The Retention crisis: Why great teachers are walking away
The retention crisis continues in the education sector. This is no secret or surprise. Great teachers continue to leave the profession. Not because they’ve stopped caring, but because the system is become too heavy. For those we are speaking to, the downsides far outweigh the up.
The roots of the issue run deep- into a wider system shaped by government policy, chronic underfunding, narrow accountability frameworks, and a deeply embedded culture of martyrdom in education. Too often, teachers are expected to absorb system failures through their personal effort at the expense of their own wellbeing, and wear exhaustion as a badge of honour. The result? A profession with mis-aligned purpose and drained of sustainability.
While workload and funding pressures are well-known contributors, there’s another missing piece that deserves more attention: a lack of sustained, meaningful support for teachers as professionals and people.
Not a Resilience Problem, a Culture Problem
Teacher attrition is often framed as a personal failing, a matter of burnout, lacking grit, or not being “cut out” for the classroom. But great teachers are not leaving because they’re weak. They’re leaving because they’ve been expected to be invincible.
The Education Support Partnership’s Teacher Wellbeing Index (2023) found that 78% of education professionals reported being stressed, with workload and lack of support ranking highest among contributing factors. In England alone, DfE data (2023) shows that one in three new teachers leave within five years.
Resilience, then, isn’t the issue. Sustainable working conditions, professional respect, and humanised leadership are.
Coaching as a Culture Shift
It is in this aspect that coaching comes in. Not as a luxury, but as a strategic response to a crisis that can’t be solved by resilience and procedures alone. Investment in coaching is a response to a system that has long undervalued the impact of personal development on teaching can unlock steps towards building a sustainable human-centred culture in education. We have seen it.
This investment is even more critical in the context of accelerating AI integration across education. As artificial intelligence reshapes everything from lesson planning to assessment, the irreplaceable value of teachers lies not just in information delivery but in their relational, emotional, and coaching capacities (to name those capacities most relevant here)- the human work that machines cannot do. Coaching equips teachers to step confidently into this future, not just by helping adaption to change, but by ensuring they remain grounded, supported, and professionally fulfilled as the landscape transforms around them.
In many professions, coaching is seen as a sign of investment and value. It’s used to support growth, deepen reflection, and sustain performance. In education, however, the perspective is different. In many education organisations coaching is still seen as an unnecessary expense, a sign of weakness (e.g. leaders should know everything shouldn’t they) or in some cases a remedial tool for ‘underperformers’ or those already in crisis.
We cannot expect organisations to grow, develop and retain successfully if their teachers are not given the space, voices and ears. Coaching—done well—offers exactly what teachers and leaders are saying they need:
Time and space to think, reflect, and reset
Support to navigate complexity and change
Encouragement to grow as professionals and people
A trusted, confidential relationship in a high-pressure role
To be heared and valued as a result
As Jim Knight notes in Instructional Coaching (2007), “Coaching is not about fixing people- it’s about honouring them and helping them unlock their potential.” That mindset acknowledges the person that is the teacher and undoubtedly is more effective at keeping people in the profession.
The Evidence: Why Coaching Matters for Retention
There is a growing body of evidence that positions coaching as a key lever in teacher retention and development.
A report by the Education Endowment Foundation (2020) highlighted coaching as one of the most impactful forms of professional development for improving teaching quality. Teachers who feel they are improving are far more likely to stay.
The Teacher Development Trust (2021) emphasised that high-quality CPD especially when sustained, personalised, and collaborative leads to greater job satisfaction and longer retention.
A 2022 RAND study in the US found that schools investing in non-evaluative coaching saw improved teacher confidence, reduced burnout, and significantly lower attrition rates.
When teachers are supported to grow they’re more likely to stay. Coaching helps create this shift by reframing professional development as relational, reflective, and responsive, not just prescriptive.
From our own experience of transformational coaching...
Coaching Is An Investment (but the benefits pay dividends!)
In an era of shrinking budgets, coaching can be seen as an expendable “nice to have” option, rather than essential. We argue this is short-sighted. The cost of replacing a teacher (including recruitment, training, and lost productivity) can be £20,000 or more per staff member. The human cost is far greater.
Investing in coaching:
Enhances teacher agency and confidence
Builds a culture of trust and learning
Supports wellbeing and retention
Helps embed reflective practice and instructional improvement
When built into the fabric of school life- through trained internal coaches, time-protected dialogue, and coaching-informed leadership- coaching becomes not an “add-on,” but a core driver of staff culture and development (see our next blog for how students can reap the benefits!)
It’s About Staying Human in the Work
Ultimately, teachers stay when they feel:
Valued, not just evaluated
Connected, not isolated
Invested in, not used up
This creates four layers of engagement: emotional, behavioural, cognitive, and crucially, agentic. That teachers have a voice and feel listened to drives both their engagement and their intrinsic motivation as the most powerful basic psychological need of all, autonomy, is perceived to be present. Coaching responds to those needs. It says: “You matter. Your growth matters. Your experience is worth listening to and building on.”
In a sector that demands so much, we need strategies that give back. Not just to improve outcomes, but to keep the people who make outcomes possible.
Coaching as Retention Strategy
If we are serious about reversing the teacher retention crisis, we need to stop asking individuals to simply “do more” or “be more resilient.” We need to design systems that support them to stay, not just cope.
Coaching is one of the few interventions that meets the moment. It addresses both the professional and personal dimensions of teaching. And when done with intention and integrity, it transforms school cultures from within.
We don’t have to lose our best people. But we do have to invest in what helps them stay and that often means investing in coaching for leaders first so that they can become more self-aware themselves. Imagine the returns if you hadn’t have had to replace those you will do at the end of the year.
Registration for our 2025 - 26 The Strategy Lab: Future-Readying Your Workforce Course is now open - you can find out more on our website or sign up to one of our free taster webinars.
Webinar 1: 25.06.25 as part of the National Association of Special Schools Online Conference
Webinar 2: 15.09.25 2pm online via teams
We look forward to seeing you there!
Alternatively, if you are interested in exploring transformative coaching or team opportunities further you can book a free introductory call or contact us at info@glasshouselab.com.
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References:
Education Support Partnership (2023). Teacher Wellbeing Index
Department for Education (2023). School Workforce Census
Knight, J. (2007). Instructional Coaching: A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction
Education Endowment Foundation (2020). Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning
Teacher Development Trust (2021). Developing Great Teaching: Review of the Evidence
RAND Corporation (2022). Early Lessons from the Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative