Scotland · Statistics / 08
Retention & departures
Working patterns, cohort presence, workforce age and register departures.
Teacher working patterns
Headcount · full-time and part-time teachers · 2017–2024
The part-time share describes people, not FTE. It does not establish whether reduced hours were voluntary.
Teacher age profile · 2025
Share of teacher FTE across all schools
Age groups are not a retirement forecast. The published values are rounded.
Leaving the GTCS register · 2024/25
4,272 register leavers had not returned at extraction. The survey received 738 responses, a 17.28% response rate; 468 respondents reported retirement.
Respondent percentages cannot be applied to every register leaver. Leaving the register is not identical to leaving Scottish state-school teaching.
Registration report 2024-25: leaving the register ↗ · 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025
Leaving the register is not identical to leaving Scottish state-school teaching.
Issues reported by register leavers
Coded survey responses · themes may overlap
Counts describe themes in responses, not percentages of the teacher workforce.