Secondary school lack of teachers spiralling out of control

[noblegiraffe]

The govt released its targets for PGCE trainees for Sept 23 today and dear god we are in trouble.

The projection is that we will recruit less than half the number of secondary trainees that the sector needs. 47%.

We only recruited 59% of what was needed last year.

Jack Worth of the National Foundation for Education Research tweeted “Without an urgent policy response to make teaching more attractive, schools will face increasingly intense shortages over the next few years, which are likely to impact negatively on the quality of education.”

It looks like all subjects will miss their targets by a lot, except History, Classics (they all head off to private schools) and PE.

And today I hear of PE teachers handing in their notice because they are being expected to teach science instead.

On a thread a poster just commented that their child had to stop learning Spanish partway though the year as there was no teacher.

At my school, A-level students who have lost their teacher have had to continue by teaching themselves the course.

Parents of kids in secondary school, or approaching secondary school age: things are about to get a lot worse than they already are.

And still the government refuse to come to the negotiating table to try to fix this. What exactly is their plan? They don't have one. More and more kids will not have teachers.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-on-course-to-recruit-less-than-half-of-required-secondary-teachers/

but it is even worse when trainees are ties in to completing 2 years or returning their bursary. its hell on earth for the poor trapped teacher, and they do a terrible job, and know it. That isnt a solution either

awful in what way? What would you suggest they do to improve? stop taking local children maybe? "challenging" means the children they take in, not the way they deal with them, so unless you have a better plan for those children, they will go to their local school, and the school will be "challenging"

People are less and less seeing education as key to a lucrative career so for a lot of people why bother learning. People are earning money as influencers and trades people whereas university means debt and either insecure jobs or jobs so hard you can't stick with them. The internet has devalued the written word. Anyone can go viral and also so much of what is written is lies. Maths leads to careers about how to lie and hoodwink with numbers.

it is already affecting recruitement

The other thing worth noting about long-term effects is that many schools are in crisis mode where they necessarily prioritise exam classes having specialist teachers when possible. This means many KS3 not having teachers who properly understand the subject (eg my nephew's school have a PE teacher doing yr8 maths). That then has a knock on effect on how the students progress at GCSE, even though it appears that all kids have a permanent teacher. Most parents aren't aware that Mr Jones' highest (and most recent) qualification in maths is a grade C at GCSE 15 years ago.

but it is even worse when trainees are ties in to completing 2 years or returning their bursary. its hell on earth for the poor trapped teacher, and they do a terrible job, and know it. That isnt a solution either

Oh I don't think golden handcuffs in a solution either but it may be enough to make some applicants reconsider their motives for teacher training.

My daughter would have loved to have had the opportunity to study Latin and classics but they're not offered at her school. They rarely are at state schools. Not never, but rarely.

My sons schools just put out a bumper crop of jobs. They are looking for a head of department and at least one teacher for each of science, maths, english and MFL.

Its a pretty small school so thats about half of each department. It actually looks like the whole of MFL.

DS (year 9) has a supply teacher every Monday morning for science. He says he gets a worksheet to do which takes 10 minutes and then chats for the rest of the lesson. 😕He seems to have a supply teacher in other subjects at least once a day.

That’s interesting; do you have some figures/evidence?

It's a disaster. I went on maternity leave a few months ago and the school either couldn't find another teacher to replace me or couldn't afford to get one so there is a student teacher (via the apprenticeship route) as the class teacher now. She did shadow me for a few months before I left and is very good but it really isn't good enough for the children, or fair on the student teacher who has essays on top of all the planning, marking, assessments, data and SEN plans.

I agree. I have two degrees but I know trades people who earn double my salary and have no student debt. They also have secure jobs which have trained them, while most employers have no loyalty to graduates and you might not even get a job after spending all of that money. Not to mention influencers who earn way more than me and don’t even have a job.

Education isn’t valued any more, it isn’t invested in any more - and tbh I understand why the kids aren’t bothering, because if I had my time again I wouldn’t bother either. Nowadays I could make more money and get a more secure job without a degree.

