Staff turnover in private schools

[BTsrule]

DS is at a private school. There seems to be a high level of staff turnover - maybe a quarter of the teachers that teach his year group are leaving. I am not sure if this is normal as people no longer want to have ‘jobs for life’ and need to move around to progress or if the turnover is signalling an issue. The head says it’s normal but he would of course.

Does anyone with kids at private school have a view on this? Is this level of turnover normal? Is it normal in the state sector? He is in y10 so not a good time to move him.

Teachers are constantly leaving. Most teacher remain in the job less than 5 years. Private school pay and conditions can be brutal.

Yes it is normal apart from in parts of the country where there are few alternative jobs.

Teacher pay has lagged behind in real terms and international schools actively recruit from the UK and offer better terms and conditions.

Yes, tends to be worse in private schools than state as pay conditions and training are a lot worse, although it's a problem everywhere now.

When my older kids were in private school, the turnover was very low but this was some time ago.

I have a relative teaching in private. This sounds normal.

They are strapped for cash, which sounds odd, but it’s true. Staff are asked to do a lot of extra duties in addition to teaching. Coach sports, supervise boarders, cover for others… plus the core teaching load is too high as lots of departments will not have enough staff. People are on mat leave and to save money, other staff have to cover those lessons, rather than getting mat leave cover in. That kind of thing and a lot more - one had a breakdown and was off for half a term and later left.

People think that the private sector is privileged, booming, rolling in money. Only the really big rich ones are. If labour get in and stick the VAT on the schools, it will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for some of them. My relative is unconcerned though if his school folds - teaches a shortage subject and can either tutor or easily walk into another job. Bad for kids though.

Not usual in DDs private school. Low staff turnover (I have been tracking it for 8 years since we made the decision to send her) in general and currently zero teaching staff vacancies.

Have there been changes in smt/head in recent years? Often a year or two down the line staff leave and often go to work at schools with firmer colleagues.

I agree with everything PPs have contributed about pay, workload and conditions. In addition, private schools that have opted out of the Teachers' Pension Scheme are losing staff as they - quite rightly - want to stay in the TPS. That may be the case at the school you mentioned. Threatening 'fire and rehire' is catastrophic for staff morale.

In 2023 40k teachers left teaching altogether. This is a national scandal that the media and politicians are not reporting on.

In April myself and 5 colleagues left our school . All of us have gone in to lower paying jobs. It's not the money.

I would say very low turnover in my children’s schools over the last 15 years

It’s indicative of a problem yes. That is a high turnover- a quarter of the teaching staff is not a desirable loss in a year.

It’s likely to be one of the following:

1. TPS
2. teachers believe the school will go under in next few years.
3. psychopathic Head
4. incompetent SLT
5. psychopathic CEO/parent company/chair of governors
6. significant unpopular changes to terms and conditions/pay/benefits imposed by 3 or 5.

It depends on which private school. Not all have low pay and poor conditions.

When teachers used to leave my son's school it was to go to more senior roles at other schools because they couldn't progress because the well paid senior team weren't going anywhere.

So it will depend on the nature of the school

^^This. High staff turnover is a bad sign. And it will negatively impact your child's education.

Well yes you might lose 2/3 staff at a push for a reason like that- certainly not a quarter?!

I expect they will report on it at the time it is beyond a crisis and kids are sitting in classrooms with no teachers. TBH it’s already happening in my relative’s school. 2 adjacent classrooms with one teacher rushing between them. This is a head of dept who has insufficient staff.

@Kesio too true. Im seeing schools full of supply teachers. Well not actually supply teachers in the traditional sense of qualified teachers but unqualified people on minimum wage who are put in front of class babysitting them. I'm
Also seeing Gcse classes all being put together in sports halls to be taught by 1 teacher.

Classes also being left without an adult as the teacher has left and supply haven't been brought in. BELIEVE me parents, your children won't tell you when this happens! Really they don't, even the little angels don't!!!

A head at a very academic school talked about this in her open day speech recently. She expects “churn” of between 10-15% each years for regular teachers, far lower for SLT and department heads.

The question you should focus on where are they moving too. She wants her staff to be ambitious, grow, improve and get promotions. They can’t all obviously progress in the same school. She was very open and pointed us to their terms newsletter with a bio for each teacher leaving and where they were heading. I liked that head very much.

I have worked in two very different independent schools. The first one was excellent and had a very low staff turnover. The second one was dreadful and had a very high staff turnover.

You should also look at the numbers who left last year. 25% every year is high; 10% last year, 25% this year is average. Some years are just higher but it’s tye average that matters.

Private schools withdrawing from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme will also start to bite. I’d ask whether your school is still in it.

That seems high compared to our school.

We get the occasional leaver, usually for a change in circumstances. Teachers tend to stick around, admin staff move a little more at our school. Not one of the teachers (class and specialist) they have had since they started has left.

That's not my experience at all.

Sadly it’s a similar story at the private school ds is in. They came out of TPS about 18 months ago,and it’s been a steady stream of teachers leaving ever since. The head teacher is going at the end of this term - he’s only been there 4 years sigh…..ds is end of year 10 now, so not moving him until after GCSEs.

No, at Ds' school, they seem to be pretty settled.

We have a new head teacher (old one retired), and two female teachers are going on maternity leave in July.

And one of the language teachers is going home, having worked in the UK for 10 years, so we'll have a new Spanish teacher.

But otherwise everyone seems fairly happy.

At my local independent school, the turnover is getting quite shocking (teachers and non-teaching staff).

Thanks everyone for your replies- much appreciated. Seems quite a mixed bunch of high and low turnover.