Teachers have proposed lie-ins and three-day weekends to combat retention crisis

Lay-ins and three-day weekends every two weeks have been offered to teachers in England as some schools seek to tackle a recruitment and retention crisis.

Schools have been forced to adopt new methods to make the teaching profession more attractive as teachers highlight a lack of flexibility in the sector.

The government wants to offer teachers the option to schedule lessons from home to improve work-life balance, as part of its plan to recruit 6,500 new teachers.

But it has been warned that much stronger measures are needed to bring the sector into line with other professions in terms of flexibility and pay.

Charity Teach First has now called for “flexibility” rights, to allow short secondments away from schools and unpaid career breaks to allow teachers to work in other sectors.

Schools across the country have adopted parts of the initiative to create a more welcoming environment for future teachers, the Guardian reported.

Dixons Academies Trust has introduced a nine-day fortnight for its teachers across 16 schools and one college. This means teachers get an extra day off every two weeks.

The charity’s chief executive, Luke Sparkes, said one of the ultimate aims was to “try to improve outcomes for children” as well as tackle the retention crisis. Sparkes stressed that the policy creates “no harm to families or children”.

All Saints Catholic College, a state secondary school in west London, offers a double holiday one morning a week, allowing teachers to come to school at 10.30am.

Headmaster Andrew O’Neill told the Guardian the school wants to “treat teachers like elite athletes” to ensure they are adequately supported.

The Teach First report reveals that 42% of 18-24 year-olds consider teaching to be a stressful job, 36% consider it to be poorly paid and 32% believe the sector is underfunded.

But the survey of 3,000 young adults also found that 73% of them consider teaching to be a meaningful career.

The survey showed that 61% of respondents would consider working as a teacher in the future.

Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, said: “Recruitment is down and many teachers are turning to strike action or leaving the profession due to concerns about pay and conditions.

“The government’s commitment to recruit 6,500 additional teachers is a step in the right direction. But given the scale of the challenge, action is needed now to achieve this.”

“The untapped potential of our young people is immense. Failure to invest in their education could cost the UK economy an estimated £38 billion.”

Last year, the UK saw a net increase of just 480 teachers, with 44,002 new arrivals in the year to November 2023 while 43,522 teachers left, according to data released by the Department for Education.

Mr Hobby hopes their proposal will help set a “new agenda” for the new government, one that “makes education a first-class choice for graduates, offers competitive benefits and rewards expertise fairly”.