Nina Gunson is Head of Sheffield High School for Girls and Visiting Fellow at STEM Learning. In a series of exclusive blogs, she'll be discussing the challenges of recruitment, retention affecting the teaching profession in 2022, reflects on possible solutions and asks ‘what does outstanding teaching look like?’
Part 1 focused on supporting Early Career Teachers, Part 2 looked at the vital importance of CPD - now Nina takes a timely look at wellbeing...
A report published by the DfE prior to the pandemic showed that teachers were suffering from high workloads, a lack of work-life balance, a perceived lack of resources and, in some cases, a perceived lack of support from senior managers - and Covid has only exacerbated this situation.
Teaching is a tough job. While there are some things we can do to prevent teachers completing unnecessary tasks, there are limitations on how much we can do to reduce the workload demands…lesson preparation, assessing pupil work, providing feedback to pupils and parents, supporting pupils pastorally and providing pupils with opportunities beyond the curriculum. That said, teacher workload and teacher wellbeing are different things - and an individual’s wellbeing depends on their confidence and enjoyment in their role.
Teaching is an incredibly rewarding job, but only if teachers feel engaged, enabled and empowered. Providing teachers at all stages of their careers with the time to engage in continued study, promoting lifelong learning, signposting excellent CPD and networking opportunities and encouraging teachers to create their own networks or lead CPD for others are some of the ways we can demonstrate that we value the teachers in our schools and, hopefully, contribute to their positive wellbeing as confident, invigorated professionals.
A recent survey of teachers by YouGov shows that 40% of teachers would not go back into the profession if they had the chance to start their career over. It also shows that more senior teachers, including department heads and heads of year, were the least likely to say they would start again in teaching if they had the chance. Among those who would not choose to become a teacher again, the vast majority also said they would attempt to dissuade others from a career in teaching. As school leaders, we should be asking ourselves what we can do to ensure our teachers not only remain in the profession, but champion teaching.
Our aim as educators is to inspire our students and prepare them to be successful in all facets of their lives when they leave us - but we can only hope to inspire our students and equip them with a set of skills for success if we do the same for our teachers.
STEM Learning’s high-quality CPD assists teacher wellbeing - read my previous blog on this and browse the full CPD offering here.
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