To say the DfE are making the teacher recruitment crisis 100x worse?

[Wedontneednoeducation1]

The DfE have forced the closure of 61 teacher training centres by not re accrediting them from 2024, then this week they have announced that the School Direct recruitment pathway will close- 25% of all teachers now enter the profession in that way. There are now ‘cold spots’ mainly up north where no one is training teachers and the ECT two year ‘support’ package, created by the DfE which requires all beginning teachers to access online materials to work through is being labelled as repetitive and a waste of time. On top of all of this they are now making ITT providers submit their curriculums and materials to the DfE for ‘checking’ ( by whom ?!!) and then once checked these materials can not be changed and must be delivered in 2024!!! Who are the DfE to legislate in this way and why are they systematically dismantling initial teacher training?

yes: you’re being unreasonable they should close providers ( many of whom had recent outstanding Ofsted inspections) in a recruitment crisis and they are best placed ( not teacher trainers) to decide what does in and out of a curriculum.

no: it’s a rogue breakaway department run by muppets with absolutely no concept of the damage that they have unleashed

They’re so clueless it makes me want to cry. I’m currently mentoring an ECT and the programme is mental, very difficult to negotiate, much of it pointless. I hate it. It’s incredibly clunky. My ECT hates it. I don’t have to do official observations, how batshit is that? The worst thing is the extra time (I don’t have to do any other training but still!) of 2 hour meetings god knows where-our Trust is quite far flung so could be 20 miles away. I see a meeting plugged into the middle of the day in early June, when I’m quite likely to have my GCSE kids wanting last minute tutoring in their lesson time. Idiots.

School’s Direct makes more sense given graduates are paid and they have a timetable, thereby helping recruitment.

Is there a list of the places that will close?

Just seen this post in similar threads. Shocking. It feels like the tories are wrecking public services as much as they can. My eldest was affected by teacher shortages already as one of her A level teachers went on sick leave and they couldn't replace her, so dd had no teacher for part of one of her subjects. The school used to give their most experienced teachers to exam groups but can't do that any more with year 11 dd

But the cult providers are making mega money out of it, so at least they're happy.

Where did the 25% stat come from for School Direct. I find this very hard to believe given I've worked in schools for nearly 2 decades and have only ever worked with 1 School Direct colleague (and that was about 2005).

Also you are wrong about the cold spots. Yes there are cold spots with less training providers now than before but it isn't that they don't have any providers. They do. There are just less.

Cult providers? Do you mean well established providers?

I mean the ones who insist there's only one way to teach and it's theirs. Who are no where near as long established as the institutions who are being forced to close their doors.

Incidentally not all school direct trainees are salaried. In fact, reasonably few are.

25% figure comes from:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/848851/ITT_Census_201920_Main_Text_final.pdf

less training providers= less places

itt providers do not have infinite resources to start offering additional places to cover those that have been lost. And the additional ones which have been newly accredited are already in places with existing ite providers. So yes maybe a potential trainee teacher could drive further than in the past, but in reality would they/ all the others from said area get a place? However, some places like the north-east in partic. Are cold spots

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/teacher-training-trainee-shortage-fears-itt-shake-cold-spots-revealed?amp

‘cult providers’ - spot on. I’ve not heard that term before.

the whole re accreditation nonsense has been to allow the Tories to let their mates in and to make money……it’s depressingly familiar.

I simply cannot believe that established ITE providers, who are subject to Ofsted inspections are having to submit their materials to a civil servant in the DFE for checking and then are not allowed to change anything??!! I just can not see this being allowed to happen in nursing or policing. It’s bonkers, immoral and shows the blatant disregard for the teaching profession.

It's the fee-funded School Direct that's closing, salaried School Direct will stay but may be rolled into an apprenticeship. schoolsweek.co.uk/teacher-training-dfe-to-scrap-school-direct-fee-funded-route/

Incidentally, the cult recruitment route failed to meet its recruitment targets, was rated inadequate and did not earn two million in bonuses as a result. schoolsweek.co.uk/teach-first-loses-2m-bonuses-after-inadequate-recruitment/

Incidentally, the cult recruitment route failed to meet its recruitment targets, was rated inadequate and did not earn two million in bonuses as a result.

Diddums.

Sadly, this absolute shower is going to be the only provider for at least 60 miles for both ITE and ECT induction.

Rated inadequate for recruitment numbers during a recruitment crisis. Ummmm... Not the same as being rated inadequate for quality of provision.

I'm not sure what people's issue is with that provider.

As a former teacher, I’m on the fence here.

On the one hand, if we want new teachers then we need to train them.

On the other hand, if people aren’t actually training then there’s no point having centres running courses with no one on them. Equally, if centres are running inadequate courses then we end up with bad teachers, failing teachers and teachers who aren’t up to the job - that doesn’t benefit anyone. In addition, the university that I did my PGCE through were absolutely fucking awful and I don’t know any teacher who’s expressed a positive opinion of their training (I’m sure there are some who think it was worthwhile but it’s certainly not the majority opinion). Honestly, universities are pretty much scamming the taxpayer for PGCE funding - it’s disgracefully poor. I think it should be done away with entirely to be honest. Whether or not you pass a PGCE or achieve QTS has almost no bearing on any factors that make you a good teacher - I know countless people who scraped through training because of ridiculous and arbitrary mechanisms of assessment and were incredible teachers. More often, I know trainees who absolutely sailed through the arbitrary training assessments and then couldn’t cope with actual teaching.

What the actual fuck is going on? What a shit show.

I'm not sure what people's issue is with that provider.

MrsH's issue I believe is with the quality of materials they produce.

I don't have much experience of them, however we did get one of their trainees once and it was someone who should have never been accepted onto the course. Offering bonuses for recruitment numbers was counter-productive there.

The materials are dire
The ECT "training" is condescending and dire
The platforms they use are unreliable
The support they offer is negligible
The whole premise of what they offer is not about training and supporting teachers for a long career in the profession

ECT programme is crap, I am sure it’ll add to the number of teachers who leave the profession in the first 2 years. Can’t believe they’re getting rid of school direct either. Definitely muppets

Just out of interest have you looked at other provider's ECF materials and training? I have. Equally dire. It's what the programme is, not the provider. ECF was an I'll thought out shit show from the DFE, not the fault of any provider.

I'm not disputing that the programme is dire overall. But other providers have a better offer.

Yanbu - I had no idea

I disagree. I extensively researched all 6 providers and have personal experience of 3 of them across 2 schools. All have massive faults which is the fault of the programme itself.

The many accredited phonics schemes don't sit right with me. Sooo much money to be made from this by private companies. Phonics works but surely the DFE should provide a few free schemes to choose from? Why are there so many.

It feels like the tories are wrecking public services as much as they can
I think this is true, sadly. I think the Conservatives are behaving hugely cynically and I'm furious we are stuck with them to 2025 when they have cleared stopped governing in the nation's interests. The electorate is powerless right now.

I think one of the major problems with the government and the state of education right now is that their utter refusal to acknowledge that beggars can't be choosers.

Saying 'we want to improve teacher training' and closing down inadequate providers might make sense as a policy, but not when we then don't have anyone to train teachers in vast swathes of the country.

Same with the 'maths to 18' policy. Fine as a policy, but we don't have the teachers.

I’m not entirely convinced all of them were ‘inadequate’: www.ucet.ac.uk/downloads/13460-OfSTED-inspections-a-briefing-paper-to-UCET-members.docx

Well isn't that a surprise!