What’s your teacher experience?
Great teachers are fundamental to the education system and to our future society. Sadly, the issue of teacher retention and recruitment continues to echo through education media. We hear there is a problem and it is set to get worse based on recent data. Disillusioned teachers are crumbling and leaving the profession due to workload, poor management practices and long periods of negative stress.
But enough of the problems. What can be practically and positively done in schools to create a teacher experience people don’t want to leave, and which they actually want to join?
It’s time to take a step back and look at the whole teacher experience, starting from the moment a teacher hears about a job with a school, whether it’s the wording of the job advert or what they hear from friends or family.
A truly fantastic teacher experience will save your school recruitment and supply teacher costs and reduce pressure on existing school team members having to cover the gaps. Attracting and retaining great teachers will have a positive impact on the reputation of your school and on the performance of your students.
So, how do you ensure your teacher experience lives up to what your school stands for, every day?
There are 12 stages of the teacher experience, which you can see in the image below. This has been inspired by Dr Emma Kell’s book: How to Survive in Teaching together with input from many others.1
