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Why are so Many Teachers Leaving the Profession?
My story explores the rising number of children being home-educated alongside the increasing exodus of teachers and leaders from the profession. I want to help people realise that even teachers feel the system is failing pupils.
When asked, “Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?” 40% of UK teachers surveyed by a teaching union said, “No longer working in education!”
Generally, teachers enter the profession because they are passionate about making a difference for young people, but many are leaving because the pressure within the system no longer allows them to do this effectively.
I am one such example. I was a Headteacher for nine years until I fell out of love with the system. I realised that the current UK state education provision wasn’t suitable for me or my family, so I took the plunge into home education.
In 2014 and 2015, the UK curriculum underwent significant changes, with the bar being raised by nearly two full years. Schools were forced to catch up with these expectations, both in terms of pupil progress and data. For me, this marked the beginning of the decline. Teachers were panicked, pupils were overloaded with homework, and there was a shift towards cramming rather than deep learning. The expectation for children to learn at a greater depth increased, but the time allocated for this decreased. There was more sitting at desks, which doesn’t suit all children, particularly young ones or those with additional needs. This led to an increase in disruptive behaviour, and after repeated warnings, many children were excluded. Although I never resorted to exclusions in my school, I understood the pressure on schools and the resulting rise in exclusions. I have spoken to families recently who were advised to withdraw their children voluntarily to avoid formal exclusions.
Persistent, disruptive behaviour has led to the number of children entering pupil referral units (PRUs) doubling since 2011. Shockingly, there were 42 children under the age of five being taught in PRUs and 28 under the age of two. Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are six times more likely to be excluded.
What constantly brings me to tears is hearing that mental health issues among young people have doubled in the past two years. The government often responds by highlighting the extra funding being put into the system. However, there seems to be a lack of understanding that this issue is partly due to the pressure children are under from the increasingly outdated school system, along with the lack of time in schools to address social, emotional, and mental health issues as they arise, rather than through a waiting list.
The government’s raised standards for data performance have also placed heavier targets on staff. Performance management now focuses on staff achieving high percentages of pupils reaching expected levels of progress, regardless of individual children’s journeys and starting points. Schools that fail to meet these standards are absorbed into Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). I joined a MAT hoping it would bring improvements, but instead, the workload increased, the person-centred approach was stripped away, undervalued, and the entire school began to run like a business. While the business approach has its place for ordering resources or ensuring compliance, it’s not suitable for making child-centred decisions that are best for the children and families in the school.
The pressure on staff is immense. Many people think teachers enjoy wonderful holidays, but in reality, many spend that time unwell because their bodies can’t cope with the constant stress, or they live with anxiety as they prepare for the next term. I often felt like my mind and body were in a constant state of fight or flight.
One of the reasons I left the system was to create a more balanced, consistent pace of life where I could breathe steadily, rather than enduring the extremes of school life.
The expectations placed on children are also unrealistic. I see frazzled six-year-olds being forced to read by their parents while waiting to go into after-school gym classes, trying to cram in their homework before dinner, bath, and bed.
I never wanted children at my primary school to do homework or engage in SATs revision. For me, school was the place for learning, and home should be for play and family time. Homework also places undue pressure on parents, who often struggle to understand modern teaching methods, leading to unnecessary arguments and tension at home. However, many schools feel compelled to assign homework to boost their data performance. Recently, I saw a burnt-out Year 6 pupil in tears due to the amount of past papers she was expected to complete over the Easter holidays. Surely, these children are far too young to be under this kind of pressure.
Teachers generally work extremely hard, but if you talk to school staff, they will tell you about the ridiculous workloads and expectations to get all children to certain milestones. These targets are unrealistic in many cases and are driven by the fear of Ofsted inspections. The system fails to consider children’s starting points or the events in their lives that affect their learning, not to mention the fact that we all learn at different rates and times.
I love this quote by John Holt: “Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.”
I really hope this story helps people understand the pressure that children and staff are under, and in turn, helps explain why so many are leaving the system. Fingers crossed the future brings change for the better!https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/01/number-of-primary-school-children-at-referral-units-soars
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