Why More Pay Won’t Stop Teachers Leaving
An extra zero on their salary might help – but for most teachers it’s not about the money, says Loic Menzies… “I can actually make a difference to someone’s life. It’s amazing to see that.” These are the words of Chloe, a teacher at Meadow Primary School in Lowestoft, and she’s not alone. Primary school […]
- by Loic Menzies
An extra zero on their salary might help – but for most teachers it’s not about the money, says Loic Menzies…
“I can actually make a difference to someone’s life. It’s amazing to see that.”
These are the words of Chloe, a teacher at Meadow Primary School in Lowestoft, and she’s not alone. Primary school teachers are significantly more likely to go into teaching in order ‘To make a difference to pupils’ lives’ and because of a ‘Desire to work with children and young people’, compared to their colleagues at secondary level. The same pattern emerges when comparing reasons for staying in the profession. Primary teachers’ tendency to be particularly focused on pupils is just one of the striking findings to emerge from last year’s LKMco and Pearson report, Why Teach? [PDF]. With three quarters of school leaders saying that they are finding teacher recruitment problematic, and with twice as many as last year suggesting the situation has been caused by teachers leaving the profession, the report could not be more urgently needed.
Ensure the tasks teachers do feel meaningful
Jo Angell, headteacher at Kings Hedges Primary, argues that the reason teachers come to work in her school is that they “Buy into what we’re trying to do – which is the very best we can for our pupils.” In doing so, she puts her finger on one of the big challenges that Why Teach? throws up. Primary teachers work an average of 59.3 hours per week [PDF]; 82% of those who considered leaving teaching in the six months prior to our report did so because of workload. Teachers are willing to work hard and be challenged, so long as they feel the work is going towards something that matters. Yet when I visit schools and ask teachers about why they have done something, I am alarmed by how often they say, “Because it’s what Ofsted wants.” It’s no surprise that when efforts are expended for the inspectorate, rather than for pupils, morale quickly collapses and teachers leave. As one primary school teacher in Derbyshire put it: “I love working with the children, but over the years the job has changed; I think higher up [the school], the kids are seen as numbers and not children.” An improved Ofsted grade or league table position may be an immediate and tangible outcome, but it would be so much more motivating if school leaders could articulate how pupils themselves would benefit from a new marking policy or teaching strategy.
Create opportunities for connections
Like Chloe, Sabiha also teaches at Meadow Primary school. She had not intended to become a teacher until, during a stint as a teaching assistant, ‘I became hooked on teaching – It felt nice to have that relationship with all the children.” Her colleague Stephany agrees: “I met the children and I sat with them. They were such lovely children. All I wanted to do was make some sort of difference to their lives.” Relationships with pupils are so important to primary teachers that schools need to provide plenty of opportunities for these to flourish. A 2015 report by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation [PDF] showed that residential experiences such as field trips are one way of enhancing pupil-staff relationships, but a focus on cramming for exams can push these opportunities out, robbing the profession of its soul and pushing away the very teachers with the potential to help children achieve.
If schools want to ensure the job is satisfying, this temptation to sacrifice ‘precious moments’ needs to be resisted.
Provide professional satisfaction
This hinges on a sense of mastery – being good at the job is crucial for teachers determined to make an impact on their pupils. Indeed, 95% of primary school teachers say that being good at what they do is the reason why they have stayed in the profession. Teachers need to be encouraged and supported to develop in their profession. Schools that do this well have a huge advantage in attracting and retaining staff, particularly younger teachers for whom the availability of CPD can be a deciding factor in picking where to teach. External pressure may be higher than ever, but schools should be wary of sacrificing the intrinsic satisfaction that keeps teachers in their jobs. Without these teachers, everything else falls apart.
Ultimately, primary teachers are ‘In it for the kids’. As recruitment gets tougher, it’s those schools that actively help teachers feel meaning, connection and professional satisfaction that will gain the upper hand in the recruitment race.
Loic Menzies is director the education and youth ‘think and action tank’ LKMco and a tutor in initial teacher training at Canterbury Christ Church University
For more information, visit www.lkmco.org or follow @lkmco
