Teacher retention is one of the most pressing issues in education today, and for Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in 2025, the challenge is sharper than ever. Despite headline pay rises and recruitment initiatives, too many talented staff continue to leave the profession.
The reasons go far beyond pay. MATs face record vacancies, spiralling reliance on agency staff, and the emotional toll of constant turnover on pupils and teachers alike. The evidence shows that culture – how people feel valued, recognised, and supported – is the lever that truly changes outcomes.
The Scale of the Retention Problem in Multi Academy Trusts
Vacancies and exits are rising:
- The NFER Teacher Labour Market in England 2023 found that teacher exits had risen to 13% in 2022/23, the highest in over a decade.
- The Department for Education’s School Workforce Census shows vacancy rates at historic highs, particularly in shortage subjects like STEM.
- Spending on agency staff is ballooning. The Institute for Fiscal Studies reports schools are paying hundreds of millions annually for supply, draining budgets that could fund CPD or wellbeing.
For MATs, the challenge multiplies. What happens in one school ripples through the Trust. Persistent turnover damages consistency, inflates costs, and creates reputational risk.
Unsurprisingly, in many Trusts, staff appreciation exists but it’s inconsistent, invisible, and easily lost. What’s celebrated in one school is siloed, or worse, not celebrated at all.
MATs vs Local Authority Schools
Comparative analyses by the Education Policy Institute show MATs often report higher staff turnover than local authority schools, particularly in larger Trusts with centralised control. While MATs can offer greater career pathways across schools, teachers sometimes feel a loss of voice and connection.
The lesson: Trust-wide systems must put culture and recognition at the centre, not just policies and pay.
Culture vs Cost-Cutting: What the Evidence Shows
A pay rise alone won’t solve retention. NEU data reveals a stark reality: 41 % of teachers say their workload is “unmanageable,” and another 37 % describe it as “only just manageable”with practically none saying their workload is manageable all the time. Stress is pervasive: 62 % of teachers experience stress more than 60 % of working time, and 75 % frequently can’t switch off from work at home (41 % say that’s always the case).
These figures make one thing clear: cultural levers – wellbeing, recognition, autonomy – are the sustainable retention strategy. Cost without culture just accelerates attrition.
Recognition doesn’t mean expensive perks. In fact, overblown rewards can backfire. What staff value is consistent, visible appreciation. Mo provides the infrastructure for recognition that feels authentic, measurable, and proportionate, aligning with the financial and public accountability that MATs must uphold.
Ten Culture Wins for Multi-Academy Trusts
1. Recognise Everyday Wins
Staff often point to an invisible workload – the unjudged hours spent mentoring pupils, covering classes, or supporting extracurriculars. Recognising these daily contributions builds morale.
Mo enables teachers and leaders to send peer-to-peer “Moments” of recognition, effortlessly embedded in Microsoft Teams or Slack. These moments appear in a visible, Trust-wide feed, creating a ripple effect of positivity.
2. Celebrate Milestones Publicly
Whether it’s a teacher completing their NQT year, a site assistant clocking ten years of service, or a department smashing exam results, milestones matter. Yet in many schools, they pass by unnoticed.
Mo automates milestone celebrations such as work anniversaries, birthdays, and qualifications. This means Trust leaders don’t miss a moment to show appreciation – reducing admin while increasing staff loyalty.
3. Celebrate your people with awards
A perfect example of showcasing their amazing staff is Leigh Academies Trust, who used Mo to gather award nominations for their annual awards. They pulled together an incredible, show-stopping event to make their people feel appreciated.
Mo makes award nominations a seamless process, automating reminders, surfacing nominees, and distributing rewards to winners. See how Leigh Academies Trust used this feature:
4. Share Staff Ideas and Act on Them
Teachers often have the best solutions, yet feedback loops are weak in Trusts. Staff who feel ignored are the first to disengage.
With Mo’s ideas-sharing feature, feedback stops being buried in emails. Staff suggestions are logged, visible and trackable across the Trust. Leaders can comment, act, and then showcase when an idea is implemented – a direct driver of psychological safety and engagement.
5. Make Leaders Visible Across Schools
A comment often heard from teachers in large MATs: “We never see our CEO or trustees.” Stepping into classrooms and staffrooms, even virtually, builds trust.
