Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw says introduce ‘golden handcuffs’ to stop state teachers ‘flocking abroad’

The restrictions would prevent teachers going overseas to work in private schools after qualifying

Ofsted chief inspector warns that English schools face a "brain drain" (PA)

The chief inspector of schools has urged politicians to enforce “golden handcuff” restrictions, preventing teachers "flocking" overseas to work in private schools after qualifying.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of Ofsted, warned that English schools are facing a “brain drain” of teaching professionals because they are being lured to overseas private schools – especially campuses of elite British schools.

"It is apparent that a growing number of recently trained and newly qualified teachers are flocking abroad to work in the rapidly expanding international school sector," he said.

His comments, in a monthly commentary on the Ofsted website, come as a study claims that a private education gives pupils a two-year advantage over their state school counterparts by the time they are 16.

Sir Wilshaw said: “Anyone regularly perusing the job vacancy pages of the education press cannot help but notice just how many of our elite public schools are busy opening international branches across the globe, especially in the Gulf States and the Far East.

“Two years ago, there were 29 of these overseas franchises. At the end of 2015, there were 44 and the number will rise again in the coming months with several new campuses scheduled to open soon.”

But it’s not unreasonable to ask teachers trained in the UK to commit to the country for their first few years of their career, he claims. “I would, therefore, once again urge policymakers to consider the idea of some form of ‘golden handcuffs’ to keep teachers working in the state system that trained them for a period of time,” he added.

“It would seem that my plea of a couple of years ago for our top independent schools to put more effort into supporting the education system closer to home – “more Derby, less Dubai” as I put it then – has not been heeded.”

According to YouGov data released in 2015 these are the top reasons why teachers are giving for quitting the profession:

1. Volume of workload (61 per cent)
2. Seeking better work/life balance (57 per cent)
3. Unreasonable demands from managers (44 per cent)
4. Retiring from the profession (34 per cent)
5. Rapid pace of organisational change (33 per cent)
6. Mental health concerns (23 per cent)
7. Student behaviour (22 per cent)
8. Physical health concerns (15 per cent)
9. Seeking higher pay (11 per cent)

Additional reporting by Press Association