I bang on about the importance of teachers all the time. So much so that I am often asked why, if I’m so passionate about this, I ‘escaped’ the classroom after only five years. It’s a fair question, and the answer is simple: I had children and needed to work part-time.
As a primary school teacher, I knew part-time posts existed but I had also witnessed what thankless jobs they could be. Marginalised and out of the loop, key decisions happened when they weren’t there and they were often deployed in last-minute and unpredictable fashion.
All the things I loved about teaching – ongoing relationships with pupils, crafting learning over time, a sense of belonging – were potentially threatened. So, just as my classroom practice was really hitting its stride, I changed my professional identity and started again.
A multi-layered problem
Thirty-five years on, the situation is sadly not so different. As the at-once illuminating and depressing Missing Mothers report demonstrates, we are failing to retain many of our best teachers for very similar reasons.
This really matters – at individual, school and system level. It’s obviously a tragedy for the individuals we lose. And it’s also a huge problem for pupils and the quality of education they deserve.
Studies suggest that it takes as long as ten years for teachers to become truly expert. Basically, we are losing teachers just at the point where they are achieving mastery and replacing them with a conveyer belt of novices.
But there’s a third group who suffers from this: the novices themselves. They get a poorer deal in their crucial early careers, which in turn feeds into a doom spiral for retention.
An underestimated solution
Increasingly and rightly, the system has woken up to the importance of supporting teachers as they enter the profession. This is why I was delighted to support the inception and development of the early career framework (ECF).
It’s now a legal entitlement for every new teacher, and a Gatsby-funded study I led last year set out to find out how it’s doing in it its early stage of implementation.
Our stand-out finding was the make-or-break role of the in-school mentor who supports each and every early-career teacher (ECT). Support and expertise from experienced teachers and the sustained and sustaining relationships that arise from mentoring are vital in making new recruits feel valued and in building their confidence and self-esteem.
A good mentor (or coach, depending on career stage) can make a vast difference to everyone working in schools. And yet, the very people who make the best mentors (and gain so much satisfaction themselves from doing it) are those we are losing to the tyranny of inflexible and unaccommodating working conditions.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Some have woken up to this problem and done great things to address it. In some cases, the problem is also part of the solution.
Schools and trusts who have realised the importance of changing how they organise themselves have sometimes also realised that important functions like mentoring need time and dedication that, if resourced strategically, can also present flexible opportunities.
With careful long-term planning, this can be a win-win situation. Experienced teachers who need flexibility can gain it by dedicating more of their time to mentoring ECTs and trainees across the school and/or trust.
There is a genuine opportunity at system level here, in two key ways.
First, the government can use the planned review of the NPQ frameworks to recognise the support (including exposure to role models and case studies) which leaders at every level need. Seizing this agenda could help us hold onto this precious resource of expert teachers.
Second, the government can seize the gathering momentum to unlock the full potential of mentoring as a huge force for teacher and leader development, progression and retention.
Given Labour’s teacher training manifesto commitment, this could be an exciting opportunity to build in flexible working, support parent-teachers and finally reverse our deeply concerning retention trend.
It might be too late for me, but it might even persuade a few to come back.
Your thoughts