Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, responds to a report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), which examines the role pupil behaviour plays in teachers choosing to leave the profession.
“This research underlines the fact that even a small increase in challenging behaviour from some pupils can have a big impact on the lives of teachers and school leaders. Where staff are spending significant amounts of time dealing with incidents caused by poor behaviour, not only can this be difficult to manage but it also adds to already high workloads. The links to lower job satisfaction and wellbeing are concerning because the profession can ill afford retention rates to further worsen.
“We support the calls for the government to do more to support schools in managing behaviour and meeting pupils’ additional pastoral and learning needs. Budget constraints limit the amount and type of pastoral care that schools are able to provide, and it is often very difficult to access external support services. Greater investment in education and children’s services is required to ensure pupils get timely support when they need it.
“We also agree with the importance of at least maintaining the competitiveness of teachers’ pay each year and appropriately funding schools to deliver it. This has always been a driving factor in recruitment and retention, and there is a real danger that if earnings outside teaching keep growing at a comparatively faster rate, schools and colleges will continue to be hit by staff shortages.”