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?

What about class exercise books? Don't they get marked?

Not in my department. We look at the kids' work as we walk around the classroom, of course, and 'live mark' then. Kids mark their own answers to questions.

Marking takes a lot of teacher time so what teachers mark needs to be carefully selected - i.e. not making them mark work the kid did at home with a tutor, or rushed on the bus or copied off their mate in class.

KS1 teachers, for example, being required to write written feedback that the kids can't even read, to pacify parents, is fucking bonkers.

Many secondary schools have reduced ex book marking to ease time pressures. Marking 1 or 2 assessed pieces per ht. These could be in ex books or not.

Each class of marking takes hours. Literally. A full time non core subject (eg French or history) get approx 8 classes a year. If you spent 5 mins (reality is it takes longer) on each child’s ex book once per fortnight, you’re talking min. 20hours a fortnight just for marking ex books. Teachers get 2-3 hours prep time a week within school day. Everything else is before/after school. Usually two afternoons are taken up with meetings/extra curricular too.

This doesn’t mean work can’t be checked/assessed in class time. Just you don’t get the best return on time investment from marking everything out of class.

Some schools/parents still expect this and it’s A LOT.

I left 7 years ago. In a Reception class I had to assess and set targets every 6 weeks, write copious notes and set targets when marking their written work (much of which was scribble as they were 4 years old). Lessons had to be planned with differentiation at least 3 ways plus 'Extra' and all this had to be written down. My last HT also required me to sit down with ability groups of 10 doing 'lessons' which was totally inappropriate for children that age. Imagine doing a writing lesson with 10 four year olds who can't hold a pencil properly. Previously I had worked individually with those that needed it and in smaller groups with children who could manage a bit more independently. There is undoubtedly more stuff like this which thankfully I have forgotten.

This new HT was little over half my age and had never actually worked with this age group.

Yes, that is sort of what I am getting at - are my perceptions off and the staff are all actually struggling with what we are asking them to do. The relationships in school between staff and SLT are very positive but you can't help reading things like this and worrying it might apply.

We have bought into an online package and tried to make this the main focus of homework as there is no marking needed but staff aren't very keen on it so we need another think about that.

Definitely not amazing and still getting lots wrong but we have worked very hard on staff well-being and taking practical steps, not just talking about it. We have lots of great teachers and we don't want to lose them!

I genuinely think this is a good start! I was once in an all staff meeting where a MAT CEO said "I know lots of you will leave over the next few years, and that is okay- we'll just replace you with people who agree with our vision".

A few years later and I believe the school is now very short staffed because turns out they can't recruit that easily!

I do feel like there is a very high expectation these days from parents in terms of communication from schools- and email has made this worse. Sometimes you get 5 or 6 parent emails in a day- 5 minutes to answer them all (assuming a quick answer) all adds up. And a lot of parents hate it if they don't get a same day reply, even if you were e.g. teaching all day, running revision after school and then setting up for the next day and just want to go home.

My hod has bought an online package to mark homework and it's shit. I now spend more time chasing kids for homework than ever before. Online is not a magic bullet.

I would say that it is highly likely that, as a senior manager, you are underestimating the impact of your or other's requests for information on your subordinates. This is not unique to teaching and is a feature of senior managers in every industry I have worked in.

I was once in an all staff meeting where a MAT CEO said "I know lots of you will leave over the next few years, and that is okay- we'll just replace you with people who agree with our vision".

🤌

I’ll tell you why everyone is leaving; I have to assess and plan for over 10 subjects. I’m a new teacher and I’m subject lead for a core subject for in my first year. I am subject to learning walks and observations every week (as are all staff). This is not normal. I have two learning walks on Thursday and another surprise one tomorrow. The forms I’m asked to fill in don’t take ‘5 minutes’ that SLT say. Oh and children can display extreme behaviour and the parents just justify it. Despite my class being wonderful and making great progress, the behaviour is extreme and parents take no accountability. I don’t want to teach anymore and no other job has this level of nonsense. As an older ECT, I’m not trapped by salary (which is poor) so I’m off.

I quit 4 years ago as have nearly finished retraining as a pharmacist. Do not regret it for a second.

