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/

An ex student of mine who I taught at GCSE and A level in English, got in touch with me and asked if I'd meet him for a coffee to discuss teacher training. He's 25 and has a 1st class English degree. He was upset because he had applied to do teacher training through TeachFirst and been accepted but they were now pressuring him to change to maths because they could not recruit participants in maths. He had said no but they were really pressuring him and he was on the point of not doing the programme at all. He had done maths for a year in sixth form, was very unhappy with it and dropped it at the end of Y12 to focus on his other 3 A levels. Teach First seemed to think none of what they were doing was an unreasonable.

He didn't do the course in the end which is really sad- he'd have been an excellent English teacher.

I bet Wickham Abbey won't struggle to recruit. (Where the PM's dd goes). He won't give a flying fuck about what is going on in state schools.

I know a mum who whinges about staffing problems at our school. She always votes tory. Doesn't seem to see she has shafted her own kids' education. Brexit hasn't helped with staffing either. She voted for that too 😒

I have a few former colleagues in private schools nearby and they are in a similar boat to be honest. I've spoken to 2 in the last month and both have had to recruit from abroad as they haven't had a single UK based applicant; both science jobs.

My bog standard secondary has no chance of attracting someone from abroad!

maths teacher here, signed off long term sick last June, still no replacement has been found. I have now resigned, and since word has got round that I am a teacher without a job, I have been phoned 3 or 4 times a week and offered teaching jobs, immediate start, maths or science or anything I like really! would I fancy being a head of department in PSHE, for example, !? My current job had been advertised as full or part time, job share considered, long or short term contract - no applicants

Yup it's going to be a shit show in September.

There’s a massive shortage of physics graduates in industry as well. It needs a coordinated plan of how to get students into uni doing physics. When there are well paid graduate roles why would you go into teaching it.

There was a bit of a plan to make PE teachers also train to do a second subject, but I don’t think that’s happened as I know someone who graduated to teach PE last year and she hasn’t.

We must be blessed because DDs school has great retention, but I realise a change in management might change that at any time. I used to work in school recruitment for somewhere that treated teachers very well and support like dirt. I spend most of my time trying to get support staff, if it was teachers as well I wouldn’t have coped. The other main issue was the lack of decent headteachers, a bad head can ruin a school. I know lots have left a school where i previously worked with the head, he was a dick.

Thank you for everything you do here @noblegiraffe . Spot on as always.

The ONLY thing keeping the maths departments in out MAT afloat, and semi manned is recruiting from the local refugee community...hun.dreds of local children would never have met a maths teacher is it hadn't been for wars in other parts of the world - and hundreds more never have

Same here in primary.

Anecdotal, small sample but a teaching friend and I met for coffee and in the first five minutes had discussed 6 teachers, across two primaries who are leaving in July.

I work with another primary school who can't recruit or retain staff.

• New Y6 teacher lasted less than a term, HT, DHT and a supply teacher covering between them
• one class covered by a TA with another class teacher agreeing to plan for her own class and this one
• A failing teacher is in another class but as there is no supply staff although informal support is in place, it is too risky to start more formal procedures in case this teacher leaves
• Teaching job advert ( with additional TLR allowance for phase leader) has received 6 applicants. Two hadn't read the advert and expected to be appointed after a year of teaching, one has taught groups of children in AP, one wasn't a qualified teacher...leaving two for interview.
• Another failing teacher has been ‘snapped up’ during a recruitment process by another school, because they can't find staff either...leaving another vacancy here.

Meanwhile HT and DHT are working until 10.00pm each night to lead and improve the school around their teaching commitment.

Shocking.

The point is that private schools will pay more. They will recruit overseas. And I don't see that changing. The demand for private schools is always sustained.

I doubt doubt that the less prominent schools may find it harder. But they will do it if it makes financial sense. In most cases, these schools are very good at working the bottom line.

I'm not pro these schools but I see that state education will be truly shafted before the private sector really has to sweat about recruitment. They will change their offerings, change their salaries to what parents want. If that's physics, they will pay for it.

