The number of school leaders under the age of 50 who quit their jobs within five years of being appointed has gone up, according to as yet unpublished government data uncovered by a freedom of information (FoI) request.
More than one in three secondary school leaders in England and one in four primary school leaders left at some point in the five years after their appointment in 2015, the official Department for Education (DfE) statistics showed.
Close to half of middle leaders across both phases of education left within the same period, amid fears that the retention of the most senior staff in schools in England is in serious decline.
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which put in the FoI request after the government failed to publish updated figures, warned that leadership supply for schools in England is “teetering on the brink” and accused the DfE of failing to act on the crisis.
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “School leaders’ pay has been cut by 15% in real terms since 2010, and this, in combination with high stakes accountability, crushing workload, long hours, and inadequate school funding, is driving leaders from the job they love.”
The worrying trend was uncovered in annual data collected by the DfE that details the number of head teachers, assistant and deputy heads, and middle leaders, under the age of 50 and new to post, who leave their job within five years of taking up the role.
The new figures show that five-year retention rates have deteriorated across every category of school leadership since the data was last published in 2018. Comparing 2011-16 with 2015-20, the proportion of primary heads that left within five years of their appointment went up from 22% to 25%, while among secondary heads it increased from 35% to 37%.
“The data that we have received confirms our fears that leadership retention rates have declined even further since 2015,” said Ian Hartwright, NAHT senior policy adviser, who led the research. “That is true, even taking account of two very disrupted recruitment years, where due to the pandemic there has been much less movement than might otherwise have been anticipated.”
On Tuesday, the NAHT will give oral evidence to the school teachers’ review body, the independent panel that makes recommendations on pay, including the new information about the number of school leaders leaving their jobs early.
“NAHT has pressed the DfE, literally for years, to act on this crisis,” said Whiteman. “But the DfE remains in denial about the systemic problems afflicting the profession. We urgently need the government to work with us to build a new, fair deal on pay, workload and accountability, to relieve the extraordinary pressures on the profession and make a lifelong career in education attractive and sustainable.”
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A DfE spokesperson said: “The overall picture of school leadership in England is positive – vacancy rates are low and the quality of leadership is high, but we do recognise school leaders have faced challenges.
“That is why we are taking a wide range of action to support the profession, including investing £250m in training opportunities across all stages of teachers’ careers, plus the government’s pay reforms giving schools greater flexibility to reward exceptional leaders.”