England’s early-career teachers lead experienced peers in classroom AI use, Teacher Tapp data shows

Lesson planning produced the largest gap, with 68% of ECTs using AI for the task compared with 54% of other classroom teachers

Teacher Tapp found that early-career teachers used AI more widely than experienced classroom teachers across several school tasks

Early-career teachers in England are using artificial intelligence for more school tasks than experienced classroom teachers, according to Teacher Tapp data collected during the 2025-26 academic year.

In June, 68% of early-career teachers, or ECTs, said they had used AI for lesson planning or preparation during the previous month. That compared with 54% of classroom teachers who were not completing the Early Career Framework.

The findings cover responses from 359 ECTs and 2,739 non-ECT teachers. Teacher Tapp says the results were weighted to reflect national teacher and school demographics.

The difference extended beyond lesson preparation. ECTs were twice as likely to have used AI for continuing professional development or training, at 10% compared with 5%, and three times as likely to use it for timetables and seating plans, at 6% against 2%.

AI use for communication with parents about individual students stood at 18% among ECTs and 11% for other classroom teachers. For marking or feedback, the figures were 12% and 7% respectively.

Not every task produced a substantial divide. AI use for curriculum development was level at 15%, while 33% of ECTs and 32% of non-ECT teachers used it to write pupil reports. ECTs were also less likely to report no AI use at all, at 18% compared with 23%.

Contentment remains higher despite early dip

The wider Teacher Tapp data complicates assumptions that early-career teachers consistently experience lower wellbeing than their more established colleagues.

Using a contentment scale from one to seven, Teacher Tapp tracked the proportion of teachers rating themselves at five or above. ECT contentment remained higher at every measured point between September 2025 and June 2026.

The gap stood at 12 percentage points in September, when 59% of ECTs and 47% of non-ECT teachers reported higher contentment. Both groups recorded their lowest figures in November, at 54% and 45%.

By June, the proportions had risen to 61% among ECTs and 50% among other classroom teachers. Across the academic year, the difference ranged from nine to 14 percentage points.

Teacher Tapp links the distinction partly to the additional arrangements available to ECTs, including reduced teaching timetables, mentoring and a support program. The data does not establish whether those measures caused the difference.

Behavior gap narrows but does not disappear

Behavior remained a persistent challenge. In December 2025, 58% of ECTs said teaching and learning had largely stopped because of poor behavior during their most recent lesson, compared with 42% of non-ECT classroom teachers.

That 16-point gap narrowed to four points in April, when the figures fell to 45% and 41%. Disruption then increased again, reaching 53% among ECTs and 47% among other teachers in June. In July, the figures stood at 48% and 41%.

Experience beyond the ECT period also appeared to make a difference. On July 10, 49% of teachers with less than five years in the classroom reported disruption in their previous lesson. The proportion fell to 43% among those with five to 10 years of experience, 42% for teachers with 10 to 20 years and 31% for those with more than 20 years.

The effect of behavior on wellbeing shifted more clearly. In October, 67% of ECTs said behavior had caused stress or unhappiness during the previous two weeks, against 53% of non-ECT teachers. By June, that gap had contracted from 14 points to five, with figures of 56% and 51%.

Relationships exceed ECT expectations

Student relationships emerged as the strongest positive difference between what ECTs expected and what they experienced.

In September 2025, 27% anticipated that building relationships with students and families would be the part of teaching they most enjoyed. By July 2026, 41% selected it as the best part of their year.

Having their own classes also exceeded expectations, rising from an anticipated 12% to an actual 22%. Improving teaching skills moved in the opposite direction, from 28% to 17%, while holidays fell from an expected 20% to 9%.

Several expected challenges proved less prominent in practice. Pastoral concerns were anticipated by 15% of ECTs but identified as the biggest challenge by 8%. Accountability fell from an expected 12% to 9%.

Marking was underestimated, rising from 4% in September to 8% in July. Relationships with senior leadership teams followed a similar pattern, moving from 3% to 7%.

Student behavior was the clearest area in which expectations matched experience. It was selected as the biggest anticipated challenge by 43% of ECTs in September and the biggest actual challenge by the same proportion in July.

Across the behavior questions, sample sizes varied by date and measure, from the low hundreds of ECT respondents to more than 3,000 teachers overall. Teacher Tapp says its results were weighted to reflect national teacher and school demographics.