@Blamunge
Most trades oriole I know are self employed with no generous pension or paid holidays at all. Be careful about making comparisons. A teachers’ pension is way higher than the equivalent in industry. I think people do not want to join poor schools. They choose to work in well run schools with mostly pleasant DC. They don’t want to work with whingers. They do want to work with similar professional people.

I also think we will need to move to bigger classes. Accept that Asian size classes are needed and move to far more prus.

Education isn't valued any more because it no longer benefits much of the population.
At the birth of state education it was believed having a literate population was essential for the success of the UK but it then also split into blue collar/white collar workers. There was pride in being educated to whatever extent you reached.
The issue is that the social structure is no longer the same (as jobs aren't the same) and there is now a layer of society who just don't value education because they can't see what it adds to their lives ie it doesn't guarantee jobs or a standard of living if you stick out education to the mandatory age of 18.
Added to that politicians who have eroded the system and purpose of education, chronically underfunded it and created the them Vs us teacher bashing we see now and you have the perfect storm we are in now.

I also think we will need to move to bigger classes. Accept that Asian size classes are needed
I disagree. A teacher teaching a class of 30 pupils for 2 hours, has 30 minutes to stand at the front teaching then 3 minutes to assist each pupil individually. And you think we should reduce that even further? Not to mention that a bigger class takes longer to mark and longer to do the paperwork, but they don’t want to pay the teacher any extra. If it takes 15 minutes to mark each pupil’s work, an extra 10 pupils is an extra 2.5 hours work for the teacher. If classes get bigger teachers will leave in droves even faster than they are already.

I also think we will need to move to bigger classes

Where would we put the kids? Double decker desks?

Be careful about making comparisons. A teachers’ pension is way higher than the equivalent in industry

To compensate for the shit working conditions. At least in private industry you get to go to the loo when you want. Get to actually eat your lunch. Don’t have to split up fighting children and get time to do your work.

I also think we will need to move to bigger classes. Accept that Asian size classes are needed

Do you also accept that Asian style parenting and sanctions would also be required for it to work?

You can’t just add more children into rooms. There are fire regulations.

To all those teachers on this thread I hope you’ve not got any too much work to do this BH weekend and you get to have a rest.

I think its only china that seems to have big classess. Other bits of asia seem to sit around 35 which isnt far off a lot of many classes locally.

Oh I don't think golden handcuffs in a solution either but it may be enough to make some applicants reconsider their motives for teacher training

it’s complex, isn’t it? I have mentored one trainee who was open about never intending to teach - but a £20k, tax free bursary was too good to pass up. He passed - wasn’t bad for someone who wasn’t bothered but didn’t look for a job. I do think that if you accept a huge bursary and then never even attempt to make it work, it could be added to student debt.

@twistyizzy I totally agree with your comment about today's kids' view on education not being especially relevant to some of them.
Some of these kids want to leave school and learn a trade, let's face it much needed, are stuck in school until they're 18 and pushed into a university education they neither want, need, or can afford to pay for.
Add to this that there are too many young people with degrees these days that many employers no longer require, then really, what is the point of kids being stuck in a school setting beyond the age of 16? Maybe their time between 16 and 18 would be better spent on a trade/profession-based apprenticeship.
I think the time has come for a major rethink of secondary education which should include technical studies for those that want them with less bias on A Levels and Degrees. This in turn may motivate some young people to succeed at school and maybe improve behaviour in the process.

Just seen this

https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/unions-co-ordinate-action

A friend of mine recently failed their PGCE in Maths. They should NEVER have been accepted to train to teach, IMO, they were the person least suited to be a teacher that I had ever met. But everywhere was SO desperate...

So they started training, kept failing, were given chance after chance after chance but eventually told to leave. And hearing from everywhere that schools were so desperate for teachers that they were using support staff, and yet they had been failed, did absolutely nothing for their mental health and they had a complete breakdown.

But they should never have been accepted in the first place.