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Teachers are quitting the classroom in record levels, official figures have revealed.

More than 4,000 teachers a month left the profession last year - a 10-year high - and a union leader warned that staff were voting their feet over pay, hours and workload.

Nearly 50,000 quit - around one in 12 full-time teachers, according the Department for Education’s statistics.

The figures come days after a poll found that many teachers in training want to quit the profession before they’ve even started their careers.

Three out of four trainee and newly qualified teachers say they considered giving up even before taking a full-time school post, according to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).

Almost 80% say they have considered leaving teaching because their workload is too high and 26% said it is because of the increasing expectation to take part in out-of-school hour’s activities.

Nearly one in three (30%) of 889 surveyed said they were put off by “teacher bashing” and a lack of respect for the profession.

An analysis of government figures by the Times Educational Supplement (TES) shows that 49,373 qualified teachers left state schools in the 12 months up to November 13 - the latest figures available.

In the previous year it was 48,843.

A decade ago 41,880 teachers quit the classroom.

The Department for Education (DfE) insisted that teaching is still a “hugely popular career” with record levels of top graduates joining the profession.

The figures also show that in the same period up to November 2013, there were 53,329 entrants to teaching, compared to 50,906 this year before.

But Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) , said: “It is no surprise that teachers are voting with their feet.

“A combination of unacceptable number of hours worked, a punitive accountability system, the introduction of performance related pay and being expected to work until 68 for a pension has turned teaching into a less than attractive career choice.”

Last autumn, the Government pledged to look at teacher workload, with Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg launching the Workload Challenge.

The ministers called on school staff to submit examples of the unnecessary paperwork and administration they are being asked to complete which they think should be scrapped or cut back.

Tens of thousands of teachers responded to the call.

In his annual report last month, Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw warned that teacher recruitment is a pressing issue, with not enough new staff joining the profession and good entrants not always going to the schools where they are most needed.

Figures show that the number of entrants into teacher training has fallen by 17% since 2009/10 and was 7% below the number of places needed in 2014/15,

Sir Michael’s report noted - adding that the numbers of secondary trainees have seen the largest falls with “persistent problems” in key secondary subjects such as maths and physics.