The largest single group leaving teaching in England are women in their 30s, according to a new report called Missing Mothers seen exclusively by the BBC. The report found that more than 9,000 of these teachers left the profession in England in 2022-23, compared with just over 3,400 men of a similar age. The researchers behind the report are urging more family-friendly policies to address the exodus. The Labour government has promised an extra 6,500 teachers.
The report, released last Friday, found that workload, striking a balance between teaching and family, and maternity pay are all issues that need to be addressed. The New Britain Project, the independent think tank, carried out 383 individual interviews with women who had either left or stayed in teaching. The interviews revealed that many of the women who left teaching after having children did so as a result of the difficulty of juggling work and motherhood.
One of the many hurdles for teachers is poor maternity pay, which under the national conditions followed by most schools in England is inferior to other jobs. Teachers receive just four weeks of full pay, followed by two weeks of 90 percent pay before receiving 12 weeks of half pay topped up with statutory maternity pay. The report calls for various improvements, including giving teachers the same maternity pay as civil servants in the Department for Education. Increasing flexibility in working hours is also identified as a meaningful shift in the profession.
Some academy trusts are already experimenting with making teaching more appealing by offering a nine-day fortnight for teachers, while others are embracing flexible working arrangements. Linton Village College in Cambridge is one example, where over a third of teachers have part-time working arrangements or slightly different start or finish times. The principal of Linton Village College believes that these types of arrangements are necessary to prevent the loss of experienced female teachers leaving in their 30s, which results in a “gross waste of talent”.
The report has been welcomed by the headteachers’ union ASCL, as well as by the Confederation of School Trusts, which speaks for academy schools. The government has recently made a gesture towards greater flexibility by calling on all schools to allow teachers to do their lesson preparation time at home, but its efforts fall short of what the report calls for to retain experienced teachers
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
