Research School Network: What helps to improve teacher retention? Latest findings and tools to support
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What helps to improve teacher retention?
Latest findings and tools to support
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by Great Heights Research School: West Yorkshire
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Jessica Mellor
Jessica is the Research School Network Content Specialist for Disadvantage and Director of Great Heights Research School. Attainment gaps between the most and least advantaged children are found from early years and all the way through the education system. Jessica is committed to working with schools to utilise the evidence base to support improvements in teaching that can enable all children to access a good-quality education that can transform lives and open up the world of work and wider opportunities.
As set out in the bio above, teachers play a crucial role in ensuring all children access a good education which can transform their lives and open up the world of work and wider opportunities, and this is particularly important for our most disadvantaged pupils. Whilst there is a slightly improving trend, the statistics around teachers leaving the profession are a sobering read; about 41,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers left their jobs in 2023 – 24. This is down on 42,600 in 2022 – 23 and the lowest since 2020.
On Thursday 12th February, NFER published new research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which explores the factors associated with the leaving decisions of teachers, to understand in greater detail what actions policymakers might take to further improve teacher retention rates; there are also important implications for school and system leaders. The findings reveal important insights about the factors that may be more or less influential for teacher retention. Whilst the analysis should interpreted cautiously they do reveal patterns and findings that are backed up by other evidence using complementary research.
Below we explore some of the key findings from the research and signpost relevant tools and resources.
1. Leadership support
At the heart of this is promoting teachers’ sense of involvement and engagement in school life and agency over their practice, wherever practical.
This seems to echo what we know about the underpinning behaviours of effective implementation and heightens the importance of ensuring that we engage people so that they have the potential to influence change and engaging people in collaborative processes.
How might we engage people?
Explore pupil needs collaboratively Represent the community in decision-making Form and use implementation teams Promote and structure opportunities for collaboration e.g. co-planning Show how roles are interconnected Provide meaningful opportunities for people to share perspectives, ideas and concerns
Whilst not explicitly identified within the research, this also seems to be point to the broader culture of a school. Do all staff (and pupils) feel that their voices are heard? Do they feel respected, trusted and valued through everyday interactions?
2. Impact of Professional Development
Teachers’ perceptions of the impact of CPD on their practice is likely to be highest where the CPD undertaken aligns with their own CPD priorities. Providing teachers with more input into their CPD activity is therefore likely to be beneficial for improving its impact and improving teacher retention.
Just under 90 per cent of those who qualified as teachers in 2023 were still teaching one year on – up by 0.7 percentage points and higher than any point over the last 15 years when records began. This perhaps points to the impact of reforms to Initial Teacher Training and the professional development and support introduced for Early Career Teachers.
High quality teaching improves pupil outcomes and effective professional development offers a crucial tool to develop teaching quality and subsequently enhance children’s outcomes in the classroom. The EEF Guide to Effective Professional Development sets out the importance of ensuring that professional development effectively builds knowledge, motivates staff, develops teaching techniques, and embeds practice with fourteen mechanisms that can be split into these four areas.
Within this context, the mechanisms below seem particularly pertinent:
Mechanism 3: setting and agreeing on goals
When conscious, specific, and sufficiently difficult goals are set, they make it more likely that performance will improve. Particular emphasis might be placed here on the notion of ‘difficult’ and the importance of setting goals that are appropriate to the level of teacher expertise and thus aligns with the priorities for that individual.
Mechanism 7: arranging practical social support
Opportunities for peer collaboration and social support provides an opportunity for teachers to share priorities and problems that they may be facing in the classroom helping to assimilate professional development with individual priorities;. This could be through facilitation design ensuring teachers have enough time and space to engage and or social support could be provided through coaching where an expert coach provides tailored support and assistance.
Planning Workload
Teachers feeling they spend too much time on lesson planning is a key factor associated with teacher retention. Leaders should think carefully about what is expected of school staff with respect to planning, while also providing access to shared schemes of work and promoting opportunities for collaborative planning.
On the surface this is a challenging finding as we know the importance of the planning process for ensuring that lessons are tailored to the needs of pupils in the classroom, ensuring lessons are inclusive by design and maximising the learning opportunity for all. However, in their recommendations the report does point to the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce planning time. Again, a much debated development in terms of both the pros and cons. However, a recent trial from the EEF with teachers using ChatGPT, alongside a guide to support them to use it effectively, did reduce their lesson planning time by 31 per cent.
We might consider:
Which aspects of lesson planning are essential professional work, and which are repetitive or administrative?
Which parts of lesson planning could be supported by AI without undermining professional judgment?
How can we strengthen our knowledge and expertise as leaders to make decisions about AI?
When thinking about teacher retention within your own setting or organisation:
Why do our strongest teachers choose to stay?
What patterns appear in exit interviews or informal conversations?
What reasons for leaving are within our control?
What would make this school a place teachers choose to stay?
In line with the focus on teacher retention, UCL Institute of Education are recruiting for a trial to explore the impact of allowing Primary school teachers to complete Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) work offsite on teacher retention. This free trial is open to mainstream state-funded primary schools in England where teachers are not usually able to take PPA away from the school site. More information can be found here.
Worth, J., Del Pozo Segura, J.M. and Kuhn, L. (2026) What helps to improve teacher retention? A pathway analysis of factors affecting retention. Slough. NFER
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