Where are all the older teachers?

[MinnieMousse]

DH was telling me that his school has budget issues and wants to cut TLR posts. He's a bit worried that it would be hard for him to find another position (middle leader level) incase schools don't want to employ older teachers (he's only 48!).One of his colleagues was looking at early retirement. He is late 50s, middle leader, no financial dependents so it might be an option for him but I'm thinking it will be increasingly unlikely in the future.

I don't think I have ever had a teaching colleague over the age of 60. Until recently, I know it was fairly easy for teachers to retire around this age, but obviously this will change with the increased pension age. It also seems that in the current climate schools want to employ cheap, young teachers. I already faced the experience when my school joined a MAT of older, experienced expensive teachers being clearly undesirable. I seemed to be counted among these at the grand old age of 38. How difficult is it going to be for those of us who want/need to work into our late 60s? Are there any older teachers out there who are still happily teaching?

Wow. I knew my kids school was doing this. They've explicitly said nqts were cheaper....But hadn't realised how widespread it is!

Our school seems to be pretty good. Head of English is mid 40’s, One of mine has a history teacher in his early 40’s and the other ones teacher must be well into her 50’s. Science for GCSE they’re all well over 40 but struggling massively for science teachers in year 7&8. French teacher also must be 50’s and lots of teachers have their own children in the school so again must be well into their 40’s. Not sure there are many mid to late 50’s but certainly not all NQT’s

Solely as a parent this is a worry. My DC's head teacher has started to do this over the last few years. The school was originally a brilliant primary, with many students going into the local grammar school. However, she started getting rid of the older teachers/part time and has three nqt's this year. One of my children has an nqt, and I have noticed the marked difference between my child's progress this year, comparatively to other years. I'm not knocking nqt's, my other child had a very bright, able nqt who helped them progress massively using varied learning techniques, but the current one is struggling to handle the class, and has bad practices already. I don't want to have to pay tutors to ensure that my child is receiving the education they are supposed to. It's a crying shame that the experienced teachers are being forced out, and that will be a loss to the current generation of children too.

I'm 51 and teach in a one form entry Primary. There are 3 other teachers aged 50+ and the others are in their 30s. All our TAs are 40/50s. However no way will I be working until 67. I'm chucking everything at my pension so I can retire at 60 ( I have no mortgage and no kids).

My DH is 43 and is the oldest in his department (except another guy who is a Deputy Head).

I know he is worried about getting made redundant - maybe not with this Head but if another Head comes in and makes changes that he might be in for the chop.

We are trying to pay off our mortgage for when he turns 58 to make sure he can retire at 60 at the latest.

Newly qualified teachers are cheaper, less assertive and more accepting of how things are now. Older teachers know better.

We don’t “know better”, that sounds a bit odd. Good teachers are always learning, even at my age I am still interested in “ what is happening now”. As I said previously, a mix of age and experience is ideally what schools should have really.

I meant 'know better' about the current shit that they have to put up with from the government and lack of funding etc.

Ah, sorry Brizzle. I have also found that some, several actually, of the new teachers are not interested in learning from more experienced teachers and are quite arrogant.
I did a couple of days supply for a class in year 2 who I have known since reception. When I reported back at the end of the days to their teacher, an NQT, she was “eye rolling” as apparently I didn’t move them on quickly enough in the maths lessons. When I pointed out gently , that they weren’t secure enough in the first lesson so I repeated some , she said not true, they could do it yesterday.
Not really helpful to the children.
I know there is immense pressure for teachers to move them on and reach targets, but when will powers that be recognise what children actually need and how they learn!
I can’t do it any more.

When I pointed out gently , that they weren’t secure enough in the first lesson so I repeated some , she said not true, they could do it yesterday.

And, of course, being able to do it yesterday means that they will always be able to do it That would annoy me too. I don't work in schools now but I used to,

My best friend, middle leader, 50, just uprooted her family and gone to middle east..
She didnt like the school she was in and it was impossible to compete with cheaper labour here.

I'm v aware this new bunch of target driven nqts in Mats and trusts won't know any different. Won't have the experience of previous generations in actually teaching. The future doesn't look great as that will be all that is left. Education is completwly changing in this country by the backdoor.