Improving teacher retention: Why it’s so hard, and what’s making it worse

Several forces combine to push teachers towards the exit:

• Workload and admin: lesson prep, marking, data and pastoral tasks often spill beyond contracted hours.
• Pay and cost of living: salaries lag behind other graduate careers, especially in high-cost regions.
• Behaviour and parental pressure: classroom disruption and difficult conversations add stress.
• School culture: staff thrive in collaborative environments; they leave where monitoring and blame dominate.
• Career progression: without clear development routes, mid-career teachers can feel stuck.
• Flexibility: while other sectors offer hybrid or flexible working, teaching remains largely fixed in place and time.

Every vacancy left open increases the workload on remaining staff, fuelling a cycle of stress and turnover.

Filling posts quickly is part of improving teacher retention. Slow or inconsistent recruitment forces staff to cover gaps, harming morale.

An education-specific applicant tracking system (ATS), like SchoolRecruiter (available via Access Education People), can shorten time-to-hire, maintain compliance, and build talent pools for hard-to-fill roles.

Related reading

• How to attract teachers: 10 ways to improve application conversion rates, better recruitment

Pressures making improving teacher retention harder in 2025

Beyond individual schools, sector-wide trends complicate retention:

• Funding constraints leading to larger classes and fewer support staff.
• Accountability and inspection pressures filtering down from leadership.
• Growing pupil numbers and shortages in key subjects.
• Post-pandemic expectations: many compare teaching with roles offering flexibility or hybrid work.

Addressing these needs a mix of policy reform and pragmatic school-level action.

1) Tackle workload head-on

Run a workload audit. Keep statutory and high-impact tasks, cut or streamline the rest.

• Standardise marking expectations and reduce unnecessary data drops.
• Share planning across departments.
• Automate admin with tools like Access Education People, which handles appraisals, absence and onboarding.

2) Support behaviour management and parental communication

A clear behaviour policy protects staff time. Combine it with strong home-school communication.

• Consistently enforce expectations.
• Use portals like My School Portal to centralise trip forms, consent, and messages, so teachers aren’t fielding constant queries.

3) Offer meaningful career progression

Progression isn’t only about leadership posts. Subject expertise, pastoral care, mentoring, or curriculum design can all give purpose. Link professional development to clear steps forward.

4) Build flexibility into teaching roles

Advertise job-shares and part-time posts up front. Where tasks (marking, report writing) can be remote, allow that. Small adaptations help retain experienced staff.

5) Modernise recruitment

Quick hiring reduces pressure on current staff. Mobile-first applications, multi-channel advertising, and talent pools keep vacancy periods short.

The right technology doesn’t just make admin easier, it creates space for teachers and leaders to focus on what drew them to education in the first place. Schools using systems built for their world report lower workload, smoother processes, and better communication, all of which support improving teacher retention.

Recruitment: Attract and secure the right people, faster

A strong start is critical for retention. Platforms like SchoolRecruiter take pressure off HR teams by:

• Advertising vacancies across multiple education job boards and social channels with one click.
• Automating compliance checks (DBS, Right to Work, references), cutting risk and manual tracking.
• Building subject-specific talent pools so schools can fill roles before vacancies disrupt teaching.

Reducing the time posts stay empty lightens the burden on existing staff and signals that the school is organised and supportive.

HR management: Lighten workload and strengthen culture

Once staff are in post, day-to-day HR tasks can become a hidden drain. Access Education People helps schools:

• Automate absence management and return-to-work forms.
• Streamline appraisals with digital objectives and feedback.
• Give staff a self-service portal for payslips, leave requests, and CPD records.

These features save hours each week for leaders and teachers, while giving staff more control over their information, a simple step that improves trust and job satisfaction.

Parent engagement: Reduce queries and protect teaching time

Many retention problems stem from teachers juggling admin and communication outside lesson time. My School Portal offers:

• One secure hub for calendars, consent forms, payments, reports, and messages.
• Push notifications that keep parents informed without endless email chains.
• Automated workflows for trips, wraparound care, and medical updates.

When parents have clear, self-serve access to information, staff spend less time chasing forms or answering the same questions — freeing energy for classroom work.

Bringing it together

Used in tandem, these systems give schools a joined-up approach to recruitment, HR, and communication. They cut duplication, reduce errors, and show staff that leadership values their time. That clarity and support is a powerful lever for improving teacher retention.

National initiatives can underpin local action:

• Early Career Framework and funded mentoring for new staff.
• Workload Reduction Taskforce guidance.
• Retention payments in shortage subjects and areas.
• Pay settlements and wellbeing charters.

Explaining these clearly to staff strengthens trust.

Used thoughtfully, AI has real potential to take the strain out of time-consuming tasks, giving teachers more bandwidth for the work that keeps them motivated, planning great lessons and supporting pupils. When it comes to improving teacher retention, small reductions in workload can make a big difference.

Where AI can make an impact

• Planning and preparation: Generative tools can draft lesson outlines, differentiated worksheets, or model answers, helping teachers prepare faster without lowering quality.
• Assessment and feedback: Auto-marking systems already score multiple-choice or short-answer quizzes. Some can also suggest written feedback that teachers adapt, saving time while keeping professional judgment at the centre.
• Data and reporting: AI can summarise pupil progress, flag trends, or produce first drafts of parent reports, letting teachers focus on interpretation rather than formatting.
  Making it work in practice
• Start with pilots: Test one tool in a specific area, for example, auto-marking low-stakes quizzes, and measure how much time it saves.
• Keep teachers in control: AI should support, not replace, professional expertise. Clear guidance on when and how to use it maintains standards.
• Protect privacy: Use platforms that meet safeguarding and data-protection requirements, and train staff to handle sensitive information safely.

The bottom line

When implemented carefully, AI can help schools reduce the routine tasks that drive long hours and burnout, making teaching more sustainable.

Find out more by visiting our AI resource hub. 

Month 1: Diagnose and baseline

• Track vacancies, supply spend, absence, exit reasons, and time-to-hire.
• Survey staff on workload and morale.
• Map pain points in behaviour support, admin, data, and parent comms.

Month 2: Quick wins

• Simplify marking and reduce one low-value data collection.
• Move consent forms and FAQs to a single parent hub.
• Tweak the recruitment journey — mobile-first forms, reminders, broader ad reach.

Month 3: Lock in change

• Announce two new progression routes with protected time.
• Share a flexibility statement with example working patterns.
• Build a subject talent pool.
• Report measurable gains (e.g., time saved, vacancy fill rates).

Understanding how to improve teacher retention is challenging because it isn’t one problem; it’s a web of pressures. But schools and trusts can make progress by reducing workload, supporting behaviour and communication, offering progression and flexibility, recruiting quickly, and adopting tools that genuinely give teachers more time to teach.

For more guidance, explore our related articles:

• Teacher retention problems and solutions
• Proven teacher recruitment strategies that work: 2025 edition
• The best applicant tracking system for education
• How to attract teachers: 10 ways to improve application conversion rates

And if you’d like to see how SchoolRecruiter and Access Education People can simplify recruitment and HR, giving teachers a better reason to stay, we’d be happy to arrange a short, tailored walkthrough. Schedule your live demo here.