OVER two thirds of Bradford teachers say they are "likely" to leave their school in the next year - and over half say they are considering leaving the profession entirely.

A newly-released survey reveals that many of the district's teachers are unhappy in their jobs, making it more difficult for schools to retain their staff.

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The study was carried out by Dr George Madine, a human resource management expert based at the University of Bradford, who has studied 450 local teachers. He will present his findings to Bradford Council's Children's Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday.

His report says that while teacher dissatisfaction is a national and "toxic" problem, Bradford's position in league tables means local teachers are put under even more pressure.

Dr Madine's survey asked how likely teachers were to leave their current school in the next 12 months. 27.67 per cent said they were "very likely," while 17.44 per cent said it was "likely" and 24.65 per cent that it was "moderately likely."

Twenty per cent said unlikely, while 10.23 per cent claimed it was very unlikely.

When asked if they planned to leave the profession entirely in the next 12 months, 15.21 per cent said a career change was very likely, 17.74 per cent likely and 24.88 per cent that it was moderately likely. 32.26 per cent said a change was unlikely and 9.91 per cent very unlikely.

Dr Madene's report refers to staffing issues at many schools, saying: "If the respondents act on these figures, this will deepen the crisis in Bradford's schools."

His study finds that teachers have more issues causing them stress at work than non teachers, and feel that government appointed curriculums and the threat of Ofsted mean they have less freedom in how they do their job.

Factors that cause teachers distress at work include constant monitoring, excessive workload, behaviour, lack of support and unfair expectations of improving pupils' grades, especially for pupils that are new to English. The report adds: "Teachers feel they are not in control of life - the pressure of the job impacts on outside life, eg. excessive marking and lesson preparation.

"The answer on the surface is a simple one, to let teachers have control of how they teach and address these factors that cause distress at work."

Ian Murch is Bradford spokesman of the National Union of Teachers, which helped provide a cross section of teachers from different backgrounds for the survey. He said: "I think people ought to be shocked by these figures. What teachers find hard about the job isn't dealing with the children, it is the blame culture they face. It is a national thing, but in places like Bradford where it is more challenging then teachers feel they are even more under the microscope.

"If teachers early in their careers don't see a way through to their job being something they enjoy again they will leave the profession, and I think this is worse than it used to be."

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Executive Member for Education on Bradford Council, said: "I have the greatest respect for teachers in our district who are hugely committed professionals and they go into teaching as a vocation.

"So we need to take any concerns about teacher welfare extremely seriously, but we also need to treat any individual survey with caution and ensure it doesn't make the issue worse by labelling the thousands of teachers we have in the district on the basis of one sample. I don’t know whether this study has been published or peer reviewed yet. There seems to be no national sample to show how Bradford compares with the rest of the country, which I would think was vital.

"We know that recruitment and retention is a national issue. Whilst the Government is doing nothing to address the issue nationally, we in Bradford are doing what we can to support the recruitment and retention of teachers with a £600,000 investment."

Councillor Debbie Davies, Conservative spokesman for education, said: "Teaching is a very demanding job, and I think teachers deserve more respect then they get. A teacher that enjoys their job will teach a lot better than one that doesn't."

The committee meets on Wednesday at 5pm in St Edmunds Children’s Centre on Washington Street.