TEACHING must become more family-friendly, unions and campaigners said today, as figures showed more than 9,000 women in their thirties left the profession in England in 2022/23.

The cohort alone dwarfs Labour’s target for 6,500 new teachers per year, with the National Education Union (NEU) warning many new mothers and pregnant teachers are having to fight for their most basic rights at work.

NEU deputy general secretary Niamh Sweeney said: “Many struggled with excessive workload, low maternity pay and a resistance to any kind of flexible working.”

The union backed calls for maternity pay for teachers to be increased in line with other public-sector workers, for part time teachers to be valued and progressed, for flexible working to be embraced and for investment in affordable childcare.

“We are convinced that fair pay and conditions for new mothers in the teaching profession will go a long way to curbing the teacher shortage,” said Ms Sweeney.

Teachers get four weeks at full pay, followed by two weeks at 90 per cent of pay, followed by 12 weeks of half pay topped up with the statutory maternity pay.

NHS maternity conditions provide eight weeks at full pay and civil servants are entitled to 26 weeks.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s both offer 26 weeks on full pay, while Lidl has increased its offer to 28 weeks.

In a report called Missing Mothers, the New Britain Project think tank backed giving teachers the same maternity pay as civil servants in the Department for Education.

The government said it had given teachers a 5.5 per cent award, and was making clear that teachers’ lesson preparation time could be carried out at home as a start.