Case Studies

The Teaching Commission would like to thank our case study schools and Trusts for sharing their approaches to building and supporting the profession. Each organisation was suggested by Commissioners and we are grateful for their willingness to be involved. We also thank the Key Group for researching and presenting the first five case studies.

Support and retain ECTs with team teaching, Grove School

Inspire and retain a diverse workforce using a community-based approach, Chiltern Learning Trust

How to transform your approach to CPD to boost retention, Greater Manchester Education Trust

How smart centralisation can boost local autonomy, Oasis Community Learning

Attract and retain staff using a values-based approach, Frank Wise School

How a school-led partnership works to create a sense of place and belonging to support the recruitment and retention of ECTs, Camden Learning

Meeting 2, 10 January 2025

Anna McShane, Director and Founder of The New Britain Project

Anna gave an overview of the Missing Mothers report (2024), which built on original data from the MTPT project and focused on women in their thirties who are the largest group of teachers leaving the profession each year.

Professor Caroline Daly, Professor of Teacher Education at and Director of the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research at UCL Institute of Education

Caroline is also a Commissioner, and gave evidence on links between teacher retention and pupil engagement.

Meeting 3, 21 February 2025

Professor Heather Smith, Professor of Race and Language Equality in Education at Newcastle University; Professor Vini Lander, Professor Emerita at Leeds Beckett University (and formerly Director of the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality); Alison Wiggins, Race and Equality lead on the Secondary PGCE at UCL Institute of Education

Heather, Vini and Alison gave evidence about race, racism and anti-racism in the teaching profession, and pointed to the Anti-Racism Framework for ITE/T as a tool to review and challenge practice.

Professor Haili Hughes, Director of PD, All Saints MAT and Professor of teacher coaching & mentoring at Academica University OAS; Yamina Bibi, experienced senior leader, coach and consultant; Catherine Dowell, experienced teacher and school leader

Haili, Yamina and Catherine are also Commissioners, and gave evidence from their own research and practice on mentoring, ECT training and development.

Meeting 4, 28 March 2025

Professor Jane Perryman, Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL Institute of Education

Jane gave evidence on inspection, accountability and teacher retention, based on her work for the Beyond Ofsted Commission.

Professor Qing Gu, Professor of Leadership in Education at UCL Institute of Education

Qing spoke about the impact of school leadership on teacher retention, where teachers stay and how they thrive.

Meeting 5, 11 April 2025

Graihagh Crawshaw-Sadler, CEO of Now Teach, and Macrui Dostourian, teacher

Graihagh and Macrui spoke about the experience of career changers in the profession, based on survey data from Now Teach, and Macrui’s own experiences as a career changer.

Alison Peacock, CEO of the Chartered College of Teaching, with Alice Bailey, Deepika Narula and Shuna Neave, teachers with Chartered status

Alison, Alice, Deepika and Shuna spoke about professionalism and collegiality, drawing on the Chartered College’s working paper on Teacher Professionalism, and the experiences of the teachers of gaining Chartered Status and its impact.

Meeting 6, 9 May 2025

Catherine Dowell, experienced teacher and school leader

Catherine is also a Commissioner and spoke about her school’s approach to SEND and the state of local and national support

Emma Hollis, CEO of the National Association of School Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT)

Emma gave an insight into the realities of Initial Teacher Training based on evidence collected by NASBTT

Meeting 7, 20 June 2025

Leora Cruddas CBE is the Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts

Leora presented thinking about the importance of culture, climate and conditions – making our schools brilliant places to work

Melanie Renowden, CEO of the National Institute of Teaching (NIoT)

Melanie spoke about how to focus on, and improve, teacher impact based on a range of work carried out by NIoT