Jayne Dowle: They must learn how to find the right teachers

Official figures published last October showed that nearly a third of teachers who began work in Englands state schools in 2010 were not in the classroom five years later.

And then I hear someone like Rebecca Allen, director of the think-tank Education Datalab, say that teaching is becoming a job that is, “just too big an ask”, and I get over myself and carry on writing for a living full-time instead.

I do have form. I taught media and journalism part-time in a Yorkshire university for almost a decade. I loved it until the demands of today’s higher education marketplace wore me down.

I wouldn’t go back. Too many students demanding degrees delivered like so many pizzas, too many obscenely over-paid chiefs and never enough Indians to do the hard slog of marking and assessment and too many cuts to the kind of courses I’m qualified to deliver.

Rather, I’m drawn to teach in a secondary school. I’d ideally like to do English and/or History, but would help any pupil who needs to develop their aspirations and find a direction in life. Careers, citizenship, PSHE (personal, social and health education) could all be possible options.

I reckon that all this debate about grammar schools has set me thinking, too. I feel passionately that every single child in this country deserves an equal future. I know I couldn’t take on any new grammar school system single-handed, but I could in my own quiet way, help young people from ordinary backgrounds see what they can achieve as individuals.

I’m also spurred on by the thought that I could bring all my experience in writing, learning and life in general to a classroom and actually put it to use, instead of sitting at home all day pontificating to the dog.

I could even do it part-time, and carry on with some of my journalism. I wouldn’t have to take another degree – mine is in English Literature and Language – and I might even get a bursary whilst I train. It would bring me job security for the next couple of decades until retirement looms, and I could reignite my Teachers’ Pension Scheme (it’s an important consideration, to be honest). And I’m kind of flattered that my son, who is in Year 10, actually thinks it would be a great idea for me to work in his school, should a job be available. Would it really be “too big an ask”?

It must be, because something always prevents me from taking the plunge. And it’s certainly not the pay, broadly comparable with that of freelance journalism, a career constantly at the mercy of market forces. It’s all the things which Rebecca Allen outlines in her General Election briefing on education, plus some more.

She warns that teaching is now “incredibly difficult”, bogged down with paperwork and accountability tasks that are leaving the profession exhausted. Do I really want to enter a lion’s den of bureaucracy, at my age? Yet, really, any government should be looking at people like me and seeing what it could do to persuade us into it. Surely we have something to offer. We’ve worked for years. We understand that life is not always rosy and work isn’t always fun.

Whatever our area of expertise might be, we will have experienced some seriously scary bosses and unreliable colleagues. We’re far less likely to be disconcerted by workplace politics than an idealistic 21-year-old fresh out of university, and far more likely to adopt an attitude of “keep calm and carry on” in the face of any crisis. Such as a hulking lad throwing a chair, or a girl locking herself in the lavatory in floods of tears.

And also, we’d be choosing teaching with our eyes open, especially if we have already raised children ourselves. We kind of know what to expect from sulky, stroppy teenagers and are less prepared to take any nonsense from anyone. This includes those who might try and take advantage of us. It’s such a shame that so many young graduates enter the profession with high hopes, only to find them dashed on the altar of punishing workloads and lack of support. Are they really told what to expect? Retention rates for newly-qualified teachers suggest otherwise.

Official figures published last October showed that nearly a third of teachers who began work in England’s state schools in 2010 were not in the classroom five years later. About one in eight had left after just a year.

This is not exactly encouraging, but I’d say that the bigger problem lies elsewhere. It’s in making sure that teaching is not too big an ask, but rather a challenge that can be met with proper funding, professional development and appreciation.

Whoever ends up running the Department for Education in the next government must remember that schools are not abstract notions of ideology. They are places filled with people. Finding and securing the right people – of any age, and at any stage – to put in front of every class needs much more effort all round.