Labour to give new teachers £2400 to stop them quitting

[noblegiraffe]

The plan is for Labour to give teachers who have finished their ECT induction £2400 to stop them quitting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66078820.amp

🤦‍♀️

Like, a one-off payment? How will that keep them in the job the year after? Every teacher can tell you of the trainee teacher who took the massive training bursary and then fucked off into the sunset.

And once again, what about the experienced teachers? Every sodding thing is aimed at early career teachers. They've have repeatedly better pay rises so that the pay scale is getting flatter and flatter - experience is paying less and less.

And yet schools need experienced teachers. They really need experienced teachers. Who do people think are training these new teachers (for no extra pay) who are getting all the bonuses shoved their way?

We have an increasingly young teaching workforce, one of the youngest in the OECD. The proportion of teachers over 50 is dwindling. What about trying to retain those teachers?

And apparently this £2400 will be paid for by taxing private school fees. This tax on private school fees seems to be paying for everything. It seems to be infinite money while putting no extra burden on the state sector.

Do better, Labour.

I tend to find that those who realise it isn't the job for them try to complete their induction. That used to be one year, but is now two. It gives them more options for later on should they ever think about returning to the classroom. I worry that instead of young teachers staying, they will see the money as a bit of a financial cushion to go off and find alternative careers!

An ageing and decrepit one with reduced attention span!

On Teacher Tapp, they count more than 3 years as experienced!!

New teachers have had bursaries and retention bonuses thrown at them for years.
When DS qualified in 2018 his bursary / scholarship was £30k tax free paid in the training year. They soon realised that lots of these new teachers only did the training to get the bursary so they then spread it out over three years. There were also retention bonuses for new teachers in certain areas (coastal schoolsfor example) in the first few years. None of this helped to reach recruitment targets.
Never anything for experienced teachers.

Is he still teaching lavender?

All of my year 2 ECTs are staying in teaching. One of my y1 will leave at the end of year 2... if they paid her a bonus for y3, she'd probably stay for that and then go.
In the last one year cohort, one had decided by Christmas to leave, having taken the bursary to train. She left to get another bursary in the nhs.

I think it would be interesting to find out what else if happening in teacher’s lives when they leave. For me it was when I realised I couldn’t continue it the ridiculous workload and parent in the way I wanted to.

So massive tax free bursaries to train, 30k starting salary and a tax free bonus for new teachers when they wanted to offer experienced teachers a 2.5% pay rise?! CFs

Meanwhile we’re down to 3 TAs for a thousand kids next year and have classes of 33 often with over a third of them with sen or mh issues or eal that we’re meant to juggle and plan for without support.

Nice. Experienced hardy teachers are dropping like flies in these conditions. Newcomers, in the majority of cases, don’t stand a chance.

I have 25 years of experience and would like something to look forward to other than the threat of capability as I hurtle towards 50!

This has been thrown at so many teachers over 50 I know in recent years. The only people older than me now in my
current school, are the head and deputy.

I had high hopes for Labour as I didn’t think they could be any worse than the recent run for Ed Secs the Tories have thrown at us, but all Bridget seems to be focused on when I’ve heard her, is using primaries for wraparound childcare so more parents can get back to work.

Depressing article in the Guardian about how worn down HT are with the whole issue of recruitment. One writes about advertising for HoDs for shortage subjects and not getting any applications. In the end he promoted existing teachers, who he admits aren’t ready, or qualified for the job and who “ will need support”. What he doesn’t say is who will be giving the support. And when. And how. And for how long.

A time is approaching when the whole human pyramid of teaching will collapse in a heap of broken bones, dreams, careers and opportunities for students, because someone will look down and realise to their horror that the supporting layer of experience and muscle that should be making the edifice strong and sustainable consists of five teachers with less than eight years experience between them and a gaggle of senior management clones who have successfully fought tooth and nail to stay out of the classroom for most of their careers by gluing their office doors tightly shut with unworkable behaviour policies and the schools last bottle of PVA..

Maybe by accepting it they are tying themselves into a contract.
Like when an employer pays for a degree

Ha! Love that image of SLT. That explains why some people can't get on to SLT. No glue remover.

