Throughout the education world, the term ‘experienced teacher’ meant you were getting a top-quality teacher, overall very positive. Nowadays, experienced means ‘expensive’ and can be very negative to our educators making them feel underappreciated and, occasionally, underused. The main issue seems to be that experienced teachers are being overlooked for leadership roles because they are focusing on their lessons and not ‘knocking on the headteacher’s door.’
Teachers leaving the profession
Five-to-ten years ago, teachers that felt underappreciated would simply move school or, with some, would just put up with it. Now, these teachers are simply leaving their teaching jobs profession. The DfE states that 50,000 qualified teachers left the teaching (state) sector in 2016 totalling 10.5 per cent of the profession; the majority being from the experienced core. If something is not done by the government to keep these teachers, we will lose what makes our schools most successful; experience.
