Pay teachers properly or stop asking where they all went

Four of my colleagues left the profession in the last two years. Two went into corporate training, one retrained as a data analyst, one just stopped.

None of them wanted to leave teaching. They loved it. They left because they couldnt afford to stay.

A starting teacher in England earns about 31k. An engineering graduate with a year less experience earns closer to 45k and doesnt get shouted at by a seven year old or wake up at 5am marking. There is no mystery here. There is no "recruitment crisis" that nobody can explain. There is just a salary gap that the government refuses to close and then expresses surprise every september when nobody applies.

Match teacher starting pay to the graduate median for STEM subjects. Index it properly. And for the love of god stop pretending a 1.5% pay rise is a "real terms increase".