Recognising and Valuing Individuals

A sense of feeling valued and recognised is one of the factors identified as important in motivating teachers, as is a sense of accomplishment. This can all be supported by positive efforts to recognise and value individual teachers. Our research found that teachers have much higher satisfaction levels when they feel valued for their individual contributions.

Teachers in our research told us that it helped them if leaders and managers recognise teachers’ everyday achievements, efforts and contribution – not just exam success.

Practical steps could be:

• making it a priority for line managers to regularly give regular informal praise or a thank you that is individual to each teacher
• encouraging teachers to share small success stories, for example in meetings
• having ways for students and parents to easily contact the school to share thanks.
• Being noticed and valued takes effort but makes a huge difference to the job satisfaction a teacher feels, which can help them to get through the harder days that teaching can often include.