If you don't have inspiring physics teachers at GCSE, then kids don't take it for A-level. If they don't take it for A-level, the chances of them doing a degree in it is low (if their school can even offer it at A-level). It becomes a vicious cycle. Any plan for getting students to study physics at uni level surely needs to look at the shortage of physics teachers in school.

I agree there are some schools which are still okay. They value their staff and hold on to them, and are often known locally as good places to work. However, any change in head, MAT leadership, or just a few teachers leaving at once can unfortunately change all of that, now. I think now, if teachers get into a school which is "fine", they often want to stay there- jumping ship feels risky.

This government hates public sector workers (teachers, nurses, dr, police, lawyers, firefighters etc) and plebs (everyone that's not an aristo and millionaire).

They want them to be uneducated, ill and unemployed or on a low wage.

The way they treat teachers is disgusting and is a sad reflection of our society. The consequences will affect a whole generation.

I'm just surprised anyone expects any thing different from a tory government.

They're already paying more for less (a lot more, in some cases) for some subjects. And if you see the threads running on fee increases, it's clear some parents can't take much more of a hit. I'm sure some schools will continue to be fine, but I actually think private parents ought to be more concerned about this.

I agree, but I think a lot of people don't really think the government will allow state education to fail.

the dont always pay more, and their terms and conditions are often worse than in the state sector - and many private schools ARE struggling to recruit

@Postapocalypticcowgirl its very much a chicken/egg situation. The easiest way would to be create uni places and lots of financial benefits to taking it.

Whatever happened to that fantastic Tory government brainwave of recruiting ex-soldiers to train as teachers (aka Shoot First)? Yet another failed Tory initiative.

I've just taken early retirement. Wanted to stay until I was 60 but a mixture of ill health/dreadful SLT attitude to me as an experienced teacher/ofsted and their ridiculous deep dives in primary/teacher workload etc I am out and finally feel as if I can breathe. Left at Easter and get my pension next week when I turn 55 after 33 years in the classroom. I couldn't even make it to the end of the year it was so awful.

It already is. Experienced teachers leaving, teachers with only a couple of years experience being expected to step up beyond their present capabilities which means they are also leaving, now there won’t be newly qualified teachers to fill the gaps.

Time for all the “teachers are well paid , leave school at three o’clock and omg the holidays” folk to step up to the plate.

I'm a teacher at a selective independent school with great results. We've had to re-advertise the last couple of times we've tried to recruit, although the posts are so far being filled (some long-term supply for us, too, as private school teachers aren't immune to illness and stress). A lack of teachers in the system hurts both sectors.

My daughter finishes Maths teacher training at Uni this year and has been applying for jobs starting in September and isn’t even getting a thanks but no thanks reply.

they didn't last very long, bless them. They got all confused when pupils didn't follow orders.....

My child is Yr 10.

No regular maths teacher for months on end.
Told us yesterday that English teacher has announced she leaves on Friday.
No school at all today because of the strikes.
Lost months of school to COVID lock downs in Yr 7 and 8

How the hell are they supposed to get good GCSE's when so much of their education has been disrupted.

A friend’s son is taught by an NQT. She is qualified to teach sociology but is also teaching history, geography, citizenship, psychology and another I forget.

She’s basically learning some of the subjects alongside the kids… apparently she’s very good but her preparation workload must be horrific - and unsustainable?

Hi OP, yes it's disgraceful and a huge risk. And no shock when you look at salaries/ stress due to expectations by tge school, parents and government and long hours.

The whole education process needs a full revamp. Teaching the wrong stuff to the wrong level for most people. Lack of practical, home management, work or business skills.

Everyone needs literarcy and numeracy for sure, we all need an appreciation of how the world works, politics and science. And it would be great if we adopted the Dutch way of teaching kids multiple languages so we are more international too.

But maths to 18yo is stupid. Seriously stupid. I think education goes awry after age 11. But I'm not a teacher or an expert. We need a movement of people who are expert to get this whole agenda together and create a compelling impetuous for change. Teachers would be valued and it would be a career choice that people stay with. It would attract people from commerce and industry too, maybe bring those people in for special lessons even...