England is running out of teachers

[noblegiraffe]

Or, to be clear, people who are willing to teach in schools. It has plenty of ex teachers who have vowed never to set foot in a school again.

While everyone seems to understand that you can't expect to see a doctor or dentist anymore, the message about not being able to expect your child to have a teacher anymore doesn't seem to have filtered through in the same way.

The number of cover lessons that kids are having is going through the roof. Some people think that if a kid has an adult in front of them then they are learning something, where kids know if they have a 'supply' timetabled that afternoon they are in for a doss lesson. Some people think that if a kid has a teacher for their subject that the teacher actually knows the subject being taught, which is increasingly not the case. Some people think that if lessons are being planned for those teachers and the teacher just has to 'deliver' them then that will be good enough, which is often not the case.

Exam classes at least used to be protected and given the 'good teachers', which is increasingly no longer the case, with Y11s reporting that they have a variety of supply teachers, even in core subjects.

There was a thread recently where an A-level student hadn't had a teacher for a year, wondering why the school hadn't done anything about it. We cannot magic up teachers! A-level students at my school are increasingly in the position of not having a teacher and having to teach themselves, and schools are now encouraged to put 'no teacher' on UCAS applications as relevant information for universities.

Recent threads about suggesting teachers need to be paid more to boost recruitment, or given a day off a fortnight to boost recruitment have attracted replies about teachers thinking they are special, or lazy, paid well enough already and having enough time off already.

But the education system is in crisis and something needs to drastically change as it's only getting worse.

The DfE's solution is to hire from abroad, at a time when the rest of government is seeking to reduce immigration.
https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/dfe-mulls-boost-international-recruitment

Juts coincidentally found this in an article I was reading:

This year’s predicted new median starting salary of £34,000 represents a rise of 13.3% since 2020 when the median starting salary at the country’s best-known graduate employers was £30,000. The most generous median salaries in 2024 are on offer from investment banks (£55,000), law firms (£50,000) and consulting firms (£47,500).
The highest published graduate starting salaries for 2024 include international law firms White & Case (£52,000) and Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills, Latham Watkins, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May (each £50,000), and retailer Aldi (£50,000).

I agree with you. I was a state SENDCO for 6 years and taught in state for 15 years in total.

In my experience, independent schools really agonise over asking a pupil to leave, partly because they get to know the whole family but essentially because they are businesses. There’s different pressure: parents are paying for a service so you really have to provide them with that. I do think the fresh air, exercise and parental attitudes are important factors in making some independent schools less toxic environments.

As I said, the days are very long (core hours 8-6) but there is a feeling that everyone is in it together. ISI inspections are very different to OFSTED. The national curriculum can be followed but there’s lots of room for creativity. It’s not perfect because there are lots of exams and parents are under pressure to earn enough to provide what their children have always known. We don’t have TPS and in a way you’re also less protected by the system (the very one that works against state school teachers).

I worked extremely long hours in state schools so there’s little difference but nobody sniffs when you leave on the dot and there’s quite a lot of autonomy and trust. Teachers are so stifled in state schools. I don’t think anybody wants this to be about state vs independent but I am shocked to hear how much worse things have become.

Well that's very interesting. Not competitive then.

See also policing. I retired in October after 30yrs, forces are hemorrhaging officers with experience who are taking their pensions at the earliest point or just leaving to find something/anything else. I'm in a few police leavers/999 leavers/police pensions groups and there are a massive amount of posts each day from officers sick of it, stressed, unsupported, burned out and all the time being bashed by all sides. No one is joining, those that do don't stay. There are newbies and those about to retire- very few officers in between.
I really don't know how much longer policing can continue.

(I'm also a school Governor so see the teaching crisis too)

How many of those outliers high paying graduate jobs are there, compared with the number of graduate teaching jobs? They'll be scarce and highly competitive. Not comparable at all with the high volume graduate jobs such as teachers, nurses, "bog standard" accountants, etc. that the majority of graduates will be getting.

The median is £34k. The outliers are irrelevant. Teaching is below the median.

Also, excellent maths grads and others would be awfully tempted to head for the investment banks, no?

It is not. That figure ignores part time, zero hours contracts and self employed.

Did you read the post?

Well, it doesn’t say that. But even assuming it doesn’t, those aren’t careers graduates will mostly be considering…
edit - what it says it includes is graduate employment. Of whatever sort.

Yes. In Scotland we had Senior Teachers...but gradually managerial responsibilities were dumped on them and then the position was abolished.

