Utterly disastrous teacher trainee applications for next year

[noblegiraffe]

Analysis on twitter of the current state of play of teacher training applications for September shows that the figures for secondary have barely changed from last year when the government only reached 59% of its target for secondary recruitment. This is despite massive increases in bursaries.

Really worryingly, primary teaching applicants are down 15% on last year.

twitter.com/jackworthnfer/status/1630150284683911171?s=61&t=oXSFDbmiMqnRpz_ijYIZlQ

We do not have anywhere near enough teachers. Teacher trainee numbers for last September (who schools are currently hiring to fill vacancies in September) were awful. Even school who previously didn't struggle to hire many well find themselves without teachers in September. That the year after is looking similar is unthinkable.

Classes are having different supply teachers each week. Unqualified teachers. TAs are teaching classes in primary school. A recent thread on here had classes logging into computers and watching videos of lessons instead of having lessons. Exam classes are having to teach themselves due to no teacher or no specialist teacher.

And what has the government done? Just announced another massive pay cut for teachers next year, scrapped the fee-funded schools-based training route and massively reduced the number of accredited teacher training providers for September 2024.

What. The. Hell?

IME, I think it's less to do with pay and more to do with working conditions.

I'd sooner not have a pay rise if it meant class sizes were smaller, I had more PPAs, less tick the box admin crap and proper support for SEND students.

Not to mention, the behaviour of pupils nowadays is a joke. I can only talk about my school and the ones my friends work in, but oh my. The common denominator we've found is shit SLT. There's à behaviour policy, but it isn't adhered to by senior staff. They don't support you, they just want to be the kids' friends and have parents in their back pockets

I drew the line when despite telling my HT I felt unsafe with a particular student in my class (very violent), particularly as I teach a practical subject, I was still made to have him in lesson.

I've found a job elsewhere (headhunted admittedly) and I can't wait to start in September.

We have a trainee in the department this year. They’ve already decided that they won’t be applying for teaching posts for September. They are getting a 25k or thereabouts tax free bursary for completing this year even though they have no intention of teaching next year.

In August I'll be able to write exactly this.

My school started last September with 6 supply teachers out of 14. None of whom planned or resourced lessons. You can imagine what that was like for everyone else. No extra time given to provide for that though. We've now only got one long term supply but all our PPA is covered by day to day supply. No consistency for children.

IME, I think it's less to do with pay and more to do with working conditions.

I guess one follows the other. In the last 10 years, it has become a 50/60 hour a week job with tonnes of pointless shite. It didn’t have to be like that-we could go back to the workload of 2000 but keep the pay. The government seem determined for that not to happen though, so if it has to be a stupidly high workload, then the pay should match that.

I have an interview out of it on Friday, hoping to make my escape. I’ve a maths degree, 10 years experience and have taught physics (and some tech) for last 2 years so I’m fairly useful to them. They couldn’t pay me enough to change my mind (and they wouldn’t offer anyway!)
I feel like I’ve been in an abusive relationship with my employer and I’ve only just noticed!

My daughter is currently studying for a primary Ed degree. She is really enjoying it, apart from one nasty teacher on placement the others have been very welcoming and supportive. I worry for her re dealing with the parents.

So many entitled parents post on this site who seem to have no insight into their child’s behaviour and jump on those who are trying to teach them.

In my medium primary, there's only 2 of us that have been teaching more than 5 years. I've become the de facto ks2 lead because I'm the only experienced one, unofficially mentoring and supporting the others, except I'm not technically SLT and definitely not paid for it!

I'm currently looking for a way out, but then the most experienced ks2 teacher will only have 4 years experience. They're great but they're not ready to support ECTs/lead others.

We already have 1 long term supply because we can't recruit, 1 TA covering a job share and 4 unqualified teachers.

It's actually an amazing school with decent slt and (relatively) sensible workload. But if we can't recruit, I don't know how others are managing.

I’ve been teaching for 16 years and I am actively looking for other roles outside of teaching now. I really cannot face much more. I got a first class in my primary Ed degree. I’ve been a DHT, subject leader etc. but I am really now done. Behaviour, apathy from parents, over stuffed curriculum, ofsted, limited budget for basic supplies, every changing targets, performance management which is 90 points long just to prove you can do the job…… I really can’t wait to leave now.

Is that QTS?

I'm a teacher and the students we have had on placement have been beyond shocking in recent years. You get the very occasional gem but otherwise their understanding of how children learn and their knowledge of the curriculum is woeful. That's before you even attempt to tackle the increasingly challenging behaviours.
It frightens me what is to become of education in the next few years. From bad to worse.

