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/

No - they are just leaving. My youngest is in Y7 - leafy and ‘Outstanding’ secondary, one of the best in The Times - yadda yadda. They had one regular teacher this week - the rest were supply. I only know because she told me.

@SeulementUneFois the problem is also workload though - my sons’ school is in a very middle class suburb but as more and more classes are covered by supply all the jobs that teachers do outside of the classroom have to be covered by fewer and fewer teachers. That then leads to an even more insane workload for those teachers left so they leave too and so it goes on.

I've just been chatting to the AP responsible for teaching and learning about the 2 vacancies we had close yesterday. We had 3 applications to 1, and 1 to the other.

We are interviewing one of them, but it will be online as they are in America. The rest are unsuitable.

I understand what you're saying above. I presume this overall leaving will statistically happen more where there are bad working conditions vs. slightly less bad. (As no matter how bad they are, adding violence from the pupils to the teachers I would think makes it even worse.)

Simple solution. Pay slightly more. Less leave. Better work life balance. More join. Less pay overall as supply is v expensive. Everyone happy.

Same for NHS. Locums cost a lot whereas paying regular staff more would work out cheaper.

It's almost like someone wants education and health to fail. So they sell it off to their mates/wives companies to be run privately.

We have lots off on long term sick and I can’t remember the last time we had a supply teacher in. Instead we are expected to give up our PPA to cover across the school. Colleagues on maternity are covered in the same way. Classes have also been merged which affects behaviour and consistency. Despite all of this we were questioned as to why results had dipped over the past few months!

Of the friends I have who are teachers, two are finally packing it in - they get hit every other week and spend every lesson they teach arguing with kids who don’t want to do things. Then they have to call the parents, who give them a load of abuse. Middle class, naice school. I can’t understand how they’ve lasted as long as they have, honestly.

But then I work with middle class naice professionals and the way they talk about teachers is absolutely vile. I can see exactly what their kids are like.

I don’t think there is an answer to this, as even if we had an opposition government platforming on increasing pay and conditions and tackling behaviour, many parents wouldn’t vote for it because they think teachers already get a good deal, had 18 months paid holiday during COVID, and only work 9-3 teaching a bunch of their lovely kids who don’t do anything wrong. I know - I work with them!

Once I am gone, I am gone. I’m only keeping going as 1) it will be 2 more years before my youngest is out of education 2) I’m part-time.

If you raise the teacher pay you might just keep a few more as we will be able to afford to work part-time. That’s the only positive I can see right now. No one has the balls to allow schools to deal with defiant pupils effectively.

There are a lot of extremely stupid parents who treat teachers badly. I suspect a lot of teachers would do better with a class half the size and well motivated kids. They have great skills but they aren't supported. I remember going to school and a child who swore at the librarian was expelled. Her parents had been given a behaviour plan and it failed. This over 30 years ago - we all remembered it as children, the power of the teacher. If you were rude, you were out of the class and your parents were asked to take you home. Teachers had huge authority because anything that got in the way of teaching was not allowed.

It was a good school, and people really achieved.

My year 8 has had no science teacher for months. Completely disengaged from science now due to cover after cover. The Spanish teacher who is Spanish (in an inner city comp) and is a rare gem has told the kids he most likely won’t be back come September due to too many parents moaning about one thing or another.

When the actual fuck are parents going to wake up? It won’t be solved in my children’s education that’s for sure but parents don’t help this situation. Moaning and moaning for the most ridiculous things when they ignore the shit that actually matters.

Madness.

My kids' school used to be able to give experienced teachers to exam years, but since 2020 they havent even been able to do that and have had supply or in the case of my A level dd no teacher for some lessons in one subject. I feel that their results will be affected. This isn't the school's fault. They received a glowing report from Ofsted, but they can't wave a wand and magic up teachers
Of course Rishi's kids in top private schools won't be affected so he doesn't care. Less competition for Uni places for them.

