Teachers who feel their teaching has improved are more enthusiastic about returning to school for the new academic year, according to questions asked by Teacher Tapp ahead of the start of term. Teachers who feel they are a ‘much better’ teacher now than they were last year are more than five times as likely to say they are looking forward to the new school year, when compared to teachers who feel their teaching is worse than last year. More than 7500 teachers were surveyed last month, and of those who felt they were now a much better teacher, 16 per cent ‘Strongly Agreed’ that they were looking forward to returning to schools, with a further 46 per cent saying they ‘Agreed’. Meanwhile just 3 per cent of those who felt their teaching had got worse ‘Strongly Agreed’ they were looking forward to going back, with another 27 per cent saying they ‘Agreed’.
Teacher Tapp also asked teachers what they were most looking forward to in the new school year. From more than 8800 teachers who answered, the most popular answer overall was ‘Building relationships with students and families’, with 24 per cent of primary teachers and 18 per cent of secondary teachers choosing this. ‘Getting to know my class’ and ‘The holidays’ were also chosen by 18 per cent of secondary teachers. Both of these answers were also popular with primary teachers, chosen by 21 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. Secondary teachers were more likely to say they were looking forward to improving their teaching skills (11 per cent) compared to primary teachers (7 per cent). A very small percentage of respondents (3 per cent for primary and 4 per cent for secondary) said they weren’t looking forward to anything.
Analysing the data further, Teacher Tapp found that secondary teachers with fewer than 10 years of experience were more likely to say they were looking forward to improving their teaching, compared to those with more experience (18 per cent vs 7 per cent). Meanwhile secondary teachers with more than 10 years’ experience were more likely to say they were looking forward to working with colleagues than those with less experience (20 per cent vs 12 per cent). When it came to looking forward to working with colleagues, there was a similar divergence between primary teachers with more and less experience (16 per cent vs 10 per cent). Primary teachers with fewer than 10 years’ experience were more likely to say ‘getting to know my class’ is what they’re looking forward to most, compared to those with more experience (25 per cent vs 19 per cent).
Asked what they would say the ‘best bit’ of teaching as a job is, ‘teaching lessons’ was the most popular answer among respondents, chosen by 67 per cent of primary teachers and 62 per cent of secondary teachers. The second most popular answer among both groups, but some distance behind, was ‘Pastoral support’ – chosen by 16 per cent of primary teachers and 13 per cent of secondary teachers.
Further details of the questions and the breakdown of answers are available on the Teacher Tapp website