Скачать или смотреть RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION

No school can be better than its teachers. One of the few positives to come out of the pandemic has been to prove
beyond all doubt, as parents valiantly struggled with home tuition, the importance of trained, experienced and
committed professional classroom teachers.
And yet, the profession is approaching crisis point. Even before the additional demands of teaching during lockdown, the
number of teachers leaving the profession has increased year on year and many of the newly qualified teachers leave
after only a couple of years whilst, at the same time, the numbers training has simply not kept pace. And this, worryingly,
coincides with a further rise in pupil numbers. This shortage will become even more pronounced over the next few years
as the large number of teachers in their fifties approach retirement. Approximately one in ten schools, pre Covid, found
it difficult to appoint a substantive Head and for five consecutive years schools were struggling to recruit across all roles,
from teachers to senior leaders [TES, May 1919] whilst a survey for the NAHT last year found that 47% of Heads were
considering quitting the profession early once they had steered their schools through the pandemic [TES, November
2020].

What is to be done?
Firstly, recruitment to the profession (although largely out of the hands of individual schools). The DfE is already
discussing raising the starting salary to £30,000, a very positive move which will, hopefully, be an attraction, but once
trained, we need to keep teachers in the profession. Pay progression, therefore, needs to be simple, transparent and
fair. The status of teachers needs to be raised to be on a par with doctors and nurses; the vast majority of teachers are
hardworking and dedicated professionals – they are not uncooperative, militant trouble makers. And although external
observation and inspection are essential to raise standards, Ofsted could be seen as much more professionally
supportive rather than as a stick with which to beat the profession.
The real question for individual schools, however, is how to recruit and to keep good teachers; sadly, at times, it is a
question of how to find and keep any teachers, not just good ones. With two and half thousand secondary schools to
choose from, and ten times that number of primary schools, teachers will simply vote with their feet: why should staff
work in one particular school and why should they stay working in it?
1. As mentioned before, pay progression and appraisal policies need to be simple, fair and transparent: staff must not
be required to jump through additional hoops to progress. If staff are doing a good job, they must be rewarded.
Equally, for those staff who do not fulfil their job descriptions, the appropriate action must be taken.
2. Staff workload needs to be kept to an absolute minimum to enable staff to concentrate on the three essentials of
teaching – preparation, delivery and assessment. Everything else is secondary. The good news is that Ofsted has at
last, since 2019, recognised the pressures on staff and will consider the management of staff workload as part of
their judgement on a school’s leadership and management. [It is just unfortunate, and ironic, that the latest two
Inspection Frameworks have probably created more paperwork than any previous Framework.]
3. A strong pupil behaviour policy and system needs to support teachers in maintaining the highest standards and to
enable teachers to do their jobs properly. Not taking a strong line on rudeness, defiance, aggression and disruption
not only prevents teachers from doing their jobs well, it also gives the impression that staff are neither valued nor
valuable.
4. Finally, schools need to protect and to respect their staff, not only from unruly pupils, but from aggressive parents,
unnecessary paperwork, excessive cover and duties, and by creating a happy, purposeful and cohesive working
environment in which teachers are treated as professionals and with respect. They are, after all, a school’s greatest
asset.
It was recently said to me that the difference between my style of headship and that of another Head was that I ran the
School in the interests of the staff whilst the other ran it in the interests of the pupils. What a crass, naïve and totally

erroneous observation. Certainly, I did always support the staff with difficult pupils and aggressive parents, treat them
with the respect they deserved and did what I could to make their workload as bearable as possible. But why? Because
by empowering teachers to do their jobs properly, pupils will be taught well and will achieve as highly as possible.
Supporting the staff to do their jobs as well as possible is running a school in the interests of the pupils.
As I have said several times before in these videos, the most important role of the Head and of school leaders is to
enable teachers to teach and pupils to learn.