Fears grow over shortage of qualified teachers

[noblegiraffe]

The Times is a bit behind the times in reporting on the teacher shortage crisis, however new figures show that after a brief respite for recruitment issues due to covid, the situation in schools for September is now looking dire.

"Job adverts for secondary school teachers are up 47 per cent on last year and 14 per cent on 2019, prior to the pandemic, according to SchoolDash, an education data company."

Oh, but we can just recruit fresh, enthusiastic trainees to replace the old, busted teachers who are quitting in droves, some on here would claim. Bad news there too:

"Government figures show fewer than 9,000 of the 20,945 new teachers it hoped to start training from September have been offered a training place.

In physics just 25 have been firmly recruited while a further 283 have a conditional offer to start training — just 12 per cent of the 2,600 target.

In design and technology, only 15 per cent of the required teachers have been recruited, while in maths and English the figure is a little over half."

While I can see the govt is gearing up to once again slate the profession, the question parents need to be asking is "who exactly is left to teach my child?"

And the answer isn't necessarily something you'll want to hear.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cc94af68-eff3-11ec-9bea-abc2bc5953e5?shareToken=9852fc3a725ac809e13b4f5ea234ec8d

There was another thread here and some people who work in HR were talking about how hard it is to hire for schools now but honest to god, I didn't think elementary schools were in it too.
Tbh I can see how it would be hard to teach a bunch of little kids about changing genders... Younger people are easier to keep in line because they're too worried about losing their job and smany haven't learnt to stand up for themselves. Still, I can't wrap my head around the fact it's come to this over there. Double yikes!

I have seen a bit of an exodus in our private prep school and am strongly considering moving my now reception age child to the state school up the road (no vacancies there - big, 3 form entry on a small site gave me pause for thought initially as my husband and I went to little village schools, but seems very well run and regarded). (I know they are likely to have an in year place at some point as they would have one now). I gather the exodus is pension related; those teachers who have joined seem to be very inexperienced by comparison.

Can I ask people who currently teach or formerly taught if there is a forum for them to express why they are leaving (or might do)? And whether (and under what circumstances) they might consider going back? I work in a very different sector that has tough working hours and a big turnover (but better pay) and I know that when we start to see too much we put a lot more focus on exit interviews and that this is genuinely given a lot of focus - obviously, there are a lot of layers between individual teachers and the ultimate budget-setters, so I guess I just wondered who keeps data? Obviously, I know that teaching is highly unionised, but unions have a bit of a bad press and their contributions can be ignored as political (not saying that this is right, just as a fact).

Would there be some merit in a teacher (or public services more generally) "why I left / am leaving" / "what might tempt me back" big national survey for public sector workers?

My sister left secondary school teaching (physics) to be a dinner lady. My brother left teaching for an admin job. Both much happier

The DfE did a study in 2017 which found the major factors were workload, behaviour, government policy and unsupportive leadership

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/686947/Factors_affecting_teacher_retention_-_qualitative_investigation.pdf

There’s another 5 year study which I presume is ongoing schoolsweek.co.uk/new-flagship-study-to-solve-why-teachers-leave/

To know why teachers leave really just needs asking teachers about their working conditions which are generally pretty grim.

Funnily enough, pay isn’t usually a high factor in teachers leaving, but this may be what we end up striking about. If a ballot passes I would suspect that the real motive would not be just pay, but that the paltry pay offer would be reflective of the utter contempt the government has held the teaching profession in over the past decade. There is a lot of anger there, particularly after our treatment during the pandemic.

Government plans around recruitment and retention always focus on money and very little effort is made to improve the other aspects (while continually dumping more and more social ills at our gate to solve for them.)

I left after 30 years. I had no exit interview. My SLT were not remotley interested in why I was leaving, or in persuading me to stay. I was top of Main Scale and on Management points due to the large size of my department and the number of people I line managed.

When I left my department all but disappeared. A newly qualified teacher was appointed to fill in gaps in the timetable - he cost just over a third of what I had 'cost'.

It did not matter a damn that my subject had a track record of being the most successful in terms of GCSE reulst and that it had been incredibly popular at A Level. I was expensive to pay and was too vocal when I raised concerns about increasingly poor behaviour and pointless admin that benefited neither students nor staff.

@noblegiraffe

Thanks, that is really interesting - I'm glad there is a study going on. I agree, reading so many teacher posts on here, it seems obvious that working conditions are crap and this is a huge part of it. And yes, pay is clearly a red herring (not unimportant, and possibly very important in bits of the south east where property prices are so high, contrast the applications in some bits of the north reported on this thread), but in many cases more likely to be the "final straw" - most teachers don't teach for the money as such, though they do need to have a good quality of life (which does involve having sufficient income) - teaching clearly not delivering in either in many cases.

15+ years in and I am applying for jobs outside teaching again (I was corporate world before I moved to teaching).

I'm done. Exhausted, sick of being told I am effectively as slacker by so many of the public. Fed up of being disrespected, spoken to like I'm something a kid has scraped off their shoe. No budget for anything so resources are thin. Ofsted stress (constant), management changes of process (constant) with nothing taken away, just added to. Stress of trying to help so many kids with MH problems way over my training to deal with.

