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14 April 2026

Tag: teacher retention

Why flexible working for teachers can bring the best of all worlds

When English teacher Gareth Edwards broke his ankle, attempting a karate kick dance move at the school Christmas party, he was able to recuperate at home and teach classes remotely. Then, when the 59-year-old was contemplating early retirement last year, he was persuaded instead to go down to three days a week. Had his school, […]

Teacher departures down 17% during pandemic, plus 4 more school workforce findings

Teaching’s increasingly young and diverse workforce continued to grow last year as staff departures slumped during Covid, new figures show. The Department for Education published its annual ‘school worforce in England’ data on Thursday, based on the November 2020 school workforce census. Here are the key findings.   1. Teacher numbers rise as staff stay […]

£500k to boost flexible working and drive staff retention

The government is looking for eight schools to share almost £500,000 as part of a programme to boost flexible working and improve staff retention.   Each flexible working ambassador school (FWAS) will receive £60,000.  The scheme, which runs from April next year until December 2022, is part of the Department for Education’s recruitment and retention […]

Hinds defends extension of trainee teacher bursaries to more 2:2 graduates

The education secretary Damian Hinds has defended a move to relax the eligibility criteria for government teacher training bursaries, and admitted he’s looking at the “simplicity” of routes into the profession to encourage more graduates to join. The Department for Education announced on Thursday that bursaries for graduates training to be music, history, design and […]

DfE ‘looking at’ resilience measure for trainee teachers

A Bradford teacher-training organisation has reduced drop-out rates by screening applicants for their resilience. The wastage rate of teacher trainees at Bradford SCITT fell from 10 per cent to one per cent in the first year after applicants’ resilience was measured and those with low scores were targeted with support. The man behind the idea, […]

Funding rules prevent MATs from building affordable homes for teachers

School leaders want to offer teachers accommodation to help solve the recruitment crisis, but, as ever, finding the money is too hard. Over the last six months The Harris Federation, one of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts, which runs 44 schools in London, has been working on a project to build up to 100 homes […]

Tips for improving staff wellbeing in schools

Amid the retention crisis and ever-increasing levels of teacher stress, it has never been more important to look after staff wellbeing. Sonia Mainstone-Cotton has some suggestions Staff wellbeing is a significant challenge for managers and school leaders, who are in an excellent position to make a difference to the lives of their staff. If your […]