Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders – Wave 1

This DfE report into the working lives of teachers and leaders survey was carried out in spring 2022 with teachers and leaders in state schools in England.

The study aims to explore factors affecting the supply, recruitment and retention of teachers and leaders to help DfE design policies that better support them.

Specifically, it looks at factors – such as pupil behaviour, pay and reward, flexible working, workload, and CPD – by school and teacher characteristics (e.g., phase, length of service, subject area, gender, race/ethnic background, etc.).

There were 505,633 teachers and leaders working in English state schools as of 2021. An even proportion of teachers work in both primaries and secondaries (41% of the total population each), while more leaders worked in primary schools than secondary schools (8% of the total workforce population compared to 5%), given there are a higher number of primaries. Teachers and leaders in special schools / AP / PRUs made up 5% of the total population (1% leaders and 4% teachers).

Key Findings:

• Teacher and leader characteristics
  • Most (90%) survey respondents with teaching responsibilities in secondary schools had a degree level qualification or higher (including ITT) in their main subject, while a minority (7%) had a qualification below degree level or no qualification at all in their main subject (3%). Over half (59%) with teaching responsibilities in a primary school had a degree in a core primary subject, while around one third (35%) had a degree level teaching qualification.
  • The subjects most commonly taught by secondary teachers as a main subject with an ITT qualification (but without a degree level qualification) were a mathematics subject or combined science.
  • A large proportion of teachers and leaders reported having additional responsibilities as part of their role.
• Leader and teacher workload
  • Leaders reported working more hours on average (56.8) than teachers (48.7).
  • It was more common for secondary leaders to report longer hours on average than their primary counterparts (58.3 vs. 56.2 hours for primary leaders, on average).
  • Average hours were highest among headteachers (58.8), particularly secondary heads (61.1)
  • Two-thirds of teachers (66%) reported that they spent over half of their working time on tasks other than teaching, rising to 77% of secondary teachers.
  • Leaders most commonly reported spending too much of their time responding to government policy changes (68%)
  • Most teachers and leaders disagreed that their workload was acceptable (72%) and that they had sufficient control over it (62%).
• Flexible working
  • Four in ten (40%) teachers and leaders reported having some kind of flexible working arrangement with their school, either formal or informal. Most commonly this was working part time (21%), followed by planning, preparation, and assessment (PPA) time offsite (12%).
  • Primary teachers and leaders were more likely to report that they worked flexibly than those in secondary settings (50% vs. 29%).
  • Flexible working was linked with more positive perceptions of other aspects of teachers’ and leaders’ working lives.
  • Flexible working was more common among White teachers and leaders (41% worked flexibly in some way) than Asian (32%), Black (28%) or those from another ethnic background (24%).
• Pupil behaviour
  • Almost two-thirds (62%) of respondents rated pupil behaviour as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, and a further one in five (22%) rated it as ‘acceptable’. Primary teachers and leaders were more likely to rate behaviour as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ than those at secondary settings (74% vs. 49%), as were leaders in both phases (85% compared with 58% of teachers) and more specifically, headteachers (95%).
• Bullying, harassment and staff inclusion
  • Over one in ten (12%) of teachers and leaders reported experiencing bullying in the last 12 months, and 8% reported experiencing discrimination. Secondary teachers, SENCOs, and those less satisfied with their job were the groups most likely to have experienced bullying or harassment. Those from a Black or other ethnic minority background were more likely than White teachers or leaders to report bullying (15% vs. 11%) and discrimination (18% vs. 7%). Those with a disability were more likely than those with no disability to report bullying (17% vs. 10%), discrimination (12% vs. 7%) or both (7% vs. 3%).
• Teacher and leader wellbeing
  • Overall, teachers reported lower wellbeing scores compared to leaders.
  • There was a link between pupil behaviour and anxiety levels among teachers, with reported anxiety levels higher among those who reported pupil behaviour as being poor than those who considered pupil behaviour to be good.
  • Many teachers and leaders felt that their work was having a negative impact on their health and wellbeing.
• Job and career satisfaction
  • Those working in secondary schools tended to be more negative about their jobs and about teaching. Fewer secondary teachers and leaders reported being satisfied with their job (56% vs 59% of primary teachers and leaders) and that they enjoyed classroom teaching (83% vs 86%). Leaders were more likely than teachers to say they were satisfied with their job (70% vs 56%).
  • White teachers were more likely to report feeling valued by their school (67%) compared with those from an ethnic minority background (56%).
  • Views on the public perception of teaching were less positive, with a high proportion (69%) disagreeing that the teaching profession was valued by society.
• Future plans
  • A quarter (25%) of teachers and leaders reported that they were considering leaving the state school sector in the next 12 months for reasons other than retirement.
  • Almost three in ten teachers and leaders (28%) reported that they were considering applying for promotion in their current school in the next 12 months, while approaching a quarter were considering moving to another school on promotion (22%) or moving to another school at the same level (also 22%).
• Teacher and leader pay
  • A majority of teachers and leaders were dissatisfied (61%) with the salary they received for the work they did, and only around half agreed that the decisions their school took about their pay over the last year were fair.
  • Despite the temporary pause to headline pay rises for most public sector workforces in 2021-22, around half (51%) of teachers and leaders said that they had received a pay increase in the year prior to completing the survey, with leaders more likely than teachers to have received a pay increase (60% vs. 49%).
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
  • A majority (77%) of ECTs were satisfied with their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), while around one in eight (12%) were dissatisfied. ECTs generally felt their training had prepared them well for conducting themselves professionally (84%) and pupil safeguarding (83%) but felt less prepared for teaching in a multicultural or multi-lingual setting (37% agreed) or teaching pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) (46%).
  • Almost all teachers (98%) had taken part in some form of formal CPD over the previous 12 months. The most common topic covered in formal CPD that respondents had undertaken in the past 12 months was student safeguarding.

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