Teacher retention crisis: the solution lies in having clear boundaries
According to Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index, 54% of education staff have considered leaving the sector in the past two years due to pressures on their mental health.
The government’s main actions in stemming the flow of teachers leaving the profession has been to increase the starting pay of NQTs to £30 000 by 2023 and support teachers through the first two years of their career through the Early Career Framework (ECF).
Yet, 1 in 6 teachers leave in the first year of their career.
Money is not the only solution to the teacher retention crisis (although, who’s going to say no to more money!)
However, it does not solve the crux of the problem: that teaching is stressful, overwhelming and has the strong potential to damage your mental and physical health.
I know you don’t need anyone to tell you that but still, the Teacher Wellbeing Index reported that 77% of education staff experienced symptoms of poor mental health due to their work.
It is no longer possible to ignore teacher wellbeing.
It is no longer possible for schools and teachers to apply sticking plasters, like Cake Fridays, and expect teachers to thrive in their work.
Solutions must be found elsewhere.
Ones that can be complimented by the pay rise and ECF. Ones that will actually make a difference to teachers throughout the sector, rather than solely focussing on ramming as many trainees as possible into a broken system, to watch them then drop out a year or so later.
When teachers prioritise their needs and wellbeing — and schools help empower teachers to do this — teachers can pour from a full-to-the-brim cup. They are more likely to feel well and feel that they are able to thrive in their work.
When teachers pour from a full cup, everyone benefits.
Teachers.
Students.
Leaders.
The wider community.
How is this achieved?
Through creating clear boundaries.
Read on to discover three ways that boundaries can help teachers to thrive in teaching.
1) At the end of the day, teaching is only a job
When you have clear identity boundaries, you remember that you are a human being first, and a teacher second.
Traditionally, teaching has been described as a vocation, subconsciously giving it permission to seep into all areas of your life.
You feel guilty if you don’t work. You feel guilty for taking a night off because you feel that you ought to be always working (and the never ending to-do list hardly helps with this).
Yet, the result is that you grow tired. You begin to realise that the life outside of teaching that you used to enjoy before teaching is being reduced to a week off every seven weeks where you are more likely to either be ill or sleep in order to be ready for the next term.
You grow resentful, increasingly stressed and miserable.
When you reframe that teaching is actually a job, you can begin to give yourself permission to do the things that bring you joy, sometimes before the demands of the job, because you know it will help you to keep going in the job that you love.
Crucially, you remember that you have needs and know that when these are fulfilled, you can then enjoy a fulfilling career in teaching.
2) You fill your own cup first
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, humans are motivated to act based on five needs: physiological (food and clothing), safety (job security), love and belonging needs (friendship), esteem and self-actualisation.
Arguably, thriving in teaching can fit into the upper most part of the hierarchy, self-actualisation, because many teachers strive to be the best teacher that they can possibly be for their students.
Yet, according to Simply Psychology, “needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up”.
This is where your physical boundaries come into play. You must set aside time for your own needs such as good quality sleep, healthy eating and regular exercise.
It is your responsibility to siphon time to these in order to help you thrive in teaching.
Physical boundaries will help you to manage your time effectively in order to fulfil your needs.
Crucially, when your needs are fulfilled, you are able to support those around you. It’s the classic oxygen mask analogy: put your mask on first before helping others.
3) When your cup is full, you perform at your best
Crucially, boundaries enable you to continue performing at your best.
The Yerkes-Dodson Human Performance and Stress Curve demonstrates that the optimum performance space for humans is in the yellow zone of their curve, where there is some pressure that motivates positive action. This can cause some fatigue but does not lead to exhaustion or burnout.
However, teaching has a tendency to push individuals towards the latter half of the curve.
Yet, boundaries can help to bring you back from the edge, recuperate and then return to your best.
This is because boundaries empower you to promote and protect your non-negotiables. Imagine your non-negotiables as a battery pack. These are activities, habits, events and people that rejuvenate and recharge you. These will help you to avoid overload and burnout but will also help you to recover if you were to move into these zones.
By having prominent non-negotiables present in your life, you are able to keep your battery charged and keep giving your best at school.
The state of teaching is a concern for all involved in it. There will be dark times ahead as the sector struggles to replenish the number of teachers who are choosing to leave.
However, boundaries give teachers the opportunity to put their needs first, begin to pour from their own cup and keep positively serving their students.
The sooner this change begins to occur in teaching, the sooner educators will be able to thrive in teaching and will actively choose to continue in a job that they love.
Gemma Drinkall is an Educational Wellbeing Coach, helping middle leaders in education to create clear boundaries so that they can love teaching, and their lives, again.
Want to get in touch and discuss boundaries in your school setting? Book a free, no obligation virtual coffee chat here: calendly.com/headsphere/bookacallwithgemma