I worked for four years to become a HoD. This afternoon I was given a prescription for antidepressants because the workload, and the expectations, are too much and I don’t feel like I can manage them. I’ve had the job for nearly four bloody months and 60 hour weeks aren’t enough. If I had the ability to become a statistic and walk away, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I'm wondering what the reaction on here will be early next week if/when strikes are announced in England & Wales..

Don’t care. Toxic parents are half the problem.

Vitriol.

At one of the schools I worked in, we weren't allowed to do montages. I had to get an individual photo of each of the 30 children in my class doing the activity. In another school, photos weren't good enough. I had to get five year olds to write about every practical activity they did, every time they did them.

I think it will be really mixed but I think we have to stop caring about public opinion.

If we strike for long enough/enough days the effect will be significant enough that the government will have to at least meet with the unions.

Parents will be pissed off with us, but long term hopefully we will achieve some positive change in education, and at least get a chance to put our point across to non parents who may not be aware how bad things are in schools. And I think (hope) they will be surprised and supportive in many cases.

I do think it is a chance to tell parents the truth about the state of education - which schools often try to cover up.

Btw, some of my older students have actually said they hope we are able to strike because they are aware how bad things are. We often talk about parent opinion but we rarely talk about how our students feel - but they know how bad it is in a lot of schools.

Btw, a lot of people mentioned tasks that SLT say will only take 5 minutes. Firstly, as many have said, if you get multiple tasks like this they soon add up.

Secondly, often SLT estimate the time of the task based on it being totally straight forward - but sometimes you run into a snag eg you have to look up data from elsewhere or ask another teacher for information or a "quick" communication with a parent leads to them bringing up some other issue (which it's important the school knows about) which then takes an hour or more to resolve.

I think managers in general should consider "what's the longest this task could conceivably take someone?" Rather than "how quickly could I do this on a good day?"

I know another local school who got rid of their attendance officer and tried to make form tutors chase attendance. Supposedly, these phonecalls would take 5 minutes - well yes maybe if it's just "Ellie was sick in the night" but if it's eg "I'm keeping Ollie off because of a bullying issue" that's going to take hours....

I vividly remember during lockdown we were allocated a year group each to teach each day, and assess work submitted on line which would take "a couple of minutes max, for each individual"

so log into that students account, (1 min) find todays work ( 1 min) Asses work (3 mins) record assessment (1 min) 6 mins per student, if it all went smoothly. x240 students.

So what SMT called "a short task taking a couple of minutes per student" actually meant doing 24 hours marking every 24 hours. The people who told us to do this were functionally innumerate

Here is another one

Catch up funding for children who have got behind during lockdown, available for teachers, £40 for one hour extra tuition

groups 3-5 students

1- Plan and prepare lesson - 1 hour
2 - Fill in detailed planning sheets and submit to SMT - 45 mins, more if SMT then require a discussion about it
3- prepare room and set up - 15 mins, more if photocopier isn't working

4- teach for one hour

5- clear away - 15 mins, more if specialist equipment has been used
6- Asses work handed in, record, evaluate progress, report to SMT-30-60 mins
7-Contact each parent and report attitude and progress 30-60 mins depending on difficulty downloading phone numbers ( which we cant store) getting hold of parents, etc

So, more then 5 hours work for below national minimum wage, at a time that has to be outside of the time you are already paid to be in school, at a time when other staff are also around, for safeguarding reasons, so outside of normal working hours but not at a time of your choosing, even photocopying etc was not allowed to be done in normal working hours.

This is a classic example of reality v perception

Reality for teacher - work an extra 5-6 hours early morning or late evening, as directed, open yourself up to abuse from parents, and be held accountable by SMT, earn well under the minimum wage

Perception by parents - teachers are being offered £40 an hour to help my child but they can't be offered to take it up

*bothered

I left education last year after a long career. I was the dreaded SLT, and I can tell you, it’s no better ‘up’ there. Ridiculous, ever increasing remits, diminishing budgets and everyone doing three peoples jobs in one.

I’m a tough cookie. I have long worked 10-12 hour days, alongside bringing up my own kids, and have always been motivated by doing my very best for our pupils. But by 2022 I was completely burnt out and disillusioned and actually angry - raging, in fact - with what school staff are having to put up with every day. It has not been this bad in education in my lifetime.

I support strikes 100%. It’s the only language the government understand.

And I keep my mouth shut when I come across keen young PGCE grads or ECTs, as I have nothing good to say about working in education in this country and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who wants to keep their sanity and spirit.