Improving teacher retention: A research-driven case study in an academy trust
Written by: Mark Leswell
8 min read
MARK LESWELL, RESEARCH LEAD, SWALE ACADEMIES TRUST
Introduction
Teacher recruitment and retention pose critical challenges for England’s education system. With 30 per cent of teachers leaving within five years (Long and Danechi, 2022) and only 50 per cent of secondary teacher recruitment targets met in 2023, the quality of education is at risk (McLean et al., 2023). Notably, a study by Zieger et al. (2019) found that teachers in England report the lowest job satisfaction among all English-speaking countries in the OECD. This challenging context underscores the urgent need for effective and scalable solutions to address teacher retention. This case study examines the approach taken by Swale Academies Trust, focusing specifically on The Turing School, to illustrate how a research-driven focus on improving working conditions can lead to positive, scalable improvements in teacher retention.
The national picture: A crisis of teacher retention
The literature highlights several alarming
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