Shaping the future of education

No education system can exceed the quality of its teachers. They should be valued, supported and developed to their fullest potential so that their work with children and young people is most effective.

The Government has made a manifesto commitment to recruit 6,500 more teachers and has made very positive moves to support the profession, including a 12% pay rise in the last two years. However, it is clear that there is still much to do to restore teaching as an attractive and rewarding profession for graduates.

Teachers are leaving teaching earlier and earlier in their careers. 40% leave within ten years of qualifying to teach.

Department for Education figures show that there are more teacher vacancies advertised now than at any time since records began.

This rate of attrition leads to what has been called the ‘weakened workforce’ in which early career teachers lose the support and guidance of mid-career teachers, and it means that fewer teachers are available, or willing, to become school leaders.

The ultimate losers in this are the children and young people, and in particular those in schools in deprived areas who are the most likely to be taught by inexperienced, unqualified and temporary teachers.

So, teacher supply is a social justice issue.

That’s why I set up the Teaching Commission, hosted at UCL Institute of Education, where I’m a visiting professor in the Centre for Teachers and Teacher Education. The Teaching Commission is supported by the NEU, NAHT, and ASCL, along with the Key Group and Schools Week, who served as our media partner.

Over a series of eight Commission meetings, Commissioners heard evidence from a wide range of expert witnesses on the current state of the profession and the real and present challenges to adequate teacher supply in England.

Teachers like teaching. Nearly 80% agree that they enjoy being in the classroom all or most of the time. But it is also the unfortunate truth that 85% of teachers report that they are exhausted at the end of every working day. No other occupation reports this rate of exhaustion, so it was the work of the Commission to ask why teachers feel this way.

In one focus group, an experienced teacher and a deputy head said: ‘There’s more volunteering in teaching than in any other line of work. I just can’t keep volunteering – all weekend and every weekday evening – I’m not paid for working these hours.’

The Commission’s report has three sections. Firstly, it examines the state of teacher recruitment and retention. Then it follows teachers from early career through to mid-career, and here in particular, examines the forces which drive teachers who are mothers from the profession, through to leadership. As part of this examination, the systemic discrimination faced by Black and Global Majority Heritage teachers is revealed.

There are further sections on school culture, funding and school accountability.

The report has recommendations for school leadership – in particular, what actions can be taken at MAT and school level to engage, enthuse and enlist teachers at all stages of their career.

And for Government, which must do all it can to create the conditions for teachers to thrive and be held intelligently accountable for their work. This is essential if the Government’s ambition for a strong, thriving teacher workforce, capable of educating the nation’s children to the highest standards, is to be realised.
 

Click here to read the Teaching Commission July 2025 Shaping the Future of Teaching full report.