Sacked bankers have apparently been looking into teaching for a career with good job security. It is a trend the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is keen to promote. But what good is a career with an abnormally high turnover, where many teachers quit of their own volition just a few years after training?
Teaching supply agencies will this week be expecting a spike in demand for supply staff as schools return from the half-term break. It's a common trend - teachers have to give half a term's notice before they quit.
Government figures show that almost 18% of teachers change jobs annually. For a large school of 120 teachers, that is more than 20 staff who will be struggling to learn pupils' names, establish where they have got to in the curriculum, familiarise themselves with the school rules and find the toilets.
The figure of 18% is high. Commercial organisations tend to aim for voluntary leavers of around 10%: too few and the place stagnates; too many and you spend all your time training and inducting.
Much more worrying is the fact that each year 11% of teachers quit teaching altogether. Stress is often cited as a reason for leaving. Yasmin del Mar, 29, taught for six years, most recently as assistant head of a primary school in Hackney, east London. She quit to start up a coffee shop business after the strain of the job landed her in hospital. "It's not a place you can take a day off and not feel guilty about it," she says. "The doctor said it had happened because I had ignored the initial signs. I had infections everywhere inside. The stress wasn't allowing me to rest; even at home I was doing work if I could.
"People don't last very long in teaching here. Back home [in Australia ], if you were sick, management would encourage you to take a day off."
Adam Brichto, 34, entered the profession late, after a career as a travel agent. He lasted just one year teaching English to 11- to 14-year-olds in a challenging secondary school in Essex.
"The problem is that, as well as being a teacher, you had to be so much," he says. "It's not only the hours that went into preparing a lesson and marking. You had to be a counsellor, psychologist, parent, you're looking out to see if there are any kids being abused. And if you're teaching 150 kids a day, it's impossible, in a way, to fulfil all those tasks and criteria.
Burning out
"If you're a perfectionist, you shouldn't go into teaching because you'll end up giving up or burning out. You have to be very practical about time management, what you can and can't do. In other jobs you can do a perfect job."
He now runs a fledgling film company with his brother and a friend. "Running your own company has its pressures," he says. "But they are incomparable to what happens in a classroom."
Brichto freely admits that he was "a rubbish teacher" and that he gave up marking and preparation early on. Unfortunately, all too often it is the great teachers, those who really care about the job, who leave before retirement. Helen Smith, 32, was classed an "outstanding" languages teacher when Ofsted evaluated her north London secondary school this year. But she quit in July to go travelling. "I couldn't bear the thought of doing another year," she says. "It's just such hard work. It's mentally and physically draining."
Then there is the added stress of a job that pits one adult against a class of children. Tim Walters left a flourishing career on Wall Street to teach religious studies in a large, inner-city secondary school. After three years, however, he moved to work in a "posh international school" abroad, and is now leaving teaching behind to set up a pilates studio in Cambodia.
"I have endless respect for people who can continue in the state sector for a long time and keep on delivering day in, day out," he says. "You couldn't have an off day or they'll get the better of you. The confrontational nature of classes every day ... it's very interesting, but it's such a grind."
Most teachers will agree that long holidays are the saving grace for an otherwise punishing job. Many, however, admit to working for at least half of their six-week summer break, while other holidays tend to be rammed full of revision classes and coursework clinics to push borderline students up to a pass for the all-important league tables. This is the major gripe for teachers, and the reason that many have cited for quitting the profession.
Katherine Anderton quit as head of languages after eight years of teaching in a string of inner-city secondary schools. "Preparing and then going over tests gets very boring for the students and teachers. The students act up and don't learn as much. And it is very disheartening for those students who know they won't do well in the test, who could get more from doing a wider range of activities."
She was all too aware of the impact the high turnover of staff has on pupils. "When I told the kids I was leaving there was a furore because 22 people left our school last summer. You could see the panic. There was a feeling of: 'All the teachers are deserting us!' Consistency is important, especially in these kids' lives who don't have consistency at home."
Perhaps surprisingly, it is rarely the pupils that prompt teachers to throw in the towel. Ex-teachers talk wistfully about "that special moment when somebody gets it", and the sense of achievement from getting good results. Walters says: "I've never laughed so much day-to-day as I do in the classroom. That's an awful lot of fun, that playful interaction."
Esprit de corps
He was similarly impressed with his fellow teachers. "The esprit de corps among the staff was astonishing. That was just wonderful, meeting this really great, very committed group of people. They were much more interesting and fun people than I ever met on Wall Street."
This is the kind of message the TDA is trying to promote with its Transition to Teaching scheme, hastily launched to catch the fallout from the hordes of
Lehman Brothers bankers and others now in the job market.
The transition, particularly from the City, often involves a major pay cut. But many who have made the jump say they are happy to do so for the satisfaction they derive from teaching.
David Wilson, 39, left a career as an industrial chemist to teach science to 11- to 16-year-olds in a semi-rural school on the outskirts of Cambridge. He works much longer hours for half the salary, but is still brimming with enthusiasm.
"In terms of job satisfaction, you just can't beat it," he says. "I know at the end of the month I've worked hard for my wage. I also know the things I've given the kids - money couldn't pay for that."
But he admits: "It would be nice to have a little bit more of the 'life' in work-life balance." Many teachers returning to work this week will know what he means.