Pulled in so many directions I simply haven't got the time or energy for my own kids and marriage and that has to take priority. And I am part time (joke as I work my days off to free up weekend time!)

It's a shame because I love teaching, and I am bloody good at it. What I am is burned out and can't see how things are going to get better?

Workload and pay are the same thing imo. The money isn’t enough for the hours required. The salary would be acceptable for a 40 hour week.

People who want to be Teachers do an Education Degree at Uni.

Then they do a 1 year probation in a school.

Then, even if that 1 year probation is successful, and they Pass with flying colours, they are said goodbye to, at the end of that year, with no job to go to.

That is why you have a Teacher shortage

I think you can have a degree in sth else and do an MA or an MSc, or even train at a school, so it's not like people would have to study for years on end to become one, unless it's changed?

@TortugaRumCakeQueen

that isnt how teacher training works in England, there are multiple routes in Teaching now, including schools based routes.

I'm in Scotland, and that is exactly what happens here.

Absolute fucking madness.

No attempt at retention. Just "goodbye" after Year 1.

You can get a PGDE in Scotland, so it shouldn't take 6 years.

It's such an insane waste of talent.

Degree, postgraduate quals.....and so many just leave afterwards

Totally broken system.

There’s shortages of labour in every sector at the moment. I just changed jobs and despite months of searching they couldn’t get anyone to replace me.

I wish I had taken advantage of the opportunity when I was living in the UK. I looked into it but then I had to go home to take care of someone. It's too late now! Still, I'm sure things will get better over there, you're a resilient bunch!
Once Boris is gone, things will perk up! Btw as anyone read the mysterious article about him that disappeared in a matter of hours? I'm mighty curious about it!

@oceanus I am not sure if you are not in the UK (reference to elementary schools suggests you may not be) but the workload in primary is massive and very inflexible. I chose to teach secondary because I felt it would be more manageable. It was really not, but in primary it is worse. How lovely to teach the eager little 4yos - except it isn't always. And the marking load is huge and has to be done that night, so there is zero flexibility. None of teachign is a picnic, but frankly, least of all primary. At least in secondary you get to teach your beloved subject.

No, no longer in the UK! I've taught before, though never kids, I think the first year is always hard no matter who/what you teach but then you get the hang of it. You always have to prepare, do lesson plans, correct tests, etc. Everybody has to do it, so I don't think primary school teachers are necessarily the ones taking the brunt of it though it sounds like there's an awful lot of unnecessary admin and not much support but then again, it's like that for all I think.
I've taught physics too though that was on a 1:1 basis but I can't really see myself doing that. However tbh, most of all, I seem to have become dyslexic recently, so I don't think it would be wise of me to get into any kind of teaching/learning. I can't get myself into anything that entails a large amount of money knowing I might not even be able to finish.

Same with nurses, arguably amongst 2 of the most important professions and the government gives not one fuck. Scary.

I know 5 teachers personally:

One is about to take earlier retirement because she can't stand it any more.
One is changing school in September because the behaviour of pupils are his current one is appalling and SMT don't back him up at all.
One teaches a shortage subject (chemistry) and has been lured into the independent sector
One used to teach in a state school but moved into independent because they didn't do SATs and she hated the things!! There are obviously other tests, but she feels she's got more freedom to teach how she wants and also likes smaller classes. She also says that support for children with SEN is much better because as soon as the school think they're there they start putting extra measures in place whilst a diagnosis is being sought.

^^^ And the fifth is considering going into accounting - yes really

I think nurses have been treated like cr.p for a while now, it's not a new thing. Boris can't be blamed for that. It was like like that over 10 years ago but based on some threads here, there seems to be an added emphasis on useless and complex admin for both teaching and nursing. I don't understand what they hope to achieve with so much red tape, maybe show some colourful graphs at the end of the year?

What I can't understand about primary teaching is the insane level of marking that they do. Class sets of books every night, every piece of work with a comment.

What's even more bonkers is the schools that mandate that level of marking in Reception where the kids can't even read the comments.

That must really take a strain on you it does sound horrendous
I really do think Teachers get a really bad press
but I admire anybody that has to try and teach when some children are disrupted the class , children not of the same ability.
Stressful I would not even begin to cover it

I’ve only been teaching for 4 years but can see why teachers are leaving. We made a huge financial commitment to me retraining from a different sector, so I feel like I need to stick it out for now, however….

The effect on my mental health has been huge- Sunday night dread and no sleep, working long hours into the small hours, waking up in the middle of the night thinking about work. I can’t switch it off.

Constantly changing demands with little communication from SLT. Many SLT are very poor at managing people and expect your only commitment to be to school- heaven help you if you have a sick child at home.
Ive received very little support in managing tricky classes and have been ‘blamed’ for a particularly tricky class as ‘I couldn’t manage them’ when I know for a fact that they’ve had 8 teachers in the last two years.
When I left my school last week (for another post) the head teacher didn’t even say goodbye to me, she left the building without talking to me.

The children are generally the best part of the job, but I’ve never worked in a job where I’ve been so ill trusted to deliver.