Lower teacher turnover was hailed as a major success of 2025 by Education, Sport and Culture Committee president Paul Montague.
Exactly a year ago, when he was a teachers’ union leader, he spoke of the ‘massive turnover’ of teachers causing ‘massive problems’ for students in States secondary schools.
However, he claimed in last week’s States meeting that the picture had changed considerably over the past 12 months.
‘As we have come out of a very turbulent period in States secondary education, we have far greater stability of staff at the moment,’ he said.
‘At the moment, we have far fewer agency staff in our schools, and we are beginning to see a far more settled education environment for students between the age of 11 and 16.’
He said the ‘reset button’ had been pressed in September, when a new model of three 11-16 schools and a separate Sixth Form Centre came into effect, four years after it was agreed by the States.
The Sixth Form Centre is operating temporarily from the former secondary school buildings at La Mare de Carteret pending a decision about its long-term future, but ESC recently ruled out revisiting the 11-16 structure as it wants a more settled period for the centre’s staff and students.
‘A couple of years ago, we had quite significant numbers of agency and supply staff working in our secondary schools,’ said Deputy Montague.
‘We had a revolving door for some young people.
‘We heard stories of youngsters going through their GCSE courses and having so many different staff during that time.
‘What really matters in education is knowing the young people in front of you to help them with their learning and that’s why stability of staffing is so important.’
In response to a question from Deputy Jayne Ozanne, he said he did not have adequate data to know how much cost-of-living pressures were affecting staff retention in secondary schools.
