What the experts say… OVERCOMING THE FIVE-YEAR ITCH: HOW
OUR TRUST RETAINS ITS HEADTEACHERS Comment by PAUL BANKS, CEO, Chelmsford Learning Partnership
N
ew data from the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) highlights a concerning – but not surprising – retention trend. Now, 30 per cent of primary and nearly 40 per cent of secondary leaders under the age of 50 are leaving education within five years. The results emphasise the impact of increasingly overwhelming workloads, a lack of resources, stress and poor work-life balance in the profession. As a former headteacher, I am only too aware of the challenges facing our school leaders today. Yet, despite this, at Chelmsford Learning Partnership, we have retained all our headteachers since 2017, except for one who sought (and successfully achieved!) an external promotion. So, how are we able to achieve this within our trust?
Providing professional support
At the heart of this is our central service team. Every school in our trust benefits from the dedicated support of our Directors of Education, whose role is to build their capacity. Whether in the primary or secondary phase, many of our headteachers also benefit from bespoke coaching from our Directors, which is designed to provide support, advice and guidance. Building a network of ongoing support is crucial to help our headteachers’ mental wellbeing, which is why we bring them together for regular leadership group meetings so that they can spend time with their peers and benefit from peer-led support. Through informal peer support and more structured meetings with our central team, we are well placed to identify when individual headteachers need additional resources or guidance to manage feelings of anxiety or stress.
Creating personalised pathways for development Another facet of strengthening our school leaders’ wellbeing is continuous professional development (CPD). Not only does effective CPD contribute to professional wellbeing, but it also improves motivation and job satisfaction – crucial for staff retention. People want to feel that they are achieving their full potential. Without understanding your team’s aspirations, you can’t effectively plan for career development. Within our trust, this means that every interaction, not just appraisal meetings, is an opportunity to gain meaningful information about their goals for the future so that we can ensure a suitable development framework is in place for them. For some of our more experienced headteachers, this could even be coaching or training for a MAT leadership role, which provides them with a goal to work towards while strengthening their skills in their current role. Prioritising work-life balance and reducing workload Like everybody who works in education, we know that the workload is high. We encourage our headteachers to model appropriate work-life balance from the top down. This begins with our central team modelling the behaviour we want to encourage which is why we have strict email communication protocols that discourage emails outside set hours during the week, weekends and holidays. These apply to all staff and our leaders model this behaviour. We are also mindful that new work practices that we introduce across the trust are mitigated by reducing or removing work in other areas so that workload remains balanced, rather than overwhelming. While there is no single answer to the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in school leadership, at CLP, we know that having the resources and the professional support they need makes a real difference to our headteachers.
WHY PURPOSE OVER PAY IS KEY TO SCHOOL SUPPORT RECRUITMENT
Comment by NICK ORDE-POWLETT, Managing Director at TIB Services “
Money is not my motivation.” This is a phrase we hear increasingly often, and for schools struggling with tight budgets, it might just be the most important sentence in recruitment today.t?
We all know the pressure school leaders are under. Finding reliable, skilled support staff, particularly caretakers and site managers is becoming harder by the day. If the conversation starts and ends with pay, schools will often lose. However, recent research from TIB Services suggests that schools have a different, more powerful card to play: purpose. In a recent survey of nearly 200 school support staff aged 50 and over, we found a striking disconnect between what employers think candidates want and what this demographic actually values. While financial necessity is often assumed to be the driver for employment, our data shows that for the over- 50s, it is rarely the main priority.
In fact, only 33% of respondents cited financial reasons as a primary motivation for working. While pay certainly still has a part to play and fair remuneration is always a baseline expectation, it is clearly no longer the sole driver. By contrast, 90% were driven by a desire to stay mentally active, 88% wanted to stay physically active, and 73% were looking for a meaningful way to use their skills.
This reflects the changing mindset of the modern over-50s workforce; professionals who have left their primary careers not to put their feet up, but to find a new challenge that offers structure, community, and a sense of worth.
36
www.education-today.co.uk
For schools, this is a game-changer. It means that when you are recruiting for a site manager or caretaker, you aren’t just looking for someone to open the gates. You are offering an opportunity for a former engineer to apply their technical problem-solving skills in a community setting, or for a military veteran to bring their discipline and calm leadership to a busy school site. One of our candidates, a former engineer named David, put it best: “I have a new freedom… The caretaker role is ‘basic DIY’ standard, but as an engineer, it allows me to practice and hone my practical skills associated with running a school.”
These individuals bring more than just technical ability; they bring life experience. They offer a calm, practical mindset that is invaluable in a school environment. They are less likely to view the role as a stop-gap and more likely to see it as a contribution to the community.
So, what does this mean for school leaders? It means schools need to change the way they
advertise and talk about these roles. If your job advert focuses solely on the list of duties and the hourly rate, you are missing the mark for this demographic.
Instead, recruitment should highlight the impact of the role. Talk about the value of the work, the integration into the school community, and the opportunity to stay active and engaged. As the digital community Rest Less noted in response to our findings, midlife is a time of transition where flexibility and purpose become paramount.
By pivoting the conversation from “pay” to “purpose,” schools can tap into a rich, underutilised group of talent. The over-50s workforce is not just a solution to a role; it is an opportunity to bring stability, resilience, and genuine care into the heart of the school.
January 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
