Schools across England are enhancing maternity pay and introducing flexible working options to reduce the departure of thousands of women in their 30s from the teaching profession.  

In the recent budget, Rachel Reeves confirmed funding for 6,500 new teachers by enforcing VAT on private school fees. However, school leaders and charities warn that with over 9,000 women aged 30-39 leaving state education last year, addressing the teacher shortage will also require measures to retain experienced female staff. 

Experts suggest that limited maternity benefits, combined with high workloads and concerns about balancing family time, often lead women in this age group to feel that teaching is incompatible with motherhood. Last week, the Education Alliance academy trust, which manages 10 schools in Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire, announced plans to offer improved maternity benefits.

Jonny Uttley, the trust’s chief executive, said: “Nobody should have to choose between being seen as a good teacher or a good mum or dad. This dilemma has driven too many great teachers and leaders out of the profession and it needs to stop.”

Nikki Cunningham Smith said she had left her job as assistant head at the age of 36 because she felt “burnt out and guilty”. “You’re preaching to families about the importance of involvement with their kids and you are so overworked you can’t manage that for your own children,” she said.

After two years out of teaching she has just accepted another school leadership job coordinating special needs provision – but only because her employer agreed to a different style of working. “I wrote my bravest paragraph ever, saying I believe in work-life balance and need Fridays off, and if you can’t offer this, please don’t interview me,” she said.

Uttley’s trust now approves 98% of all requests for flexible working and has a policy that everyone must be able to attend their own children’s sports days and school plays – two childhood milestones teachers often miss while looking after other people’s children.

He said the crisis in teacher recruitment would be solved only if experienced teachers were willing to recommend it as a career to others.

This is why his trust is diverging from most of the sector – where teachers get four weeks’ maternity leave at full pay, two weeks at 90% then 12 weeks on half pay – and offering, from day one, 18 weeks on full pay and eight on half pay for teachers and support staff. His schools will also offer uncapped paid leave for women who suffer a miscarriage.

Other academy trusts have also enhanced their maternity packages, including the London-based chains PolyMAT and the Charter Schools Education Trust, and Dixons, which runs 16 schools and a college in the north-west. A handful of London boroughs, including Lambeth, Haringey and Camden, also offer significantly higher than the national average offering following union negotiations.

But with employers such as the civil service and supermarkets offering six months’ paid leave, campaigners say the standard offer available to the vast majority of teachers is pushing women out.

Emma Sheppard, founder of the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project, whose recent research highlighted that overworked mothers in their 30s are the largest group leaving state education, said it would be “shortsighted” of the government to focus on new teachers without tackling low maternity pay and retention.

She said: “A stable base of experienced teachers means a stable school. The government is focusing on bringing in new teachers but that base is crumbling.”

Former headteacher Jen Crittenden hoped to prove she could still run a primary school after she had her baby – but in 2022 she left the profession because she was “just broken”.

During Covid she was working 80- to 90-hour weeks, often staying late to deal with social services cases. “I basically wasn’t seeing my daughter at all,” she said. “She was starting school, but I didn’t have time for her.”

She added: “Not one of the cohort I trained with is still in teaching. The system is broken.”

The Department for Education said: “Recruiting and keeping great teachers in our classrooms is vital to improving life chances for all children. We are committed to resetting the relationship with the education workforce and working alongside them to re-establish teaching as an attractive, expert profession.”