Industry News
More teachers going private
Posted on 14th January 2008
The number of teachers leaving the state sector to take up posts at independent schools far outstrips the number heading in the opposite direction, it has emerged.
During 2007, 606 teachers left private schools in order to take up a position in a maintained school, while 2,009 opted to switch from the state to the independent sector, reports the Sunday Telegraph.
The move was part of a seven-year trend that has seen both the amount of pupils educated in and the number of teachers working in independent schools increase.
Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, told the newspaper it is difficult for an experienced teacher within the independent sector to move to the state sector.
Headteachers often worry about whether a teacher who is used to working with small classes has the right "classroom management skills" to cope with the larger groups found in comprehensive schools, he explained.
A recent study commissioned by the Nuffield Foundation concluded that teachers working in the independent sector get more job satisfaction and can expect a better salary than their counterparts in state schools.