Secondary schools can boost teacher retention rates by encouraging more part-time and flexible working, but school leaders must be proactive in their approaches, researchers have said.

This includes being systematic about asking for submissions from staff who want to change working patterns, factoring these requests in to timetable and staffing forecasts, and negotiating with teachers.

The advice comes in a research report from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) – the latest in its on-going research into issues of teacher recruitment and retention.

The report estimates that one in six secondary teachers would like to reduce their hours, with one in 12 wanting to reduce their hours by more than one day a week.

NFER’s previous research (NFER, 2018; SecEd, 2018) has found that “a significant number” of teachers who leave the state sector go on to take-up part-time positions elsewhere.

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