“It took me 14 years at night school to qualify as a teacher,” said Tracey Salt, 55. “I worked as a secretary, a dinner lady and a teaching assistant while studying for A levels, a degree and a PGCE.

“I don’t want to give up teaching. But I’m older and people don’t want to pay you more. They’d have to pay me more than a newly qualified teacher. So that’s why I went abroad.”

Today, new research suggests that almost two in five (38 per cent) UK teachers would consider moving abroad next term if the right job came up - and 70 per cent would consider working abroad at some point in their career. 

Ms Salt is a prime example. She qualified as a teacher eight years ago and spent 2016 and 2017 working in Brunei. Now, after almost a year back in England on supply, she is looking for jobs in China and Singapore.

Looking east: Tracey Salt, English teacher in Yorkshire

“In Singapore, they are thinking 20 years ahead,” she said.

Ms Salt believes that the country also has a more positive attitude towards older workers.

“Here [in England], even though they say there is no retirement age, your age is against you and I have to work until I’m 67.”

And while teachers in the Tes poll were most likely to say work-life balance was the reason they sought work overseas, Ms Salt said that pupil behaviour was a factor in her decision to do so.

“When I worked abroad I was never sworn at,” she said. “I didn’t need to raise my voice. I didn’t really do behaviour management because the kids were desperate to be there. Here, I have felt more of a behaviour manager than a teacher.”

As such, she feels that her only choice is to teach abroad or to not teach at all: “I want to give [something] back, because I felt people never gave up on me in education.

“I have found a love for it. All I want to do is teach, to share poetry, to share a novel. I didn’t sign up to become a behaviour manager.”