New analysis finds increase in teachers saying they spend ‘too much time’ dealing with behaviour
Increased time spent dealing with pupil behaviour and providing pastoral support plays a significant role in teachers choosing to leave the profession, according to new analysis from the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER).
The research, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, explores the factors linked to teachers’ decisions to leave the profession. It draws on data from the Department for Education’s (DfE) Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders (WLTL) survey, and also finds that teachers working in schools with good pupil behaviour and support to deal with disruptive behaviour are more likely to stay.
Data from the WLTL shows teachers’ and leaders’ perceptions of pupil behaviour in their school has worsened considerably since 2021/22. It also highlights a substantial rise in the number of teachers reporting that they spend ‘too much time’ dealing with behaviour incidents – from 50 per cent in 2022 to 59 per cent in 2025. In the report, the NFER recommends that the government should further develop its approach for supporting schools to improve pupil behaviour and meet pupils’ additional pastoral and learning needs. This should be reinforced by improved external school support services and backed with additional funding.
Other findings from the analysis include that teachers feel they spend too much time on lesson planning, and that higher pay satisfaction is a significant factor associated with improved retention. Another significant factor is the impact of continuing professional development (CPD) on teachers’ practice. To address these, the NFER recommends that the government should aim to sustain levels of pay satisfaction by at least maintaining the competitiveness of teachers’ pay each year (i.e. matching the growth in average earnings outside teaching) and funding schools to deliver it. They also suggest that the government should produce guidance to emphasise how teachers can be given greater involvement in setting their CPD goals and activities.
School leadership support is also an important factor for retention. The report highlights that feeling valued, involved in school decision-making and supported with flexible working opportunities is associated with improved teacher retention. The report recommends that government should put more focus on building positive, supportive leadership skills in all National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) programmes for school leaders, which could boost the relationship between teachers and leaders in the school-decision making process.
A further finding from the researchers is that Teachers’ stated intentions to leave are not a reliable predictor of actual behaviour. For example, 86.2 per cent of teachers who said they were considering leaving did not do so the following year, while four per cent of those not considering leaving did subsequently leave.
Commenting on the research, Jack Worth, the NFER’s education workforce lead and one of the report’s authors, said: ‘Our research shows that while increasing teacher pay is one way to improve retention, there is significant scope for cost-effective policies and practice improvements that target non-financial factors affecting retention. This could include improving school leadership quality, utilising time-saving tools in planning tasks to relieve workload pressures and making dealing with disruptive pupil behaviour a top school priority. These approaches could be particularly important given the budget pressures facing schools and government.’
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘This research underlines that even a small increase in challenging behaviour from some pupils can have a big impact on the lives of teachers and school leaders. Where staff are spending significant amounts of time dealing with incidents caused by poor behaviour, not only can this be difficult to manage, but it also adds to already high workloads.’
The full report can be found here:
https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/what-helps-to-improve-teacher-retention/