. The issue is maybe the head not insisting.

I don't understand why it's this bad at primary but remember my son's secondary school experience was mostly marred by the kinetic learners.
Kinetic etc has apparently been discredited.

Bring back the cane even if it only means sending the naughty kids to stand outside the heads office all day.

Waiting for your next Ofsted inspection also sounds horrible.

I don't blame you.

After 50 years? They'll be at least 72. Not many I should think. Quite often schools try to manage (aka bully) older teachers out anyway and recruit younger, cheaper more malleable teachers.

To help anyone else that might have interpreted the headline stats as saying 70% of teachers still being in the job a decade later:

This graph is very telling. This data is from about 5 years ago but it shows the clear long term trend.. . And the fact the the lines on the left hand side are getting more and more to the left is definitely NOT a good sign, it shows the retention is not just bad but progressively getting WORSE.

No, Captain . Obviously, once they have had their 50th birthday

There's also no discipline these days. Kids basically can't be punished effectively there is no fear so no reason to behave. I feel sorry for teachers even if they are reasonably well paid.

OK. I think I answered that anyway.

@Muddlingmiddling it's not because of the children!
It's workload

Absolutely true in my case but I think in some schools better back up from SLT would solve discipline problems.

Ofsted diesnt help. A secondary school chool I know was criticised by Ofsted for putting too many children in isolation or temporary suspension. The next inspection they were criticised for poor pupil behaviour.

Whoops typos.

I’ve been teaching and mentoring trainee teachers for over 20 years. I have seen so many amazing colleagues quit in the last few years. None of them left the profession because of the students.

The other part of the problem is the quality of people training to be teachers. I’m gobsmacked by some of the people they let onto the course and we have to train up. So even though they might pass the course, they are unlikely to cope with the reality of a teaching job afterwards and quit.

@PollyEsther interested to know what you will do instead? Presumably whatever career you embark on will require you to payback your student loan, and pay for wraparound care?

According to a Labour analysis of Department for Education statistics, of just under 270,000 teachers who qualified in England between 2011 and 2020, more than 81,000 have since left the profession, or three in 10 of the total.

Sniff. And I don’t suppose any confounding factors were accounted for such as 77% of teachers are female, 96% are degree educated so would enter the profession aged 21 or so, and a decade later in your 30s is what? Any guesses? Childbearing is what. Popping out babies and being a SAHM before re-entering the workforce. The number of returners to the profession are usually at least 75% of the newly qualified entrants. So most who leave are coming back later on.

So, this is clearly an attempt to misuse statistics to imply teachers are leaving due to low pay.

I think the majority of teachers are leaving for reasons other than pay.

I think a lot of teachers would accept only a very small increase pay IF their workload was even close to reasonable and manageable. But it's not, and now there's not even the carrot of a decent pay rise. So it's lose lose.

@Muddlingmiddling its not lazy just to blame the Tories - it’s their fault. This isn’t just any bastard Tory government full of wankers, this is a grade A Tory government full of the nastiest wankers to ever take power.

i trained under a Labour government, Blair to be precise, and it was amazing. Yes there were stresses and strains but the investment and RESPECT were incredible. I left 2 years ago and would never go back.

Workload is ridiculous, pay is poor, behaviour is atrocious and parents are half the problem.

I graduated in 1988. I took my pension at 55. I am in touch with lots of people from my graduation year. We should all be teaching for another 10 years if we were to wait until we could claim our state pension as well as the teaching one. Not one of us is still teaching.

One third of teachers who quaified in the last decade have left? really?

I dont know how this figure had come out so low.

The normal figure from the unions is that one half of teachers who have qualified in the last 5 years have left.

And then, you also have to consider

a) that targets for applications to teacher training are being missed by over 24% year after year, in some subjects
b) that many trainees accepted onto teacher training are well below the academic standards required by teachers
c) that many trainee teachers who start drop out before qualifying

The normal figure from the unions is that one half of teachers who have qualified in the last 5 years have left.

I think you may be thinking of the union surveys they do that have found that about half are thinking of leaving in the next five years. Which still isn't good in terms of the future trends in retention.

Maybe but she's unlikely to have to work 60 hours a week for less than £30k.
I'm one of the statistics. I wouldn't go back to classroom teaching if you offered me a million pounds.