Then they brought in Chartered Teachers. That position has now also been abolished (though those already in post have kept the position and extra money).

There used to be something called an Advanced Skills teacher. They could be paid more to stay in the classroom.

Dh was one of those for a while. Then he went into SLT, which frankly was nearly the death of him. He quit teaching a couple of years ago for a cushy university admin job (on much less pay).

I'm a Lead Practitioner, which is similar. I love my job but a lot of my time is spent firefighting problems caused by the pressures schools are under.

How many do you know?
I am extremely proud of DD and her great group of friends. Her end of term report says "exemplary" for behaviour, outstanding for effort and exceeding expectations for achievement. She has joined school choir, auditioned and got a role in the Yr 7-9 drama production and recently signed up to the Youth Council for our County Council.
Her friends are a great group of girls, engaged, engaging and passionate. I feel very comfortable with them being the future.
Don't tar all kids with the TikTok brush!

We can't find teachers in any of those areas, computer science is so short our science teachers are teaching it even when we don't have enough science teachers. When we recruit we are just stealing teachers from other schools. The last new teacher we had in science did her NQT year then left teaching.

My kids school has cut computer science at GCSE as they can't recruate, my daughter did her GCSE without a teacher for a year and half as they couldn't get a replacement when her teacher went off long term sick.

It is an interesting point about physical exercise. Many state schools have had to cut their PE time to a minimum when actually I believe it is an essential part of education as well as helping mental health etc.

Another interesting graph.

I have taken a pay ( and pensions ) cut to work in an education related field, but not teaching. I never found the kids unbearable, and I still work with mostly young people (17-24 year olds mostly). All of them are lively, polite and dedicated. I wouldn't go back into schools. We have a huge disrespect for teachers and education in this country. It's like society doesn't think people who teach are worthy of respect. This permeates through the government and ofsted with their micromanagement that ends up causing heaps of paperwork taking people away from the classroom. Teachers went on strike so that their pay awards could be funded, instead of being taken out of existing school budgets. They were striking to stop school budgets being slashed. Yet so many people use it as an excuse to take their children out of school on term time holidays etc. The culture of ' Oh I never learnt anything at school' ' ' my kids learn more out of school than in' 'those who can't teach' etc seems to be a British/Western disease.

It's not necessarily that all kids are awful. Children who are capable will always learn. It's the fact there's little to no classroom support anymore and this has impacted behaviour and learning significantly. When I started in teaching, most classes had a TA for at least part of the day and this made behaviour so much easier to manage and for children to learn.

We're currently going back to a period when 50% of the population will leave school not being literate, numerate or understanding the value of education. It's not about how nice some kids are when there's such a big problem with retention of staff.

I really feel for the police at the moment. They must get the worst of it. I had to report a serious crime recently and was so impressed by the attitude and skill.

It's clear they're in a really bad position, in possibly the most stressful job, but they're just not talking about it as much.

Yes I agree but my comment was to a PP who said all kids are only interested in TikTok and therefore it's no wonder behaviour is so bad.
I was just pointing out the fact that not ALL kids are TikTok obsessed etc.
I am in FE and we have definitely noticed a massive increase in the amount of kids coming to us with hardly any qualifications or any interest to do anything.
IMO we need vocational alternatives to GCSE pathways at 14 yrs old. We need to accept that the one size fits all approach has failed and completely re-write the educational landscape for 14-18 Yr olds.
We then need to fund alternate provision (for SEN) appropriately and have more PRU available. Finally we need to rebuild the social contract between parents and schools.

IMO we need vocational alternatives to GCSE pathways at 14 yrs old. We need to accept that the one size fits all approach has failed and completely re-write the educational landscape for 14-18 Yr olds

I don't disagree, but when the vocational/academic populations fall out into broadly working class and middle class, which they will, the shit will hit the fan. The only way of its being different is if the vocational pathway truly leads to well-paid work.

As an aside, I'm in Australia, and while anecdotal, a number of professional class people I know say to sons, get a tradie's job if you want money security. Thinking electrician/plumber. In the street of the well-heeled suburb where I live, every house for sale has been bought by a tradie - well up in their field of course, but worth a thought.

@echt to be fair many school leavers who go into (especially) trades Apprenticeships come out at 21 Yr old earning more than their university educated peers. OK those earnings may not match 10 or 15 yrs down the line but there are few poorly paid tradespeople around where I live! In fact they are all the ones buying the big houses, having multiple holidays abroad each year etc.

And sending their children to private schools, too.

Missing you already. 😂