Teachers ‘need time away to keep them motivated’

TEACHERS SHOULD be given sabbaticals to stop them burning out and remain motivated to stay in the profession, school leaders are suggesting.

Giving staff time away from the chalkface to take courses or retrain in a new area would help to boost the status of the profession and make workers feel valued, according to some members of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

The union is expected to debate a resolution on the issue at its annual conference in Liverpool this weekend, which calls on the NAHT’s executive to campaign for a sabbatical system for teachers who have worked in teaching for a set number of years.

Speaking ahead of the conference, the motion’s proposer, Kevin Baskill, said: “It seems like a simple idea, but I think it would help to change the culture, and to value the profession.”

The retired primary school leader said that early in his career as a primary teacher he had been given the chance to work in early years education, taking a course that “completely changed my sense of direction and what I thought was important”.

He became a reception teacher, went into nursery education, he said, adding that “it changed how I focused my priorities when I became a primary head”.

Mr Baskill, who is the NAHT’s London regional secretary, said that as a headteacher he had noticed there were senior leaders that were not interested in headship, and that many of them ended up leaving the profession.

As an example, he suggested that teachers could be given the opportunity after seven years in the profession “to do something away from the chalkface”.