Older people becoming teachers..

[OnionBhajis]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/aug/21/something-that-actually-matters-four-retirees-on-why-theyre-becoming-teachers

Hmm really?!

That tracks with what we are seeing in my school. More and more of our new staff are older. Not always quite as old as the examples in that article but we have ECTs starting with us in September who are in their late 40s and 50s.

ECTs in their early 20s are definitely shrinking as a proportion.

Some of the people joining our support teams are also in the 45-55 age bracket and new to working in schools.

I'm used to TAs and support being older (often those leaving teaching ironically).

So many schools are getting rid of older teachers (admittedly as they're expensive if experienced).

And MATs doing the "teaching by numbers" that younger teachers will lap up but often not those that have been in other professions. Genuinely surprised!

@noblegiraffe .... sorry to tag you but any thoughts?!

I really feel for those retraining thinking teaching is a better alternative when we know so many leave within the first 5 years. It could be an expensive mistake to make!

How long have you been teaching?

I’ve been teaching about 15 years and personally find that “teaching by numbers” is far less of common now than a decade ago. There definitely seems to be a more flexible approach to teaching style and pedagogy.

Also, if you’re in your 50s or 60s and coming out of retirement, you don’t really have much to lose by giving teaching a go. Some of the older staff that I know who have “unretired” by coming back part time in their 60s, without their former additional responsibilities seem to have been given a new lease of life and seem far happier than they did in the years leading up to their retirement. Maybe they are onto something.

Really? It's increasing in the MATs/academies near me as they want all the schools/classes teaching the same thing at the same time.

Centralised powerpoints ( I've even seen "content creator" jobs to produce these ) and "self quizzing" as homework. So each night the students self quiz/do online work) .

And not just secondary either - the primary MAT near me has identikit lessons for both schools...

I started teaching 23 years ago - currently teaching but left mainstream. I hate what's happening to teaching tbh.

Maybe it’s different around here. I’m in an LA school, so that will play a role in my school but in general around here places seem to have ditched prescribed powerpoint templates and lesson observation checklists and there is far less focus on faddy nonsense than there used to be. I still remember 7 part lesson structures, brain gym, learning styles, triple marking and de bono thinking hats. That has all very much faded away here and I’m not sorry to see the back of it.

Ah yes I remember detailed lesson planning/learning styles etc coming and going!

There aren't many LA schools left so well done. It seems to be a newish MAT thing thats come in from what I can see - where they want to centralise resources/ensure everyone teaches the same lesson/every child gets the same experience.

Out of 4 local schools only 1 wasn't like this when we applied for secondary!

I'm in an LA primary school but agree with the OP. Every White Rose maths lesson has a PowerPoint and list of questions you're meant to ask. It is incredibly monotonous and completely unlike what I trained in 15 years ago. Ofsted seem massively keen on schemes now, which were always slightly sneered at in the past.

That sounds mind numbing. I don’t think I could work somewhere where I didn’t have the freedom to teach how I wanted.

Taking a PowerPoint and lesson plan from a “very effective” teacher and making someone else try to teach it the same way is also a stupid plan for improving results. Teachers do their best work when they are free to develop their own style.

I’m all in favour of everyone sharing resources, but they need to be free to adapt them to suit their style. I’ve been really privileged to work alongside colleagues who get remarkable outcomes for their students whilst having very different styles and methods to me and to each other.

Completely agree but it's the way that seems to be encouraged and it seems to be spreading in popularity.

(Cynically in my more conspiracy moments I think its because academies can more easily train teachers to deliver these powerpoints... )

Dunno where they're getting their numbers from, but there was excited talk about an increase in older teacher trainees last year too.

However the numbers are tiddly compared to the more normal age groups. There isn't an army of silver-haired retirees coming to save the teaching workforce, and the numbers plummeted in that age group after covid so it was due a recovery. (Table is figures up to last year).

Thanks for the chart Noble. I knew you'd know the relevant information!

The article is definitely overstating it and as you say no older person army coming in to save teaching no matter what the gov would like to push....

I do wonder whether these 'older people having a great time becoming teachers' articles are merely Lucy Kellaway using journalism contacts to get puff pieces for Now Teach in the papers.

I did have my suspicions it was really an advert/propaganda...

I'd never have thought of this but suspect you could be very right!

I think older people are capable of asking around, reading the freely available articles across mixed media, and spending time in schools and drawing their own conclusions in the same way that younger people are. It is clear that the job is now so far removed from being a job for life that the powers.that be consider 5 years a reasonable career. I entered the profession, very much with my eyes open, at 40. I am still here 13 years later. Some will stay, some won't. But what a 40 something teacher will have on the average 25 year old is industry and life experience. These shouldn't be knocked.

Oh it's great for the schools to have the experience - just from hanging around "life after teaching" sites and seeing how many people now leave teaching its one of those things people walk into without realising just how full on and crazy it can be.

Really glad it's working out for you :). It's a brilliant job (and I still teach just not in schools) it's just all the crazy that goes with it. And as Noblegiraffe regularly points out we are hemorrhaging teachers at the rate of knots.

I agree.

I started my training at 21, straight out of Uni, but I think it’s good to have people with a whole range of backgrounds and experiences. I’ve worked with older career-changers who are bloody brilliant. This is “anecdata” but I also tend to find they have healthier boundaries around workload (on average) than those of us who started teaching when we were young, naive and hadn’t learned to say “no” to authority figures. As a result, they seem less prone to burnout.

None of the older teachers that I’ve seen retrain haven lasted more than a couple of years. They have been horrified by the micromanagement and pointless paperwork and have virtually all gone back to the job they did previously!

From what Noblegiraffe has posted, their numbers look wrong, but a 75% increase on a small number is, well, a small number.

I find the article a bit odd in that they've interviewed a lot of people who seem to want to be teachers, but none who successfully are teaching?

The one thing I will say about teaching is that if you don't need the money, it is a job where it's fairly easy to work part time- if you're older and don't want to work full time, that may be an advantage.

I'd love to see a follow up piece with those people in 1-5 years time.

The figures I posted were for last year so I'm assuming there are new figures somewhere that are an increase on last year, but yes, saying a 75% increase but not giving the baseline figure is extremely sneaky.

Appu that's what I assumed to be the cast for most people taking up teaching (and again a real shame if it's cost money to retrain/family finances are tight etc.)

And Post - yes interestingly not people who are teaching. Very likely a gov inspired puff piece..

Ah, yeah, sorry.

But yeah, an increase of less than 200 new teachers over 55 (who also, inevitably, are going to work in the profession for a shorter period of time on average) is not going to balance out the drop of several thousand teachers under 30 who didn't train last year, and presumably aren't training again this year?

Plus the 40,000 odd who left the profession last year before retirement.

It's a drop in the ocean, isn't it?

I mean, it's nice propaganda all round, isn't it? Counters all those "We're shorter of teachers than we've ever been" and a little boost for "NowTeach"- especially as I didn't realise they still existed!