Nearly half of teachers who leave their job in Birmingham take up a new career, a study has found.

A questionnaire to teachers leaving the profession by Birmingham City Council found "new challenges/career move" the most common reason for handing in their notice - 46 per cent.  Change in personal circumstances was next.

The council's first Teachers' Leaver Questionnaire was launched to uncover why teachers are quitting. It aimed to see whether there were any areas in need of intervention to avoid a staffing crisis.

The move comes in the wake of concern by unions teachers are leaving because they are finding it difficult to cope with stress.

Research highlighted by the National Union of Teachers suggests half of teachers leave within the first three years of joining the profession.

The union points to the pressure of working in a modern school including workload, league tables, Ofsted, the Government's testing regime, unruly pupils and demanding parents.

However, the Birmingham City Council survey found pupil behaviour, workload and management issues were only responsible for five per cent of leavers.

The report was by the authority's education scrutiny committee.

Councillor Jon Hunt (Lib Dem Perry Barr), chairman, said: "If you look at the questionnaire it doesn't highlight a systematic issue of pupil behaviour.

"It is reassuring the number of teachers reporting serious problems was very small. A lot of schools in Birmingham are very well funded.

"A lot of schools are very high achieving. Birmingham has been fairly up-front in dealing with challenging schools so one would hope there are not many out there in a serious state of decline.

"There are instances you hear about schools in trouble and things start going wrong, but these things are dealt with quickly."

The survey was conducted amid concern vast numbers of teachers were leaving in the city because the job was too demanding.

Anecdotal fears have been voiced teachers are quitting the city for less challenging areas.

The study concluded: "In this report there is no evidence to support findings of the pilot report that huge numbers of teachers are leaving due to pupil behaviour, management and workload issues.

"Only one to two per cent of leavers cited pupil and/or parental behaviour, management and workload."

Of the 135 respondents, 13 per cent cited retirement, of which four per cent were retiring early.

Lack of support was the reason seven per cent left, while desire to get a better work/life balance motivated five per cent. Health reasons accounted for only one per cent.

Half of leavers had worked at their school between one and five years. Those with less than a year behind them accounted for 13 per cent.

The majority of those leaving were employed on a full-time, permanent contract (72 per cent), while 77 per cent of those quitting qualified through the PGCE route.

Ten per cent of leavers said they were leaving on a permanent basis, eight per cent as a temporary measure. Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) were not sure whether they were going for good or might return to the classroom in the future.