Thank you for the insight

Each year the RSC Education team ask you to complete the Science Teaching Survey. Thanks to your generous participation in this survey we get lots of data and insights into the shared challenges and rewards of teaching, as well as the experiences of teachers and technicians across nations, school types and job roles.

Together with the Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Physics in 2024 we asked you specifically about areas such as subject-specific professional development (PD), the deployment of experts, well-being, job satisfaction, attitudes towards the curriculum and the challenges of teaching in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation. We have also asked for your views on issues around AI (artificial intelligence) and the impact of curriculum reform.

You told us the headline topics are:

1. Not enough non-contact time, an overloaded curriculum and insufficient school funding which are all impacting student learning outcomes.
2. Concerning trends in working conditions and staffing levels.
3. Workload remains unchanged despite 44 per cent of teachers having used AI.
4. One in five teachers lacking awareness of essential skills needed for chemical science careers.

Responding to you

Continuous dialogue with educators like you shapes our policy work and the Science Teaching Survey is a big part of this. It helps us influence the secondary and further education landscape on your behalf. By understanding the needs and challenges faced by teachers and technicians in different regions and circumstances, we are building a body of evidence that we use to influence government policy, as well as prioritise our programmes of support for teachers and then measure the impact of our work.

Since the first survey in 2022, we have used the evidence gathered to work directly with ministers and policymakers in all nations of the UK and Ireland. In this way, we have helped support curriculum and assessment changes, particularly in Wales where the results informed the Welsh government’s planning.

Every question you answer helps us advocate for you and support you better

In 2024, you told us you would like more professional development on AI. We took note and last year ran an online PD session, Using AI in the chemistry classroom.

Each year we compare data and monitor trends, as well as introducing new areas to the survey, for example SEND support in schools. And in 2025 we will be examining the reported decline in well-being. We’ve also identified we need to improve representation of disabled teachers, those from ethnic minority backgrounds and science technicians in our surveys.