The number of teachers leaving the profession for reasons other than retirement or death in the UK has seen a steady rise over the years. This as highly impacted the ability of a number of state schools being able to fill up their vacant positions. This review focuses on Winston College a prestigious state school in Winston UK. Identifying that other subjects seems to have more difficulty in filling up vacancy compared to others Winston College is looking for strategies which it can implement to attract and retain teachers especially in these hard to fill areas. The review looks into several reports from the Department for Education and other relevant sources to first identify the causes of teacher turnover that may be impacting its staff. Some of the stated factors included high workload resulting to poor work-life balance and ill health, limited or lack of development opportunities, lack of support from school leadership and pay. A number of solutions were listed among them introducing direct feedback and doing away with the written feedback, writing off teacher student loans after 5 years in the field and introducing bursaries for ITT. These and a number of other recommendations are presented to help Winston College to increase retention and improve its recruitment strategy.
Recruiting and retaining qualified educators has gained prominence as a pressing issue in recent years. In a 2018 report to the House of Commons the Committee of Public Accounts noted a decline in the number of secondary school teachers since 2010, as well as a rise in the amount of teachers exiting for factors other than retirement beginning in 2012 (House of Commons the Committee of Public Accounts, 2018). Along with the fact that the number of students has been, and will continue to be, on the rise, this has put a lot of pressure on the available pool of educators (House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, 2018). The state’s public school system is making an effort to retain more teachers in the face of nationwide and local teacher shortages. Kristen Tuttle the Director of Human Resources briefed the School Board that there will be a countrywide teacher shortage of 112,000 by 2018. She noted that, across the country and in Winchester specifically, foreign language, special education, mathematics, and science positions are the most difficult to fill (Kazar, 2017). However, Winchester only has one vacant teaching position to be filled in special education and it has been working all year to fill the position. This indication is consistent with nationwide trends in the education sector.
In the city of Winchester, Hampshire, stands Winchester College, one of the oldest and most prestigious public universities in all of England. It was established in 1382 by Bishop William of Wickham as St. Mary College of Winchester near Winchester to train young men for his New College, Oxford, also called St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford. Henry VI’s founding at Eton College and, more generally, the structures of later English public schools were modeled after this school’s autonomous and sovereign structure. After being a boys’ boarding school for nearly 600 years, the school is making a transition to become coeducational and to admit day learners.
This review aims to
- Identify reasons why teachers choose to leave their profession in the UK and in Winchester College
- Suggest new ways in which recruitment and retention can be managed more effectively amongst teachers at Winchester College.
- Review the current literature around teacher recruitment and retention management methods
- Propose new and dynamic ways in which these retention strategies can be used and implemented at Winchester College Provide recommendations for senior management
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
In state-funded schools, the number of qualified educators has lagged behind student enrollment growth during the previous decade or two. Projections indicated that the ratio of students to teachers (total number of students divided by total number of certified teachers) will be 18.5 to 1 in 2021, up from 17.6 in November 2010 (Burge, 2020). The percentage of open teaching positions has also increased throughout this time.
A wealth of research details some of the elements that affect educators’ retention. The Department for Education commissioned in-depth qualitative research on why teachers quit the job and what would motivate them to stay in teaching after conducting a poll of departing educators from January to March 2017 (Department for Education, 2018). The report lists the following as factors that influence teacher turnover:
- Their stress levels, health, and ability to maintain a work-life balance were all negatively impacted by the volume of workload (Busby, 2019). According to the DfE report, about one-fifth of the primary and secondary school teachers who participated in the study reported suffering stress and health difficulties due to severe workloads and a low level of sup from support from their School Leadership Team (SLT) (Department for Education, 2018). Anxiety, sleeping disorders, and panic attacks, played roles in their choice to leave.
- Fewer chances to advance in one’s income because of implausible goals; for instance, instructors felt that performance management targets were unreachable due to lack of resources to offer pay raises (Department for Education, 2016).
- Highly qualified educators nearing the upper limits of their compensation range with no opportunities for advancement due to a lack of suitable roles or the public sector salary limitation (Department for Education, 2016).
A number of studies have identified potential strategies for boosting teacher retention. Teachers have proposed a number of solutions to the retention crisis, including better in-school support for teachers, a greater emphasis on progression opportunities, a reduction in workload and improvements to workplace conditions. However pay was not a factor for most, although it was indicated that pay scales were not reflective of the role.
Teachers’ pay
According to Foster (2019), many educators were not motivated by pay. The majority of educators, however, believed that their pay did not fairly compensate them for their years of experience, competence, and commitment to their profession. It also fell short of the desired level of effort and time investment in the field. Some educators held the view that teaching salaries and benefits should be more comparable to those found in the private sector (Belanger & Broeks, 2018). According to the study, Teachers’ remuneration should reflect the cost of training, so it can be reintroduced along with the repayment of teachers’ loans (Allen et al., 2012). For example, if student loans were forgiven after five years of service in the field, it may encourage more individuals to remain in the field.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (2018) also proposed several monetary incentives, including as bursaries and scholarships for students training in specific subjects, to encourage enrollment to initial teacher training (ITT) (National Audit office, 2016). Minister for Education Nick Gibbs has stated that the ability to offer and revise bursary amounts allows the Department to allocate funds where they are most needed (i.e., to attract qualified teachers) (DfE, 2018). However, bursaries have been argued over in terms of their ability to attract and retain enough qualified educators. For instance, in their October 2018 report, the National Foundation for Educational Research noted that bursaries do not seem to be encouraging recruitment or retention to the required levels since they are not tethered to teachers remaining in the profession (DfE, 2019). The report however recommended that the government should set up financial incentives in a way that encourages people to stick around in the first few years after receiving training.
