Staff turnover primary schools

[Ifyubrgku]

Just got our class list for next year. DC is in primary and 5 out of 15 teachers are leaving this summer. Three more left through the year. Is that the norm? Or is DCs school particularly bad? The lack of continuity is worrying.

My wife has quit teaching at the end of this school year, 8 years was enough of that nonsense.
im surprised there are any teachers left tbh.
I can see there just being a constant churn of newly qualified teachers doing 3 or 4 years then leaving.
My best mates daughter lasted 18 months and her two other friends who qualified with her also got out after 2 years each.

You rarely see a happy teacher these days..

Yes, thats my impression as well. We seem to have lots of younger teachers that keep on staying for a few years and leaving. It's pretty depressing really.

It’s very depressing if you’ve gone 35K in debt doing 3 years at university then one years teacher training and find the job impossible.

Change of leadership.

Fairly normal time for others to reassess and move on as whatever loyalty they had to the head has gone.

More so if they don't like new policies brought in by the new head. It should settle down again in a couple of years after a change of head.

New heads generally bring a bit of change. If you were thinking of moving as a teacher, it’s a good time as things are likely to change a bit anywhere. Schools need some movement as otherwise they’ll never afford the increasing wage bill as people gain experience. Where I work, we have a mixture which works well but always some changes especially with a staff with lots of 20s - 30s women employed. I have been to so many baby showers in the last few years !
Also remember that there will always be people who don’t like changes and won’t like a new head making changes but schools can’t stand still and many new heads will be making increasingly difficult financial decisions ( along with current ones) which will necessitate change. I’ve managed to work for many heads in one school over the years but I do like a shake up every so often and have generally found something to respect in all of them.
There is definitely a difficulty in recruiting at the moment and heads are having to be very proactive.

Could be coincidence, but definitely not a good sign.

The key is how they are dealing with the vacancies.

The school I lead in hasn't got any staff turnover this year but has had a shocking few years staffing wise before I started last year!

We now have a strong leadership team, generally good consistent teaching and policies and procedures are in place!

It's a different school to the one I came to visit ahead of replying a year ago!

Two years ago I would have said not normal. Now, absolutely the norm. Teachers are leaving in droves all over the place.

Sorry mums but the reasons teachers are leaving at the schools I know is because of the parents 🫣

I can quite imagine that! I have a lovely mum friend that must email the school 25 times a week about different issues. She is genuinely sweet, but is very much That Mum. I don’t know how teachers cope, I’d lose my marbles.

My additional worry is apparently they've had five heads in last ten years, excluding the new one from Sept. Their results are excellent but I do worry.

40,000 teachers left the profession 2 years ago (not including retirees although can’t imagine many get to retirement age)

This is how education is at the moment in lots of places. This is the effect of years of a Tory government. Teachers are voting with their feet and I don't think that they'll come back again, the many that I know who have left certainly won't.

We've had 3 headteachers in 4 years. I'd say about 25% of staff leave and new ones brought in each year. All teachers are young, either newly qualified or about 30 years old. When I was at primary in 90's we had the same headteacher all the way through. And most of the teachers stayed the same bar one or two I think. From what I know the teachers at our school who have stuck around have permanent contracts and they apparently don't offer permanent contracts anymore... But that's pta mum gossip so I don't know for sure. The current deputy head is about 30 years old, we've had 3 of those aswell.

Seems quite high. I work in primary but it’s not an academy. They have a reputation for high turnover. We had the same teachers for about 10 years then a retirement and one moved away.

Teachers are leaving the profession in droves. I don’t blame them (I left years ago - it was terrible then - it’s horrendous now).

Schools can’t cope, either financially or educationally, with the rising levels of need and challenging behaviour. Entitlement and unrealistic expectations from parents, some of whom refuse to recognise their own responsibilities, is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

It’s a shame, as children have been disrupted enough, but the education system is imploding and what you’re seeing op, is just the top of the iceberg.

Too many kids with additional needs in mainstream schools now. There are not enough staff to give them the support/help they need and teaching suffers. That and some parents just don’t give a fuck about their kids so they are not ready for school.

A few years ago in primary this would be very high and worrying. It's now becoming more normal as others have said a change in head often means staff turnaround. Maybe as this one has been promoted from within things may start to settle down. I wouldn't worry about staff leaving just about them being able to recruit new staff.

But wait until you get to high school, it's so much worse and not getting any better. Last year we had our whole MFL (moden languages) team leave, for different reasons. Has taken most of the year to replace them. We have been short 2 science teachers all year.

My daughter had no IT teacher for 18 months during her GCSE (different school) basically had to teach herself the course.

As long as I've been in Mumsnet if a teacher has complained the response has been "well if teaching is not for you leave then". Of course I'm not saying that's been you OP, I have no idea if your views. But now teachers are leaving the Mumsnet massive aren't happy....
I've been a teacher for over thirty years, mainly in special education and there are many things I love about it - i.e. working with children - but the hours are long and the days are full on. Yesterday I got into school at 7.15 and left at just after 6 pm and that's a normal day for me. After I'd had dinner I did another half hour of school work followed by an hour on an essay for a course for an extra qualification that I'm required to have as I've changed role. My normal working week without the course has been 55+ hours for years as I'll also usually do some work at the weekend. It's tiring and I'm thankful for each holiday so that I can rest for some of that (and do life admin things that I simply don't have time for during term). I have the benefit of working in a nice school with fantastic pupils and with a great headteacher and without that I'd have left too.
Neither of my DD want to be teachers, DD1 said a couple of years ago "Dad starts work at 7 and finishes at 4 and he doesn't work at the weekend and he earns the same as you do" and she's right.

Normal doesn’t equal ideal though, does it?

The last school I worked at didn’t retain staff because of bad management.

I was working with a school today. The nursery teacher is leaving. She is leaving because 10 of the 14 new three year olds, last September were not toilet trained.
Last Autumn term she and the EY team toilet trained these children. In January, 6 of the 10 returned after the Christmas break back in nappies. Parents comments ‘it was easier over Christmas not to bother’, ‘we didn't have time’, ‘he/she didn't want to use our toilet’.

What has happened to parenting?

She can't face another term of toilet training again this Autumn.