I'm really worried that Labour's plan to tax private schools is only going to sink small independents, put further strain on the buckling state system and do nothing to actually make education better for children, teachers and other school staff. It feels like an empty policy when what we need is vision and ambition. Giving new teachers a bonus suggests they haven't even begun to grasp the scale and extent of what the problems actually are and how to start solving them.

I really hope Labour understand that pay is not the only (and not even the most pressing) issue driving people away from teaching. I wish they'd be bold and commit to a radical overhaul of OFSTED and inspection regime. Plus genuine action to reduce workload.

She did mention OFSTED. Unfortunately, Laura's abundant lack of interest in , and knowledge of, educational issues means there was no elaboration.

Can I have a ticker tape parade and lots of money and a big medal please. I did more than 30 years.

We all know the system is crumbling and I think parents are just beginning to realise it now. There will soon be ECTs and academy heads and nothing in between. The ECTs will be there for a couple of years, then move on and be replaced by ECTs and……….

Where’s the acknowledgment of experience and expertise? Are the government(s) just going to allow education to crumble. And I do know the answer, but I’m sad that the profession I was once proud to be part of has come to this sorry state.

It’s clear that no government values a state education system.

@Piggywaspushed Yes he is still teaching (maths, KS4/5), as are all the trainees he started with, though a few dropped out during the training year. The drop outs were mostly career changers doing primary.

who he admits aren’t ready, or qualified for the job and who “ will need support”. What he doesn’t say is who will be giving the support. And when. And how. And for how long.

Yes, this is a real issue, more and more burden is being placed on teachers to support colleagues as well as pupils who are also getting increasingly needy.

With headteachers having to appoint unsuitable candidates, and the DfE telling teacher training providers to accept basically anyone who applies, who will be picking up the pieces of the mess that makes?

I'm the person who does "the support". I've been given one extra free next year - but the "needs support" group is bigger than ever. There's no slack in the system at all.

@noblegiraffe - coming up for 28 years here! But I moved to the independent sector where experience is valued. 50% of our staff are over 50. We’re not managed out for being expensive and we also hire experienced teachers. This year we’ve got 5 ECTs and next year only 3. Staff body is around 100 so v small proportion. We also have a lot more flexibility and freedom in how and what we teach. I’m on 53k - not a huge amount but fine.

Good to hear.

Thats going to really make experienced teachers who are already often overlooked for jobs as they're too expensive even though they'd be a huge asset to a school feel good isn't it. All of these sorts of one of payments are a crock of shit, the way to retain teachers is to make the working conditions more bearable and to not expect them to have to put hours and hours of their own time outside of work into preparing lessons and completing pointless paperwork to satisfy some arbituaty targets. Passionate and capable teachers are worth their weight in gold, many are leaving and stuff like this will make it worse if anything.

I'm at 29 years...I'm done! I'll be leaving at Christmas and won't, sadly, reach the 30 year mark so won't get my bus ride or my 10k 😢 I'm completely broken...this past 3 years has completely finished me off. I am kicking myself that I didn't hand my notice in before the May deadline, and now I'm shackled until Christmas 😢

Absolutely, @viques !
In just one school, I have seen so many experienced teachers leaving the profession and ECTs quitting before the end of their induction. They’re being replaced with a whole new set of ECTs but who’s left to support them? Teachers who are only at the beginning of their own careers are now trying to support ECTs whilst also getting to grips with leading curriculum areas (and more of them as the ECTs are rightly exempt). That’s before you consider the demands of SLT (under pressure from the Trust), parents and the wide-ranging needs of pupils. It’s a train wreck waiting to happen 😣

I was lured into teaching by a bursary and golden handshake (which was taxed). I had no intention of staying in teaching past a couple of years, but here I am, 20 years later and like appuskidu, waiting to hit 50 so I can go through the ordeal of clinging to a job I've had a love hate relationship with my whole adult life.

What made me stay though? 1. Lack of any jobs with commensurate pay where I live. 2. Love of performing in the classroom. 3. The cliche of making a difference. Those kids you managed to drag to a C, when they hated school but desperately needed those Cs or 4s in Eng/Ma.