Why do so many teachers abandon their teaching careers, and what strategies can we employ to retain them?
You’ve probably heard the stat: half of all new teachers leave within five years. It’s been doing the rounds for years, quoted in policy papers, union speeches, and the more despairing corners of Twitter. The truth is a little less stark. The most recent Department for Education figures show that around 32% of teachers in England leave within five yearsof qualifying. Nearer to a third than half, but still a staggering number.
According to the best estimates we have, around 900,000 people under 60 in England and Wales hold qualified teacher status. Yet only about 492,000 of them are currently teaching in state-funded schools. That means roughly 400,000 qualified teachers – nearly half – are doing something, anything, else.1
And the trend is getting worse. In 2023–24, for the first time in over a decade, more teachers left the profession than joined. According to the School Workforce Census, 41,736 full-time equivalent teachers entered the state sector, while 41,212 left—a wafer-thin net gain of just 524 teachers. But once part-time staff are accounted for, the workforce actually shrunk by around 400 teachers overall. In practical terms, schools are now losing teachers faster than they can hire them.