Reducing workload at school level
The research by Jerrimand & Simsfound (2019) indicated that many educators believed that decreasing student loads was the most effective retention strategy. The majority of comments focused on ways to save time or lighten the load of lesson preparation and evaluation. According to the study, decreasing secondary school teachers’ timetables would free up more time for PPA (planning, preparation, and assessment) time, which in turn may reduce teachers’ workload for instance having one of the six teaching periods free every day (Jerrimand & Simsfound, 2019). Teachers in elementary schools proposed an alternative to rewriting lesson plans by allowing teachers to annotate and modify existing plans. Many elementary school educators have voiced frustration with the amount of time and effort required for planning and assessment which they deemed unnecessary (National Education Union, 2018). Primary school educators also believe that providing or sharing materials would be beneficial. In July of 2018, the government released a Workload Reduction Toolkit, a collection of digital materials designed to assist school administrators in conducting workload reviews and implementing workload reductions (National Education Union, 2018). Case studies of schools that have successfully implemented the systems were included in this toolkit to show school leadership (SLTs) how to implement them and reduce staff workload. There was a call for collaborative lesson planning, the adoption of new technologies, the elimination of written evaluations, the encouragement of teachers to focus on their personal lives, and the promotion of a healthy work-life balance for educators (Long &Danechi, 2022) .
Maintaining a consistent supply of educators is a challenge and a major concern. A survey titled School Workforce in England (2020) found that just 67.4% of teachers who graduated in 2014 were still in the profession five years later (Belanger & Broeks, 2018). According to the House of Commons, there has been a steady decline in the number of high school teachers since 2010, with the trend toward non-retirement-related exits rising since 2012 (Foster, 2019). The fact that the student population is growing and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future, while the number of newly certified teachers remains stagnant, is cause for alarm. The combined effects of these factors have tightened the market for qualified educators. Previous research demonstrates that compensation, along with workload and scheduling flexibility, is thought to be one of the most crucial determinants of a teacher’s decision to remain in a position. Pay and incentives are significant retention drivers, according to our research. However, non-financial factors can also offset increases in salary, and in certain situations, they might even be more effective (NASUWT, n.d). In exchange for other perks like working in supportive surroundings with less obstacles from disruptive students, teachers would be ready to surrender better compensation or awards (NEU, 2018). Teachers have also been proven to desire workload reduction and investing in their career development, according to the DCE, which supports the DfE’s policy response from the previous few years (DfE, 2019). Moreover, they prefer conditions in which they are supported by both school administration and their colleagues, and they place a priority on having the option to work part-time. Contrary to what was thought to be the result of the proposal to increase starting compensation, instructors also desire greater pay scale steps and a speedier rate of advancement when their achievement is regarded as exceptional (DfE, 2018). Therefore, it is more likely that a collection of treatments created to focus on the preferences and expectations of particular groups of teachers will be helpful than a one-size-fits-all strategy.
Management at Winston’s College should take into account that workload seems to be the most pressing issue when it comes to employee retention. This can be initiated by having more flexible schedules so that all employees can take “duvet days” on particular days throughout the year. Additionally, teachers should be allowed to recover from illness without being obliged to do cover work. The school must shift away from a culture in which teachers take long-term sick leave in response to a heavy workload and stress. The organization can look into getting “well-being leads” who actively look for ways to lighten the workload or switch employees during particularly challenging times of the academic year.
Additionally, the school leadership team (SLT) should implement the workload management recommendations contained in the government’s Workload Reduction Toolkit. For instance, management should disregard misconceptions that claim that spending hours marking creates a better teacher and that writing pages of comments increases effectiveness and instead focus on providing feedback that is useful, manageable, and inspiring. Instead, they could use techniques that rely on quick feedback. Consider including live class feedback (such as audio, photo, or video) that can be captured and appended to electronic versions of the students’ work. Also, evening and weekend hours should be free of schoolwork and grading.
The school may take into account whole-school, awards, and well-being packages for the educators. Management may adopt “care package” that Winston College’s staff can get at the start of each term and would contain gifts, gift cards, and books. The organization might inquire among its employees about their level of enthusiasm for taking courses once a month during break or listening to guest speakers’ maybe once every month during break, or creating time for continuing professional development (CPD) for each individual employee. According to DfE, (2016), a one-day increase in total CPD days is comparable to a 0.43 percent wage boost. Therefore, it is preferable to increase the number of CPD days both during and after school hours.
