The UK is currently facing a , with unprecedented numbers of teachers leaving the profession before retirement. As such, it’s increasingly important for schools to understand the reasons why teachers are leaving – and focus on addressing these factors. 

We conducted a survey of teachers in the UK for our 2026 Wellbeing Report. Of those we surveyed, the majority said they don’t plan to stay in the profession long-term. 

It's clear from the data that the teacher retention crisis is deepening rather than coming to an end â€“ but to improve retention at your school or trust, it’s key to understand why teachers are leaving in the first place. 

Why are teachers leaving the profession? 

We found a huge number of our survey respondents are planning to leave teaching – and almost half of those planning to leave told us they want to do so in 5 years or less. 

The most commonly cited reasons for wanting to leave teaching were: 

• Stress 

• Workload 

• Lack of appreciation 

• Student behaviour 

Stress is pushing teachers to leave the profession – and workload was also cited here as the main cause of stress, alongside student behaviour and a lack of support from leadership. 

Workload 

Workload is clearly an issue – and it’s closely linked to job-related stress.

Most respondents described their workload as unmanageable. This is eating into teachers’ personal lives: the majority told us they work at least 6 hours a week past their contracted hours, and nearly half told us they work an extra 9 hours â€“&²Ô²ú²õ±è;³Ù³ó²¹³Ù'²õ&²Ô²ú²õ±è;more than a full working day of unpaid overtime. 

This increases the risk of burnout by giving teachers less time to rest and recharge outside of work, making them less able to deal with the challenges of their job and creating a cycle of poor wellbeing. 

While this places school leaders in a challenging position â€“ balancing a functioning school’s needs with those of its workforce – leaders have influence that can’t be ignored. 

As a leader, you undoubtedly play a role in your staff’s workload and wellbeing â€“ and while it may seem separate, the wellbeing of your teachers is central to your school’s success, both in improving outcomes and increasing retention. 

Professional development and career growth 

Less than half of teachers we surveyed said their school offers helpful CPD opportunities. This lack of opportunity to develop is pushing teachers out of the profession â€“ almost a fifth of teachers who want to leave named a lack of career growth and opportunities to advance as a factor. 

This presents a crisis for the future of teaching, especially for leadership positions which will become increasingly difficult to fill as experienced teachers opt to leave the profession early. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most common barrier to career development was a lack of time. This again links back to heavy, unmanageable workloads as a major source of retention issues â€“ and as such, the biggest risk to the future of education. 

Interestingly, some teachers told us they don’t want to progress into leadership positions, with most citing the cost of training and increased workload as not worth the reward leadership offers. 

This makes it clear that change is needed: teachers need the time and opportunities to develop their careers, but it’s also key that progression is seen as a viable option. If teachers see career progression and leadership roles as unattractive, it will be hard to encourage them to stay in the profession at all. 

The impact on schools 

All of this comes down to teacher wellbeing. On a scale of 0-5 (0 being the worst and 5 being the best), the majority of respondents to our survey ranked their wellbeing as a 2 or below. 

Teachers leaving the profession has obvious implications for the future of education. Less teachers means the system will have to adapt to continued understaffing, to higher workloads for those that remain and larger class sizes for students â€“ or the system will have to change to fix the problems that are pushing teachers to leave. 

It’s clear there is a problem. But how can we improve wellbeing? 

How can schools and trusts support wellbeing to improve teacher retention?

Identifying the problem is important – but we want to give schools and trust leaders the tools to solve it. We asked teachers what schools could do to improve their wellbeing. The most popular responses were: 

• A better work-life balance 

• Increased recognition and appreciation 

• More supportive leadership 

• Flexible working arrangements 

Reducing teacher workload 

The most common area for improvement was a better work-life balance, again pointing to unmanageable workloads as the problem. 

While no school or trust can remove all pressure, leaders do have influence over how work is prioritised and what is expected in a certain timeframe. Seemingly small decisions about meetings, reporting, communication and approval processes can quickly add up to a lot of staff’s working time. 

Workload as a system-wide problem suggests: 

• Too many tasks are treated as priorities 

• Complex and manual systems mean work is duplicated across teams or schools 

• Administrative tasks generate work that could be streamlined or automated with better systems 

• School cultures value activity and proof over impact – so tasks that add workload are valued regardless of whether they improve outcomes 

While issues of funding and understaffing remain, there are ways that school or trust leaders can address these to reduce teacher workload: 

• Set clear priorities that enable teachers to focus on the urgent tasks 

• Streamline systems to prevent duplication and reduce admin workload 

• Explore ways of information sharing outside of meetings that take up valuable teacher time 

• Start the conversation – as a school leader, you can provide channels for peer support and transparency around workload that encourage staff to share the load 

Support and school culture 

Leadership mindset is key in creating a strong, positive school culture. Efficiency is important, but sustainability is too â€“ consider the pressure teachers are under to meet targets. 

As a school leader, you should be on your teachers’ side and you can manage expectations from above on what teachers can reasonably and sustainably do in their limited time. 

Doing this also addresses other areas for improvement: recognition and appreciation, supportive leadership, and positive school culture. 

Another area teachers pointed to was flexible working – being flexible yourself and trusting your teachers to work flexibly where possible can go a long way in creating a sense of collaboration and that you’re on your teachers’ team. 

Create a wellbeing policy 

Wellbeing surveys help you understand the challenges your teachers are facing, so you can create a wellbeing policy or action plan and start working towards building a positive school culture. 

Surveys open a conversation about mental health and show staff you value their wellbeing – and anonymous surveys give staff a safe space to share their thoughts without fear of judgement or repercussions. 

Once you have created a policy or action plan, repeating surveys over time shows where you are succeeding and areas that need further attention. 

The state of teacher wellbeing 

Our 2026 Wellbeing Report is a tool to help leaders support teacher wellbeing and improve retention in their school or trust. 

The report is based on a survey of over 1,400 teachers across the UK, and explores areas including workload, behaviour, inclusion, jobs and career progression.

Download the report today and explore how you can support teachers at your school or trust, improving staff retention and student outcomes.

Read the report now

This blog article is based on data from a teacher wellbeing survey ÌÇÐÄVlog conducted in December 2025.