I think of a child's education as a three legged stool. The three legs are the parents, the teachers, and the child themselves. All three legs need to do their job to make the stool sturdy. If we could all work in good faith, in partnership, towards the same end goal - then it works.

But society, Government, the media - they're setting us all against each other, undermining the partnership, making it so much harder than it needs to be. So much easier to do that, than acknowledge grievous errors in governance, chronic underfunding, a classist, racist, system. . .and actually (radical notion) fund education, and not set up parents, children, teachers, and schools, for failure.

Yep! I work in a school and way would want to be a teacher even though I’m good at teaching. Kids are entitled brats with jumped up parents who think they can do no wrong. Hours are long, pay is ok but the admin and stress aren’t worth it!

At my school our only two teachers who are subject specialists (in a very nice subject) are both on long term sick with very serious health issues, and the students have had supply after supply since October. The exam board process for coursework is underway and the work has failed, students have been taught incorrectly and no one caught it as no one else has the subject knowledge in the school. A few students are in my form and they are so upset about it, some have failed and one will be capped at the lowest grade. There is no resit opportunity.

Good school with not many behavioural issues overall, we just cannot recruit the staff especially in subjects where teachers could earn double in the related progression instead.

Niche subject that should say, not nice

For a large chunk of this school year DD has been doing Just Dance on You Tube for a PE lesson, and has teachers covering lessons of subjects they don't teach. DD recently had to show her history teacher how to do the stuff the history teacher was meant to be teaching them
In the IT class she was covering. No judgement on the history teacher as certainly not her fault.

Of course Rishi's kids in top private schools won't be affected so he doesn't care. Less competition for Uni places for them

Im not so sure. They are paid pretty much the same as state staff, and the obligations are huge. Also more and more private schools are bailing out if the teachers pension, so recruitment is dropping in the private sector too.

I don't believe that with 13k fees a term there are A level students at Wycombe Abbey with no teacher for some timetabled lessons and a series of supply teachers for GCSE students. Or PE teachers teaching Science etc. Don't believe it for a second.

Why?

Consitions are pretty hideous in private schools. I was a state secondary teacher for 25 years. I’d never teach in a private school, they own you lock stock and barrel.

They’re aren’t special posh teachers who work in private schools. If they’ve got a PGCE or Be Ed then they’ve been through state university. Although I’m not sure you need these for private schools which makes it even more dodgy.

There aren’t!

Not that much more than state. And they’ll want blood including Saturdays.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

to be fair you don’t need a PGCE to teach in secondary, particularly academies. The only essential on the person spec is a heartbeat.

@fitzwilliamdarcy

what do they say? I always found the MC parents worse to deal with than the WC ones. Not very bright though are they pushing teachers out with their incessant moaning.

I don't believe that with 13k fees a term there are A level students at Wycombe Abbey with no teacher for some timetabled lessons and a series of supply teachers for GCSE students. Or PE teachers teaching Science etc. Don't believe it for a second

I teachh a shortage area subject in an independent - not a top one, but one with a solid reputation locally. It would never have occurred to me to apply for a job there - I would have assumed I just wouldn’t be good enough. I started on supply - within 3 months the head of department had asked me to stay and they bent over backwards to give me the hours I wanted. Prior to me, they’d had a string of supply teachers, none of which had lasted more than a few weeks. That was 7 years ago now. I know when I saw a vacancy recently and mentioned it, I was showered with love! There was genuine fear that replacing me would be nigh on impossible, let alone with someone who can hack it.

Teaching is teaching. The pressures are the same in both state and independents: get results.

I don’t know for sure but I’d imagine at the top private schools there’s at least a stream of recent grads/gap year ex-students/husbands or wives of teachers that can be called upon to fill gaps in the timetable if need be. Which saves the best teachers for the sixth form/GCSE classes. Helpful if you know a lot of quite rich people who can work for a lowish salary for a year or two.