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Could Lessons from Overseas Help Solve our Teacher Retention Crisis?

What can we learn from other countries about keeper UK teachers in the profession? Paul Middleton is on a one-man mission around the world to find out…

Paul Middleton
by Paul Middleton
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For many, the end-of-year gathering will not be a particularly sombre affair.

While Janet might be welling up after 20 years of loyal service to the science department, there will be a gaggle of graduates breaking the sound barrier as they escape the place that has caused them so much misery.

This blur represents the 40% of teachers who leave the profession within the first five years – the victims of a broken education system.

Many will blame the unnecessary data collection, unmanageable workload or inadequate line management, while others will move to professions where there is a greater likelihood of development and progression.

Whatever their reasons, they echo the attitudes of so many teachers left clinging on as the mighty vessel of British education continues to sink.

So, what is being done about this bleak situation? Well, to be honest, not a lot.

Although the Secretary of State for Education regularly acknowledges the importance of ‘working together with the teaching profession’, the only thing to come from the DfE is a workload reduction toolkit, which is about as much use as a damp paper towel on a severed limb.

Teacher retention is clearly not an issue that is going to be solved quickly, and many of us question the government’s ability to solve the issue at all.

The number of social media, TV and billboard advertisements encouraging every Tom, Dick or Jane to enter the profession suggests the DfE are simply clutching at straws. We need something that works, not another soggy serviette.

Further afield

This is where my one-man quest around the world fits in.

Over the next few months, I will jet off to Singapore, Norway and Switzerland to discover ways in which we can improve teacher retention, particularly among early-career teachers.

The six-week project, funded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, will involve interviews with classroom teachers, senior leaders and policy makers.

I want to find out the problems that teachers face in each of these countries and the support systems that are in place to alleviate these issues; could UK schools adopt some of these solutions?

As much as my choices of destination were swayed by my love of chilli crab and fondue, these countries also represent the different ‘threat levels’ regarding teacher retention.

If Britain is at DEFCON 1, with catastrophic disaster being imminent, then Singapore is sitting happily at DEFCON 5; its centralised system, which is overseen by the Ministry and National Institute of Education, has created a profession that is both successful and desirable.

Meanwhile, Norway and Switzerland perhaps represent levels 3 and 2 on this scale respectively. Although teachers in these countries face similar challenges to us and retention is certainly an issue, steps are already being taken to reverse this and there are some early signs of success.

Ground up

Now, I am fully aware that this research alone is unlikely to solve the mammoth issue of teacher retention in Britain.

Nevertheless, I hope it might highlight some possible interventions that schools (and the government) can put in place to support early-career teachers as they enter the profession.

A huge obstacle that we will have to overcome are the limited budgets that schools possess to implement these changes, and we may have to be a little creative, using grassroots initiatives instead of formal CPD.

After all, if Parkrun can get bums off sofas to help tackle the obesity crisis, then why couldn’t a similar scheme (minus the Lycra and smartwatches) not work for education?

Local ResearchEd and BrewEd events are already beginning to transform CPD for teachers, providing a cost-effective support system against the demands of the classroom.

Perhaps, with a little knowledge from abroad, who knows what could happen – we could even find an alternative to that wet paper towel after all…


Paul Middleton is head of history at a secondary school in Hertfordshire. Earlier this year, he was announced as a 2019 Churchill Fellow and will be documenting his research project at teacherbreakdown.co.uk. Follow him on Twitter at @MiddletonHist.

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