Teacher shortage confirmed

[chosenone]

Since it has been suggested on the TES forum that Mums netters are more concerned with which prep school to send DC to, I thought I'd start a thread.
community.tes.com/threads/teacher-shortages-confirmed-by-nao.732750/

Do parents care enough? Are parents aware? I am a teacher and a parent and definitely care. The govt simply refuse to believe this is their fault, they have seemingly ignored the recent audit on workload and are happy that 'cheaper' agency staff/unqualified are taking up Posts!

[Cleebope]

I think parents won't really care until it affects the school their own kids go to. Workload is a massive factor in teacher retention, but the govt are ignoring this problem as you rightly say. I live in N Ireland where we have the opposite problem, not enough jobs for trainees, and most of the jobs advertised here are actually in England. We are losing all our young teachers to you over there but that won't stop the rot. I'm a teacher- it is a fabulous job but sooo exhausting!(sits here too tired to cook, already in pjs, ignoring my family, living for mid term break!)

[chosenone]

Agreed! Can't wait for half term. I think many parents are very unaware of the realities of who is teaching their kids and how unqualified they might be. some patents at my own DC school were moaning abiut the lack of teaching ataff at the school disco. I had to stick up for them, and remind them, that after a recent downgrade from Ofsted and the enormous pressure they are now under a school disco does not rate highly on the agenda!

[Cleebope]

The teachers I know here have nearly all got masters degrees and PhDs, and certainly specialist honours degrees. We do not have this problem of unqualified staff but I am following the situation in England with great interest. At least it' s made the main news headlines tonight.

[starry0ne]

I am not the slightest bit suprised...I wish the government would actually realise our children are all wonderful and unique and not a factory in which children if given the right input will suceed life is far more complicated than that..

I also want to see the different teaching methods bought back not dictation by downing street who have no idea how to teach...

[stupidgreatgrinonmyface]

I am the parent of an NQT. DC has a good Masters Degree in a shortage subject. Is working in inner London, so on around £27,000. Not bad. DCs uni friend, degree in same subject but Bsc rather than MSc, is on a graduate training programme at a big retailer started on over £40,000 , has a company car from day one and the potential to be earning more in four years time than DC could unless they make it to headteachers in that time. Is it any wonder that people, especially those with shortage subjects, are either not going into teaching, or, are leaving after a few years? I do worry about the children coming through, there are already so few specialist maths, physics etc, teachers and I can only see it getting worse. Last year, for instance, if every physics graduate in the country went on to teach, there would still not be enough for every secondary school in the country to have at least one specialist physics teacher. That is a big concern.

[SuffolkNWhat]

We've been saying this for years yet it's only just become news.

[FellOutOfBedTwice]

As a teacher who doesn't want to be one anymore, this is of no surprise to me. When a glorified secretary for a bank (one of my DHs friends) is earning more than twice what DH is as a head of a shortage subject, despite her having a lesser degree classification and without my DHs masters, why would you go into it.

[JellyTotCat]

I've been aware of this for a while and it worries me. I just don't think the government care.

[noblegiraffe]

Parents don't know. You see it on here, parents complaining about crap maths teachers, or whatever, apparently completely unaware that they are lucky that their kid has a maths teacher. They want to complain to the school so that the crap one is sacked and replaced with a better one. Good luck with that.

[MumTryingHerBest]

I think the Government would care a bit more if their own children were actually in state schools rather than private or elite selective state schools.