Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teachers resigned from their positions after two years of starting their job in the year 2020-21.

Information on the reason teachers leave and move positions, including resignation for another position, is not routinely analysed by the department.

Information on the school workforce in state-funded schools in England, including the retention of qualified teachers, is published in the annual ‘School Workforce in England’ national statistic release at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. The latest information is as of November 2020. Figures for November 2021 will be published in June 2022.

In total, 80.5%, or 20,965 full-time equivalents (FTE), of deferred and newly qualified entrants to teaching in 2018 were still teaching in state-funded schools in England two years after qualification. The remaining 19.5%, or 5,076 FTE, were no longer teaching in state-funded schools.

For contextual information, 34,116 FTE qualified teachers left state-funded schools in England between November 2019 and November 2020, and 43,516 FTE qualified teachers were new entrants during the period. Note that this is not limited to those that joined service in the previous two years.

Table 1: Qualified leavers from teaching, by leaver type, full-time equivalent numbers

November 2020

Source: School Workforce Census 2020.