Mo provides Trust-wide visibility of leaders’ recognition activity. CEOs, COOs or central leaders can use the platform to celebrate staff across schools, ensuring visibility and connection even when in-person presence is stretched.
6. Recognise Support Staff Equally
Teachers are the most visible, but MATs rely heavily on admin, IT, catering, and site staff. When recognition skews only towards front-line teachers, resentment builds.
Mo enables whole-staff recognition, ensuring everyone from exam officers to cleaners have their contributions seen and valued. This inclusive approach fosters equality and belonging across the Trust.
7. Tell the Stories That Unite Your Trust
When each school works in a silo, staff never feel the benefit of being part of a bigger Trust. Storytelling unites and strengthens culture.
Mo acts as a secure, internal social media for sharing stories across schools. Celebrating successes from one school to the wider Trust highlights impact, reduces isolation, and helps staff feel part of something larger than their own site.
8. Provide Clear Career Pathways
One of the top drivers of turnover is a lack of progression opportunities. Teachers want transparency about how to grow, whether as subject leads, pastoral staff, or senior leaders.
Mo integrates recognition with career milestones. Managers can celebrate when staff complete CPD or mentoring programmes, making progression visible and aspirational for peers. Recognition isn’t just for big gestures – it can include everyday stories, updates, and milestones that strengthen connection across schools.
9. Live Your Values Daily
Every Trust has a set of values, but staff quickly spot when they are not lived in practice. If “collaboration” is a value, leaders must carve out time for joint working. If “respect” is a value, leaders must model it by protecting wellbeing.
Mo makes Trust values visible in practice – leaders can tag recognition posts with values (e.g. “collaboration” or “respect”), showing culture in action, not just on a poster.
10. Equip Managers to Lead on Culture
Middle leaders have the biggest day-to-day influence on staff morale. Yet few are trained or equipped to lead on culture.
Mo’s manager dashboard spotlights recognition habits, engagement levels, and cultural gaps, giving leaders timely insights into their teams. That way, line managers aren’t left to guess how their staff are feeling – they have actionable data to guide them.
Long-Term Retention Strategies Across Trusts
Culture change delivers quick wins, but structural strategies are what sustain retention across multiple schools and career stages. For MAT boards, embedding these practices consistently is the difference between firefighting attrition and building long-term resilience.
Induction & Mentoring
Early Career Teachers (ECTs) are the most vulnerable to exit. Too often, induction varies by school, leaving new staff without consistent support or clear progression.
Every ECT should have guaranteed access to mentors, professional learning communities, and cross-school networks. This reduces early attrition (which is highest in years 1–5 of teaching) and strengthens the MAT’s reputation as a supportive employer of new talent.
Aligned CPD
Professional development is a key driver of retention, but only if staff see how it connects to long-term career progression. Many MATs run excellent CPD programmes, but staff disengage when opportunities feel fragmented or opaque.
Make it clear what training unlocks progression into subject lead, pastoral, or senior leadership roles. Staff will see a future in the Trust, not just in their current role. This is especially important for mid-career teachers who might otherwise stagnate.
Flexible Working
The pandemic reset expectations. Teachers now seek flexibility not just in hours but in career pacing. For many, rigid structures push them to leave the profession entirely.
Offer flexible pathways – job shares, phased returns, remote working for certain tasks, and adaptable leadership responsibilities. Position this not as an exception but as a systemic policy. Flexible working is especially powerful for retaining mid-career staff (often balancing family or caring responsibilities) and for extending the careers of experienced teachers.
Measuring Cultural Health at Scale
Leaders need more than exit interview data. Tracking recognition volume, staff engagement, participation rates in peer-to-peer sharing, and cross-school narrative sharing gives a pulse check on cultural health.
Mo’s insights help identify root causes of disengagement before they become resignations, ensuring MATs can intervene early.
Putting Culture First Pays Off for MATs
When Trusts rely on cost-cutting initiatives to balance budgets, they risk further driving turnover and agency dependence. But when they invest in culture and recognition, retention strengthens, costs stabilise, and staff feel proud to belong.
Recognition is not a perk. It is the foundation of retention.
See how Mo helps MATs embed recognition and culture across every school in a Trust — book a demo today.
Transform your culture with Mo
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- 🤝 Improve employee engagement scores
- 🚀 Reduce employee churn
- 😍 Build a collaborative culture
