Hey there Teacher Tappers!
Good luck to everyone going back, or who have returned already! We hope your first days have all gone well 🍀 🤞.
Some of you have been writing in to tell us how your INSET days are going, and it’s been great to hear from those who have been spotting Teacher Tapp stats in the presentations! The percentage of secondary teachers with two or more INSET days has gone up (64% in 2026 vs 54% in 2018), and the percentage of primary teachers has also gone up (59% in 2026 vs 52% in 2018).
Prize draw winner!
Our prize draw has ended, and the winner has scooped £500 of new clothes! 👚 🧢 👖. Keep an eye out for the message in the app telling you if you are the winner. Everyone who answered questions between 7 August 2026 and 31 August 2026 was entered into a prize draw to win a £500 gift card to a clothes shop of their choice. Read the full Ts and Cs here, and we have an exciting new feature that comes out tomorrow…so keep an eye on your app!
Right – onto this week’s findings!
The teachers excited to go back
Teachers who feel they are a “much better” teacher compared to last year are more than FIVE TIMES more likely to say they “strongly agree” that they are looking forward to going back to school after the holidays, when compared to teachers who said they feel their teaching is worse compared to the previous year.
And even teachers who reported feeling their teaching skills were “slightly better” compared to last year are more than TWICE as likely to say they “strongly agree” they are looking forward to going back to work, compared to teachers who feel their teaching is worse.
A Teacher Tapper asked…looking forward
Which takes us neatly onto a question that a Tapper wrote in and asked us to look at the phase and experience breakdown for: what teachers were most looking forward to for the new school year?
First off, by phase. More primary teachers said they were looking forward to building relationships with students and families compared to secondary teachers (24% vs 18%). And secondary teachers were more likely to say improving teaching skills when compared to primary teachers (11% vs 7%). And a very similar number said the holidays were the main attraction (19% primary vs 18% secondary).
So phase makes a little bit of a difference, but what about years in the classroom?
- Primary teachers with 10+ years’ experience are more likely to say they’re looking forward to working with colleagues than those with fewer years (16% vs 10%)
- Primary teachers with fewer than 10 years’ experience are more likely to say getting to know their class is what they’re looking forward to most, compared to those with more experience (25% vs 19%)
- Secondary teachers show a similar pattern on colleagues: those with more experience are more likely to pick working with colleagues (20% vs 12%) Unlike in primary, experience makes no real difference to secondary teachers picking “getting to know my class” (19% for fewer years vs 18% for more)
- Secondary teachers with fewer than 10 years’ experience are much more likely to say they’re looking forward to improving their teaching, compared to those with more experience (18% vs 7%)
If you have a question you would like Teacher Tapp to check, get in touch and let us know! England@teachertapp.co.uk 📧
Teacher – student misconceptions
A Teacher Tapper got in touch and asked us to find out what misconceptions they hear from their students about the job of a teacher. We said, no problem! We put the open question to you, and your replies ( all 1,742 of them!) gave us lots of giggles. We split them into replies from primary and secondary teachers (after all, younger pupils’ perceptions vary significantly from secondary ones!), here are a few of our favourites:
Top primary myth: The “living at school” myth (literal interpretation): 52 mentions Tappers told us how their primary school pupils (especially in EYFS and Key Stage 1) genuinely believe their teachers live in school cupboards, sleep in the “role play area,” or have beds above the ceiling.
Top secondary myth: Detentions are handed out for fun (20 mentions): Pupils don’t always see it as staff enforcing a uniform or behaviour policy. A Tapper told us, “They think teachers are on a power trip and enjoy telling pupils off.”
(Both primary and secondary) School trips are a free holiday (13 mentions): Leading a residential is assumed to come with overtime or extra pay.
Read the rest in our blog here.
Uniform branding
This summer, there have been lots of promotional social media posts from the Department for Education publicising the new branded items rule designed to make uniforms cheaper for parents. The new rules cap the number of branded items in primary to three, and to four in secondary schools if one includes a tie. You can read more about it here.
We checked with tappers to find out how many items their schools ask for: 60% of primary senior leaders have no items at all, 19% ask for one, 12% have two, and 8% have three or more.
In secondary, excluding the tie, 5% have no items at all, 15% have one, 33% have two, 37% have three, and 11% have four or more.
Has this change made a difference in your school? We’re interested to hear how it’s worked in your setting – if you have insights to share or question suggestions, please do write in and let us know! England@teachertapp.co.uk 📧.
Ups and Downs…of the best bits of teaching
Each year we ask what Tappers found to be the “best bit” about the job. But has anything changed since 2019 when we first asked this question?
Going DOWN: ‘teaching lessons’ is still the top answer BUT in primary it has dropped from 75% to 67% (2019 to 2026), while secondary went from 68% to 62%.
GOING UP: ‘pastoral support’ is on the UP. Primary is up from 13% in 2019 to 16% in 2026 (peaking at 19% in 2025), and secondary from 9% to 13%. It’s now the second most popular answer for both phases, well ahead of lesson planning.
NO CHANGE: ‘lesson planning’ hasn’t moved in either phase! 5% of primary and 11% of secondary say it’s their favourite thing in 2026, and it has stayed around those levels since 2019.
Daily Reads
The most-read tip was from NEU on the rules about directed time.
There are so many great blogs out there, and we love featuring them on Teacher Tapp. If you have a blog you think we should feature, please email us at england@teachertapp.co.uk, and we will check it out!
