Govt declares war on teachers again. Fucksake.

[noblegiraffe]

The Telegraph front page tomorrow is reporting that the DfE is preparing an 'army of supply teachers' to keep schools open in the event of a teacher strike.

Is that like the army of volunteers they failed to raise to keep schools open during the covid surge in January?

Changing the law to allow agency staff to cover for striking colleagues is a shitty move, an opportunity I can't imagine agency staff in general would be leaping at; but using it as some sort of trump card against teachers?

1. supply teachers would most likely be in a teaching union (they'd be mad if not)

2. WE CAN'T GET SUPPLY TEACHERS NOW BECAUSE THERE'S A CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

If they've got an army of supply teachers, where are they fucking hiding them?

If the government think children have 'suffered enough' during the pandemic then:

1. fund schools properly

2. stop haemorrhaging teachers by e.g. not treating them like shit in the national press

3. improve working conditions and reduce workload by e.g. funding children's services like CAMHS, SEN services, social services so that schools aren't picking up ALL the slack.

That would improve the situation far more for children than shitty headlines in the Telegraph deliberately antagonising the few teachers the country has left.

twitter.com/samfr/status/1539717032043859968?s=21&t=uLvLET4xftQW31sTEKBaLg

Surely just a step away from paying e.g. physics teachers more than any other subject too.

I think that often shortage subject teachers are paid more, schools can decide which band to start people on can’t they.

Yes, but it's not a blanket policy ,placing more worth and value on one set of the teaching professions. People already think primary teachers are glorified childminders - this is pretty much writing that large...

And what will happen? People who actually want really to be primary teachers, deciding to secondary train , hating it , and dropping out.

And what happens to middle schools? They still exist in pockets...

To an extent. A school can decide to start an ECT on M2 if they have some non-teaching experience behind them (ie they're not a fresh graduate). But schools can't randomly accelerate teachers through the pay scale.

My experience as a shortage subject teacher is that its much easier to get a job, but we don't get paid any more. If anything, we're less likely to take on extra responsibilities/promotions, because we usually have a heavy teaching load.

They certainly do get paid more
I did a recruitment in maths recently and the combination of TLRs, recruitment and retention and acceleration to M6 of the candidates was staggering (not saying they didnt deserve the salary).

I have been into 4 primaries this week. All 4 do not have at least 1 class teacher for September.

They certainly do get paid more

Some might but it is certainly not universal.

And if you are accelerated up the pay scale, you still get stuck at the top of it if you want to stay as just a classroom teacher. So experienced maths teachers are not being paid more than experienced PE teachers.

I think that you would be surprised:

Maximum TLR to lead Y7 maths
AHT for maths in 4th year of teaching with no significant leadership role.
SLE with no outreach role

Mate, I’m a maths teacher on top of the pay scale with no extra pay and I’ve seen similarly experienced maths colleagues treated like shit to the point of quitting. You’d be surprised.

I don't know how they've got the nerve to spout this rubbish. Army of supply teachers my arse. May as well publish an article claiming that the sky is purple and Brad Pitt is the new PM. And as for the "damage" caused by the strikes to our students, does he think there's no consequences for an education system that can't function because there aren't enough teachers? Some of our students have had upwards of 5 different teachers for science this year, including unqualified cover supervisors, because we couldn't recruit permanent staff, is that not damaging? When class sizes increase because we haven't got enough teachers, is that not damaging? When schools have to close an afternoon a week, and reduce the curriculum accordingly (which means things like art, drama, music go), again because they can't get the staff, is that not damaging? A few days of strike action isn't going to damage students, but the Tories are having a good go at destroying our education system, which will cause years of damage.

Maybe moving is the way to get better pay?
Or threatening to move?

As you said, to get better pay I need to take a responsibility which I don't want.

So if you are accelerated up the pay scale, that only works to get you better pay than other subjects to the point you are at the top of the pay scale, and then being a shortage subject buys you nothing.

I also don't think it's a good thing that maths teachers can be promoted v quickly into HOD because of a shortage, those jobs need experience.

I wasn't saying it was a good thing
I was just surprised at how complex the salary arrangements were across so many different schools and areas - all really just to retain good maths teachers. I doubt there is a y7 TLR for PE.

I was talking to someone I know who is in ITT. Usual secondary recruitment down. However they haven’t hit targets for primary and only have 8, they had 30 odd this year.

There are issues coming.

I was talking to someone I know who is in ITT. Usual secondary recruitment down. However they haven’t hit targets for primary and only have 8, they had 30 odd this year

Oh wow. That is terrifying. What on earth is going on if we can't recruit primary teachers? There has never been a shortage. This will probably take a few years to really start to show, assuming it's not just some kind of post-covid blip... I can't believe it. Someone in Government needs to wake up to this mess and start looking at how to solve it.

My friend trains Science teachers at a uni. Last year they had 16 students, for next year they have 2 people signed up! RIP the British Education system..

Regardless of difficulties recruiting, there still seem to be a number of SLT who are desoert to get rid of experienced (expensive, less likely to buy into some of the BS spouted by management) teachers by treating them like shit. Many still seem to be deluded that they will have a ready supply of perky, cheap ECTs to replace them.

desperate

I was reading a really detailed breakdown of schools locally, think it was good schools guide or something and it broke down the teacher: pupil ratio and average experience of teachers maybe wage, there was lots of details, anyway my school had quite low teacher:pupil but we’ve got lots of experienced teachers. There’s clearly a choice to be made, but only if you’re a big enough school I expect? I was positively encouraged to apply for UPS at my school and there’s definitely no managing people out that are expensive.

My kids primary mind, think my son got 2 teachers in 7 years that weren’t NQT or 1st year, all but these 2 left after 2 years or less.

If you want my honest view. Those very rare primaries still under LA control will seek UPS. They still have the budget for quality.

I kind of have no beef in this game. My husband earns a ridiculous salary. His tax is more than my income by miles. I like teaching and I think every child deserves a fair chance.

I live in a fairly well to do area. They can’t employ primary for shit and there will be hardly any trainees coming through next year. If you were to use that as a thumb test then yep, teaching recruitment is in serious crisis. Primary shortage is unheard of, yet it’s here. Same jobs over and over. As for SEND provision…well…

Its v telling that the emails I get from my old supply agencies went from sending out the few vacancies they had, to sending out reams of jobs available, to getting more desperate (valentines cards, several emails a day, offers of presents for recommending friends etc), to now when they just say "we have lots of vacancies" ie the list is too embarrassingly long to put in an email. This is all over the span of about a year. It's not the same from my international agents, just uk. Like pp said you couldn't pay me enough fo go back to teaching atm. Took a massive pay cut to leave and am so much happier.

10 vacancies for my non shortage subject within 30 miles of my house.

There is nobody really to fill them as resignation date passed and what few NQTs there are will have a job.

It's a bad sign.

We have been looking for a science teacher for 6 months and cannot get one. Ditto for 3 other subjects Lovely rural school with fantastic kids. It's a superb place to work.

If we can't recruit, then lord only knows how the inner city and deprived coastal towns are doing

I wish I hadn’t looked what vacancies there are locally to me