Preparing for 31st October Resignation Date

It's early to be thinking about 31 October. That's rather the point.

The deadline is still eight weeks away. For teachers in maintained schools, 31 October is the date to resign by if they intend to leave on 31 December - so whatever lands on your desk by then sets your spring staffing picture.

At NextGen Teachers we see both sides of that date every year, and the pattern is consistent: the difference between a comfortable November and a difficult one is made in the weeks before the deadline, not after it. Once resignations are in, you're reacting. Before then, you can still influence what arrives.

Four things worth doing in the lead-up

Check which rules actually apply to you. The Burgundy Book dates - 31 October for a 31 December leaving date, 28/29 February for 30 April, 31 May for 31 August - bind maintained schools. Academies and free schools set their own terms, and while many mirror these dates, some don't. Senior leaders and heads carry longer notice, usually three months and four in the summer. Support staff have no national equivalent, with two to four weeks being typical - so a TA resignation can arrive with far less warning than a teacher's. Worth confirming now rather than in the last week of October.

Have the career conversations early. People rarely decide to leave in the final week before a deadline; they decide over the preceding term and act at the deadline. A conversation in September or early October about where someone's role could go is the cheapest retention work available, and it's only possible before a decision has hardened.

Draft the spring plan before you need it. If a resignation came in from each department, what would you do? Knowing roughly where you'd advertise, where you'd restructure and where you'd bridge means November is a week of decisions rather than a month of them.

Settle your position on advertising versus bridging in advance. January is a thin market for permanent appointments - the strongest candidates are largely committed until the summer, so a December advert usually produces a smaller field than the same advert in February. Deciding in principle now that some roles will be bridged with a long-term appointment until Easter, then recruited properly for September, takes the pressure out of the December decision. It's the conversation we have most often in November, and it goes better when it starts in September.

When resignations do land, move quickly

The schools that come out of November well are the ones that start the replacement conversation in the same week the notice arrives, rather than at the end of term.

That's the point at which we're most useful. We can tell you what the field is realistically likely to look like for that role in January, put forward candidates for a permanent appointment where the market supports it, and cover the gap with a long-term teacher where it doesn't - so a class isn't waiting while a search runs on. For roles where the sensible answer is to bridge until Easter and recruit properly for September, we can do both halves of that, with the same people involved throughout.

The earlier that starts, the more options there are. By December, most of them have gone.

Get in touch with our teams to talk about hiring plans.