Commission Witnesses

The Teaching Commission would like to thank the following witnesses who gave generously of their time and expertise to provide evidence and provoke deep conversations. Their evidence is referenced throughout the report.

Meeting 1, 16 December 2024

Jack Worth, Lead Economist at NFER

Jack gave evidence about teacher recruitment and retention trends, based on data from the 6th Annual Report on the Teacher Labour Market in England (March 2024).

Professor Becky Taylor, Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research and Academic Head of Engagement and Impact at UCL Institute of Education

Becky shared data underpinning Wave 3 of the DfE’s Teachers’ Working Lives survey, which was carried out between January and May 2024.

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