Pressure of work forced 1,000 headteachers to quit last year
Saturday, 3 May 2008
PA
Ed Balls wants to pay heads for extra responsibility. The NAHT says they are already overburdened
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More than a thousand headteachers quit their jobs early last year because of the pressure they were under, according to figures released yesterday. Senior officials of the National Association of Head Teachers said their members were treated like football managers, with school governors demanding "results, results, results".
The figures, released on the eve of the NAHT's annual conference in Liverpool today, also show that state school heads on average retire at 57 – two years earlier than their private school counterparts.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said: "Clearly, this whole business of hyper-accountability is missing from the private sector." John Hakes, regional NAHT official for the Central Midlands, added: "The headteacher is the football manager of today. It's all results, results, results and pressure from the local authority."
The figures show 1,091 left the profession in 2006 and a further 1,031 in 2007. Many quit without negotiating early retirement deals because they could not continue to take the pressure.
The research added: "The phenomenon of so many senior colleagues leaving the profession before normal retirement age does not encourage others to take their place."
The average number of applications for headships is also falling – with primary and special school vacancies attracting just three or four. Chris Harrison, headteacher of Oulton Broad primary school in Lowestoft, Suffolk, said: "Teachers see what headship looks like and play pontoon. They just stick instead of going on."
Further NAHT research revealed that 90 per cent of heads work over 48 hours per week, and 44 per cent more than 60 hours. It meant errors of judgement creeping into their lives. A significant minority (10 per cent) said they had made serious errors such as being involved in car accidents after long working days.
The findings come at a time when ministers are extolling the virtues of the "superhead" able to turn round a failing school or run more than one school.
Ed Balls, the Children, Schools and Families Secretary, has urged the profession's pay review body to see whether the most talented heads could be offered more rewards for taking on more responsibility.
Heads, though, would like responsibilities reduced, senior NAHT members of said at the conference.
Grazebrook primary school in Hackney, east London, to which Mr Balls sends his children, has failed its Ofsted inspection and been placed in special measures. Inspectors singled out weaknesses in maths and science – two areas where the Government is keen to see improvements. The headteacher has quit.
Headteachers have also voiced "alarm" over the Government's plans to introduce its flagship new diploma into schools this September. The diploma, designed as a possible replacement for A-levels over the next decade, may be scuppered by security checks on employers offer-ing work experience as part of the qualification.
Under existing legislation, all adults working with children have to undergo Criminal Records Bureau checks before starting their work with them. The diplomas, five of which will be taught in schools and colleges for the first time in September, include a massive increase in work experience for pupils – with many spending at least a day a week in industry.
A new system of checks "that is fit for purpose and not burdensome for industry" will have to be introduced to avoid any logjam, a report to the conference says. The checks could also hit another government flagship policy – the plan to raise the education leaving age to 18 with all pupils spending at least one day a week in training until that age.
