Why teachers are leaving the profession and a manifesto for change
Blog 7 June 1st. Teachers are leaving in droves and recruitment is 42% below target. What is causing the crisis? What policies are needed to bring them back?
Young Teachers Throwing in the Towel
James Whiting (General Secretary SEA) interviews two young teachers from a local primary school about why they have decided to leave teaching.
Teacher A
Was an NQT in Sept 2017 having worked in Events Management. She is a Psychology graduate and gained a PGCE in primary education.
Teacher B
Was an NQT in 2020 during pandemic. She is a Film Studies graduate and gained a PGCE in Primary Education.
Neither teacher is politically active and they support the strikes. Both are young BAME women. They work in a ‘good’ local authority school.
Why Primary education?
Teacher A
I started out as a volunteer in an after-school homework club for year 6 in west London north Kensington area. It was really fun and the children really enjoyed it. I was in events management plus PR and found it quite boring being in an office all the time so I wanted a change. I really enjoyed working with children and loved being around them. That’s why I decided to take a PGCE.
Teacher B
I’ve always wanted to work with children and meet new people. Teaching is career where you are going to meet people, children and families from all walks of life. I guess it’s a way of giving back to the community. I’ve always enjoyed working with young people. After uni I did not actually know what to do. To get into the film industry is quite hard . You have to know people. Teachers are always needed. I became a TA first. Before I did my PGCE, just to see whether I could survive or not. (laughs)
What did you enjoy about teaching?
Teacher A
Working with children is the best bit of the job. Being able to know you are giving to them and giving back. For me that’s really important in any role I do. I want to give back. Just knowing you do have an impact even on the days that it doesn’t feel like it, they take something away. The best bit of the job is the children.
Teacher B
The children. The children make the job. In some jobs the progress you make is not always as visible. Whereas with children you see them at the end of the year, you see them progress, you see them grow. Its instant and very visible progress. And that’s what I enjoy about the job. Yeah. And the relationships you build. Not only with children but the staff as well.
Why then are you leaving teaching now? What are the problems you are facing?
Teacher A
I feel the education system is quite broken. It is very, very pressured on teachers at all levels. I don’t feel there is space to just teach and enjoy the job. There is so much scrutiny whatever level you work at. There is so much pressure to perform whether its SATS whether its OFSTED. And I feel that’s not just this school but across the country but there is a lot of pressures on teachers at any level. The joy of just being able to go in to your class and work with your children often gets lost in all the other things teachers have to do at work.
In my role as mainly a year 6 teacher a lot of the pressures focus on the SATS. Testing of course is important but when it becomes the primary focus rather than trying to teach them to enable them to be rounded, it becomes really stressful. It tells the children that all that’s important is English and Maths and that’s not the case. They need to have a well-rounded understanding of the world.
I think it’s quite disheartening because if you struggle it should not take from who you are as a person. From age 10 kids are constantly tested, tested, tested. This could lead to a generational mental health crisis where young people feel they are failures. We can teach them to be more rounded human beings. We can over generations decrease mental health problems. Struggling to be able to read shouldn’t take away from who you are as a person. We should be teaching that who you are fundamentally matters.
KS2 SATS need to go too so that the kids come in and know the school is just about learning. There are so many skills gaps and I think it is no wonder because you are testing the kids as soon as they walk in the school. They are drained by the time they get to secondary school they are not allowed to just be children.
Teacher B
I don’t want to cry. (sobs) It’s a tough job. Its not easy. (sobs) It’s a very stressful job and its really hard to say at 5, you’ll leave work and you’ll switch off. It’s really hard to switch off. And sometimes you take certain things a bit personally. At the end of the day a job’s a job but in teaching it’s not.
Every year of a primary school child’s education counts. If by year 6 they haven’t made that progress, it really hinders them. The difference between being a teacher and the TA role is huge. Sometimes as a teacher we have to see children as a percentage, a number or data but that’s not them.
They put down all those milestones for us in the UK. Not that its unachievable but it’s a lot of pressure. The pressure is a pyramid with the government putting pressure on OFSTED who put pressure on governors who put pressure on head teachers who put pressure on teachers who put pressure on the children. The government does not have a realistic understanding of education at the moment in the UK. They don’t understand how schools have been affected by COVID. Are they aware that the current year 3s are lacking social skills because they missed out on nursery and reception? Do they understand why teacher strikes are happening?
What is the main reason apart from money you are leaving?
Teacher A
Money is part of it but not the main reason. Workload is. Across the system the levels of scrutiny teachers that are under are too much plus all the marking, paper work and planning you have to do. No teacher does not want to plan and do the best by the kids but that’s lost because its being accountable for every single measure, writing every single detail down. It’s not about doing it, it’s about proof you are doing it. Whereas a lot of what teaching is -you naturally adapt -yes I’m going to differentiate that question or yes I’m going to strip this lesson back- But because of the intense accountability all the notes you have to make for that just adds. The crux of it is you should be able to teach mark your books and go home. We should be trusted that’s what we are doing. Classroom teachers should not be always having to prove they are doing it.
Teacher B
I didn’t realise how tiring schools would be. The PGCE was great. I was trained in the pandemic. We got 10 weeks of school experience and that was it for us. I jumped on the bandwagon and applied for a job. Training doesn’t prepare you for things like Parents Evening, writing reports, all the little admin jobs. Its not that the pay is that bad but I didn’t realise how time consuming these tasks were. And then you add preparing resources, planning, marking,- you are working late hours. You’re trying your best. It’s a bit of a juggling act. You want to give the quality of teaching. I want to give the best I can to the children. I can’t treat this is just a job . It’s so much more.
What changes would you recommend to radically change the situation in education for the better?
Teacher A
I would definitely get rid of the year six SATS. I would also re-evaluate the way GCSEs and A levels are done. The way they are structured is not helping. I would put more emphasis on the value of vocational qualifications giving them the same importance as the more formal path. In the pandemic a lot of those people who did not work in an office were needed. OFSTED needs to be scrapped the way it is now. Any public institution needs to be held accountable but the way OFSTED is done is grossly unfair. It needs to be scrapped because you live or die by one word and that word can define a whole section of your career.
Teacher B
It’s partly work load. In an ideal world, I would have more subject specialist teachers. This would help children. This would help even out the workload as you wouldn’t have to plan so much. Marking (laughs). SATS are tough. The data we had when we were teaching year 6 last year can be unrealistic. So many things can happen over three years. They might dip, over year 3,4 and 5 underachieve or excel- you don’t know. For the school to say they should be passing because they did well in Year 2 is putting pressure on children a lot. I don’t know whether SATS in year 2 were effective in measuring children. Year 6 SATS are to measure the school. You see the kids coming in at ten past eight just for SATS revision. Its draining. It affects their behaviour as well. At the end of the day it’s their final year and they need to be children. It’s their final year of being a child. Are we forcing them to mature because SATS are in place?
The SEA Launches its Manifesto
Much of what the young teachers said would be addressed by the policies in the manifesto. It also sets out our vision for compulsory education, higher education, and life long learning. Come to the on line launch and get a free PDF of the document. Register here.