Just passing through: why young teachers are leaving the profession

The headlines make grim reading: ‘Half of all teachers in England threaten to quit as morale crashes’ reported the Guardian recently. ‘Nearly four in ten qualifying teachers quitting the classroom after one year’ was a front page story in the Independent in March. The BBC radio 4 documentary Sick of school provides an alarming insight into life as a teacher in 21st century Britain.

Few would disagree that we’ve got to recruit talented people into the teaching profession, but once trained and in frontline teaching, is anybody concerned about keeping them there? 

Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen an explosion of chemists who quit teaching within a year or two of starting their training. What’s going on? I’ve spoken with some of my recent students, some who’ve quit and some who are still teaching, to find out more. 

David Fulton explores the reasons why new teachers are quitting at an alarming rate.