The teacher retention crisis is biting for secondary schools with more teachers quitting and one in 10 vacancies going unfilled. The National Audit Office is calling for action on workload and teacher support. Pete Henshaw reports

The number of secondary school teachers fell by almost 11,000 between 2010 and 2016 – a loss of around five per cent of the workforce.

Furthermore, more teachers are now leaving the profession before retirement than five years ago and one-tenth of state school teaching vacancies are going unfilled.

The findings are among those in Retaining and Developing the Teaching Workforce, a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) last week.

The NAO, an independent body that scrutinises public spending for Parliament, concludes that the Department for Education (DfE) “cannot demonstrate that its efforts to improve teacher retention and quality are having a positive impact and are value for money”.

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