CONTRIBUTORS
The impossible balance: why new mothers are leaving the profession, and what needs to change
NAOMI HOWELLS, Managing Director of Class People, takes a look at what the sector can do to help its educators when they become parents
Becoming a mother is transformative: emotionally, physically, and mentally. But what’s often less spoken about is how completely it reconfigures your priorities and capacity when you return to work.
When I returned after having my son; who is now two, I didn’t just step back into my role. It took the best part of a year to feel I was operating at the same level. That
period was marked by self-doubt, exhaustion, and a recalibration of what I could realistically give. The only reason I remained in my position was because I was offered flexibility: part-time hours, hybrid working, and trust. Without that, I may have joined the growing number of women leaving the sector.
Since 2017, women aged 30 - 39 have been the largest group of teachers leaving the profession each year. Many of them are new mothers, and the reasons are clear. Teaching, for all its rewards, is inflexible. Long hours, high demands, and limited room for adjustment make it almost impossible to balance effectively with raising young children. The result? Talented professionals forced to choose between their careers and their families. Historically Class People was founded by such a occurrence as Lynis Bassett our founder always tells, and the majority of the bank staff were mothers of on average 2.3 children and second income within the family, women who wanted to stay in education but needed flexibility. In recent years, though, we’ve seen something shift. Schools are increasingly offering part-time and job-share roles. As a result, we’ve seen a decline in mothers joining the supply pool, not because they’re leaving education entirely, but because they’re being retained in permanent roles that fit around their families. That’s encouraging. It shows that schools are listening. Change is happening, however slowly, but meaningfully. Still, we need to do more. We must move past the idea that productivity looks the same at every life stage. Re-prioritisation is not a weakness. It’s a reality for many new parents. Offering flexibility doesn’t mean compromising on standards, it means creating a system where professionals can thrive long term, not burn out or opt out.
My first year back was humbling. I was slower, unsure, and juggling more than ever. But I was also determined – and with the right support, I found my stride again. It’s not about sympathy; it’s about systems that work for people as they grow and change. If we want to keep brilliant educators in the classroom, especially those in their peak professional years, we need to keep talking about this – and acting on it. When mothers are supported, schools thrive. And so do the children in them.
20
www.education-today.co.uk Building an
appraisal system based on growth, not fear
We hear from GARETH CONYARD, CEO at the Teacher Development Trust.
Not long after she became Secretary of State for Education in June last year, Bridget Phillipson confirmed the removal of performance-related pay from the pay guidance for schools. This was a very good move: the introduction of performance-related pay over a decade ago seems to have had no positive impact on teacher recruitment or retention, let alone pupil outcomes, but plenty of negative impacts around teacher workload and wellbeing. Too often, appraisal became about presentation of data rather than having effective conversations, and any suggestion of professional development became coloured by a worry that it was about capability rather than progression. But taking the performance-related pay language out of the guidance, whilst necessary, was largely cosmetic and there was not much time to support schools to develop alternative approaches before the new school year started. What might a better approach be? What would an appraisal system need to look like if it was going to create the space for genuine conversations about performance and progression? Here at the Teacher Development Trust, we have explored these questions in our recently published report: Transforming Teacher Appraisal. As well as exploring the history of different approaches over the last decades, we also looked at the evidence to find the common features of effective approaches to appraisal.
Our report shows that effective appraisal prioritises development over high-stakes accountability; employs multiple evaluation methods; reduces administrative burden; promotes teachers’ autonomy; and is implemented by well-trained leaders. There is no single model of appraisal that is best at achieving these outcomes (or at least none that we have identified) but we have identified three overarching themes that should be considered by school leaders as they evolve their approach to appraisal.
First, are you starting from an understanding of professional growth? This includes ensuring that developmental feedback is not linked to high stakes accountability (to support honest conversations), thinking about you are using multiple sources of information and evidence to form views, and making sure that teachers
Second, how are you balancing accountability with development? This might include coaching approaches instead of judgemental evaluations and thinking about clarity over expectations and fairness about support and engagement. Third, how do your overarching systems enhance teacher quality? Think about what evidence you have that supports impact on pupil outcomes without creating new data-gathering pressures, what incentives you are using to encourage teachers (for example, investing in their development), and what your school approach is to professional growth.
We should all be aiming to support conversations that are based on openness and trust, to ensure that difficult issues are not hidden but instead addressed. Critically, these conversations should identify where extra support and CPD can help a teacher to build on a strength or address an area of development – not driven by fear of poor performance but instead by the aspiration we should all have to help every teacher be as good as they can be.
July/August 2025
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