More teachers will have to work into their mid-sixties and beyond thanks to the rising pension age, but at least one report paints a positive picture for the ageing profession.
A Department for Education review has found that older teachers “report less stress than less experienced teachers” - and that they continue to improve pupils’ results.
Reassuringly, the cognitive skills needed to teach “do not deteriorate significantly” before the age of 70, it adds.
But at a time when so many teachers are choosing to leave the profession well before pensionable age, having clocked up many hours of unpaid overtime (bit.ly/TeachersWorkFree), can this portrait of the calm, content senior pedagogue really be accurate?
For TES columnist Steve Eddison, a 63-year-old teacher at Arbourthorne Community Primary School in Sheffield, it is the ability to work part-time that has kept him from leaving.
“I think it makes a massive difference in terms of work-life balance,” he says.
“You get less stressed. There are fewer responsibilities to worry about. You are not under stress all the time.”
Wasted talent
But attitudes towards flexible working vary “enormously from school to school”, acknowledges last month’s interim report from the DfE’s Teachers Working Longer Review steering group (bit.ly/WorkingLongerReport) .
Health and wellbeing charity Education Support Partnership also fears that the talent of older, experienced teachers is being needlessly wasted because they do not feel supported by schools.
“[They] often feel that they are being pushed aside in favour of younger and cheaper colleagues,” a senior helpline counsellor at the charity says. “Suddenly what they’ve been doing for a number of years, which has been considered fine, is no longer OK.”
Journalist Lucy Kellaway hopes to tackle the cultural challenges facing older teachers through her organisation Now Teach, which aims to recruit professionals to second careers in the classroom.
About 1,000 people have expressed an interest in the new organisation and a large number are over 55. But many of those have asked whether they are “too old” to teach.
“We did a lot of research about older people going into the profession and the drop-out rate is horrendous,” she says. “And a lot of that is about culture and a lack of support.”
Kellaway - a columnist and associate editor of the Financial Times, who will leave her role this summer to teach maths in a London secondary school at the age of 58 - is optimistic that Now Teach will change things.
“We want to say that you are not too old at 70, as long as you are energetic, you know what you are up for, and that the decision is yours,” she says.
Lifting the workload
If such enthusiasm is not to be dampened, tackling teacher workload will have to become a priority. The DfE report acknowledges that the problem is “a major factor” for older teachers who choose to leave the profession early - and unions say concerns about work-life balance affect teachers of all ages.
Older teachers often care for children, grandchildren and elderly parents, but are not always offered the types of flexible working arrangements that could keep them in the classroom.
I know how to deal with the job better but I wouldn’t say it’s stress-free at all
For others, struggles with physical health prove to be the main obstacle. The DfE finds that older teachers are more likely to report musculoskeletal and other health issues.
Eddison, who helps to run drama productions at his primary, admits that it is becoming more difficult to keep up with the children. For a full-time teachers in their sixties, the mental and physical demands - such as putting up displays and keeping up to date on technological changes - can be even greater.
“I think it is a young person’s job, really,” he says. “But it is useful to have people my age working on a part-time basis, so you are not tired all the time.”
Deborah Esmizadeh, 62, manages to hold down a full-time job as head of history at Beaumont secondary school in St Albans. But she gets up at 4am to mark books, rarely leaves school before 6pm, finds the job “exhausting” and describes the idea that older teachers suffer less stress as “ridiculous”.
“The workload has increased considerably and the job has got harder,” she says. “I know how to deal with it better and I still find the job very rewarding. But I wouldn’t say it is stress-free at all. It is knackering.”
Unable to retire
Esmizadeh, who is the oldest teacher at her school, would like to retire but cannot afford to until she claims her state pension at the age of 66.
The Department for Education says that it has “published new guidance for teachers to help support better opportunities for flexible working”.
“The Working Longer Review was commissioned by the secretary of state to look at the effects of teachers working longer as a result of the increase in normal pension age in the teachers’ pension scheme,” a spokesperson says. “We will continue to look at the issues raised in the evidence ahead of the publication of the final report later this year.”
