The figures are clear. The number of teachers leaving the profession is at a 10 year high, 90% of teachers are thinking of leaving the profession and the cureent average length of the primary teachers working week is 60 hours. These are deeply shocking numbers to me. I felt I was fairly up to date with the current situation (spending a lot of time in schools in my role as an Science Outreach provider for the University of Manchester) however whilst I appreciated that the situation was bad these numbers still surprise me. 97% of teachers say that there is a negative impact from their high workload on family and personal life. This is something I can empathise with on a personal level, particularly guilt at ignoring family and friends. Clearly something has to be done.

 The NUT’s Eight Steps I amhappy to advocate as things that the next government should implement, and soon, to combat these problems. I particularly strongly agree with the second and third points on introducing fundamental change to requirements relation to marking planning, data, meetings and observations, and on allowing time for curriculum and SEN reform.

Teaching is a profession I hugely respect, my teachers are the reason that I was able to go on to study at University, obtain a fantastic degree and then carry on into research which I love. I have also always had an active interest in teaching, having taken on mentoring roles whilst at 6th form, completed a 6 week “trial” as a teacher during my degree and now being heavily involved in the provision of our outreach programme at the university. It would be a tragedy if we were to lose dedicated, experienced and hard working teachers because of these issues and we must ensure that it does not happen.