What makes staff flourish in schools?

Liz Worthen is the owner and editor of Creating Value in Schools. Her career in education spans teaching, training, commissioning and programme development – creating resources which enable leaders to flourish in their roles.  

Never go back?

I’m a statistic: one of the third of teachers that leave the profession within five years of completing their PGCE.

I thought I would go back. It was the school and situation I was leaving, not the profession itself. But then an opportunity came along, and I did something else – just for a while – and 20 plus years later, I’m still out of the classroom. 

What kept me from going back? An easier lifestyle had a lot to do with it. Not such early starts. Not waking up and instantly recalling all the things that went wrong yesterday and running through what you’re doing today. Not feeling like a failure because no matter how much you do, there is so much more you should be doing. Not taking work home with you, literally or metaphorically. 

As I’ve regularly said to people over the years: office work doesn’t have the highs or the lows of school life, but you can live life on a more even keel.

Experiences of leavers

My experience is consistent with what teachers who have left the profession more recently are saying. 

The DfE’s qualitative research report, Working lives of teachers and leaders wave 4: qualitative insight into the experiences of leavers, investigates the factors that make teachers and leaders leave or want to leave state schools in England. 

Those who have actually made the move – often, like me, for other roles in education – talk about a more manageable workload and greater flexibility. 

“Leavers emphasised having greater control over their time, including flexible start and finish times, clearer boundaries around working hours, and freedom from the expectation to routinely work evenings and weekends.” (Research report page 41) 

A sense of control

I think that sense of control is important. Teachers, like most people, want a sense of autonomy and professional agency. This came up in the DfE research and also in several panel sessions I attended at the Festival of Education, where ‘flourish’ was a key theme. What makes teachers and leaders flourish? Conversely, what makes teachers tired? What drives them away? 

Agency matters. For example, are staff always told what CPD they should be doing? Or are they empowered to explore what they want and need to develop? Do they have a sense of self-efficacy? 

It makes sense. In Daniel Pink’s well-known book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, he identifies three key things that people want in their work: autonomy, mastery and purpose. 

In one of the panels, teacher and wellbeing author Adrian Bethune spoke about self-determination theory. That has three elements too: 

• Relatedness (i.e. connections and relationships)
• Competence
• Autonomy.

Change fatigue

Related to this is another theme which came up in the research, as well as on the festival panels: the fatigue arising from frequent changes and initiatives. Sometimes it seems like there’s a change addiction in the world of education. The new policy or plan which is going to make all the difference to a problem, improve results, transform inspections. Then September rolls around again and we’re onto the next shiny new thing. 

If you’re implementing new initiatives without evaluating what you did last time, or giving the last change time to bed in, learning from its implementation, or reflecting on what you’re doing already that might serve this purpose – please think again. 

Because lasting, sustainable change, typically happens gradually, and is about making small, incremental changes, or marginal gains. There are no silver bullets!

No more heroes

And beware the hero leader, riding into town (i.e. your school) to solve your problems with their way of doing things. The one that wants to make their mark, do the thing that worked for them last time, change what you’re doing (again) – and then either burn out or move on. 

Schools don’t need hero leaders. What people actually want from their leaders is much more simple. Coach and RISE adviser Narinder Gill referred to a Gallup research poll into leadership, which revealed four essential qualities that people want to see in their leaders: hope, trust, compassion, and stability.

Belonging, value and wellbeing

A sense of belonging matters too. As Hannah Wilson said in our podcast episode Who Gets to Belong in Schools, belonging isn’t just for pupils. It’s for staff too! As Hannah puts it, “if the staff don't belong, how are pupils going to belong?” 

There was a wariness about wellbeing. ‘Is it wellbeing, or well doing?’ one panellist asked. If a wellbeing strategy is being implemented without input from staff first – without co-design – it’s likely to run into trouble. 

It comes back to listening. Asking the possibly awkward questions. Being open to responses and feedback. Being prepared to act on them. Valuing your staff: they are your biggest asset!

In the end, what most people want is to feel valued. And that they’re doing a worthwhile job. As principal Carl Smith it in Enjoy what you do: hope, joy and staying power: 

“What you need to do is give people an experience that they genuinely enjoy, so they want to stick around where they are. And when they're in that place, they get so well established that they then develop a passion for it, and they then will stay and keep making a difference.”  

What next? 

• For more resources like this, sign up to the newsletter and receive our guide to five evidence-based retention strategies.  
• Read findings from the research on why teachers leave
• Find out more about what influences staff recruitment and retention
• Read Hannah Wilson on Belonging in schools: are we asking the wrong questions? 
• Check out the latest podcast episodes.