I get frustrated with the government not realising its the working conditions more than pay that pushes people out. I've taught in the UK and abroad all year groups, won't teach in the UK anymore as it made me mentally ill. I would go back to teaching for the same pay but with, for example, half class sizes or double free periods in which to mark etc (which I had abroad).

I left teaching in 2009 and it was bad enough then.
I live abroad now but am still in touch with a lot of former colleagues via social media.
3 of them quit at the end of the Christmas term to go into other areas of work and they are very experienced, excellent teachers who I thought would never leave teaching. Wonderful with the children, excellent results and all-round great people. All 3 of them were at different schools so it seems to be a problem everywhere.

It’s simple. Government policy (Tory and Labour) since 1990ish have made the job shit. Professional autonomy has been replaced by micro-management. People will put up with low pay and even shitty students, if they are given respect and autonomy. But they aren’t.

Exactly the same is now happening to nurses, doctors, dentists, the criminal bar, accountants, even judges. The professions are so now shit so no one wants to do them.

That's exactly how I felt having just left medicine... like I'd been in an abusive relationship.... I was so broken by it, but kept believing it must be my fault, and the guilt associated with leaving was enormous, i stayed many many years longer than i should have, trapped by guilt, expectation and a sense of failure if i walked away.. I'm 2 months out and still get overwhelmed by crushing panic and fear that I might have to go back, and wake up sweating with chest pain dreaming I'm still doing it.

IME, I think it's less to do with pay and more to do with working conditions.

It's both. With constant pay cuts large numbers are leaving the profession so the conditions for those that remain are getting worse.

With the pay cuts focused on the most experienced teachers huge amounts of expertise leaves, again meaning conditions across the board get worse.

Yes, I agree with a couple of PPs that workload is the killer in terms of retention, not pay.
I'd so much rather have no pay rise but a TA.
And reasonable expectations concerning (multiple) subject leadership (primary).
And less admin.

It’s simple. Government policy (Tory and Labour) since 1990ish have made the job shit. Professional autonomy has been replaced by micro-management. People will put up with low pay and even shitty students, if they are given respect and autonomy. But they aren’t.

I think there is truth to that but the experience under Blair compared to the last decade is like night and day. There were issues but nothing like this crisis.

Wow just looked at the subject that offer bursaries - sadly none for the creative subjects. Also surprised none for History yet Geography was a decent bursary!

It’s not surprising, the workload is insane and the conditions are dire. My kids and husband hate my job because of how much it takes me away from them. The actual teaching is great, the rest needs a major shake up. This week I had to explain why a child with 40% attendance has made very little progress. So much wrong in so many places.

The system needs to go back to having special tracks and classrooms for kids who can’t cope in mainstream. (Which in turn requires funding)

There needs to be an immediate to stop to everything non essential that creates workload - fancy displays, school trips, etc. Most marking should be nixed and replaced with whole class feedback.

In Japan, workbooks go home daily, and parents are told to take some responsibility and do a lot of the marking themselves from answer sheets. Perhaps that needs to happen more.

I left primary teaching ten years ago and know from ex colleagues how much worse it has become.

For me, the micro management of every tiny aspect of the job made it unbearable.

How do you know your children have achieved the mental maths target you set them for this half term? Why should we trust your professional opinion? Show me three pieces of evidence to prove it. Show me where you have annotated your lesson plan to say that the target was being assessed. And on and on and on and on. No matter that I’d been teaching for 12 years and every class I had were shown to make excellent progress. When they stopped treating teachers like professionals, I was done. A pay rise wouldn’t have made me stay.

It's horrendous.
The pay issue is major, but conditions are an issue too.
Most professionals won't put up with constant pressure and change for change's sake. The judgemental and unsupportive culture is intolerable.

Precisely.
Assessment ahead of teaching!

It sounds awful. This is a genuine question - what would have happened if you just...hadn't? Hadn't provided the requested evidence I mean, and just done what you'd been doing for 12 years? Would they sack you? Push you out? Could they do that if it's so hard to recruit?

I think the focus on learning outcomes rather than objectives is a big part of the problem. With the best will in the world, you cannot actually control the inside of someone’s head and make a child learn.

it ‘s interesting to me to see the difference in private and state. In the private sector I often had two or three frees a day (periods in between lessons), smaller class sizes, a much more organised and ‘tighter’ curriculum and most importantly in my view an SLT who acted quickly to alleviate any problems before they entered the classroom.

my overall experience of poor state schools is that the management are useless and scared and still think they are teachers in the classroom.