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/

Yep but teaching is the one profession that could improve the whole recruitment problem. Because if we don’t educate our kids well we are utterly fucked.

Which ones?
Will they pay me more, or the same or marginally less than teaching and will I get shit in corridors from 11 year olds, who think I'm worth less than the shit on their shoe?
Will I still get my pension at 67?
Will I get evenings and weekends off most of the time?
Will I work less than 60 hours a week?
Am I allowed to be over 40?
Do I have to wait 5 hours to go to the toilet?

This all makes me so angry

@TheMoth tip: not social work. Or nursing. Or police. Or….we’ll you get the picture.

My neighbour teaches at a boarding school which pegs its salaries to the Welsh pay scales, so no extra money at that school. Obviously the flip side is that his class sizes are half or even a third of the size of the ones in state, so the marking burden is similarly reduced - I've a feeling that private schools don't go in for so much of the bumph either.

Well perhaps Labour should stop pretending that they don't know, and actually look after the interests of the working population rather than whatever happens to be fashionable on Twitter this week. Then people might take them seriously again.

Please tell me what your new job is.

And I assume the other sectors are attempting to do something about it? Unless public sector, of course, where the purse strings are controlled by the fucking useless Treasury who don't understand that you have to actually invest in stuff to stop it falling apart.

I think @noblegiraffe is allowed to start a thread just about the teacher trainee shortages that have recently been in the news. If you want a thread about shortages in other professions, feel free to start your own.

I don’t know how to quote posts and there were a few replies to mine. I’m not saying it’s not a problem in teaching just because there are also problems elsewhere also and I assume that’s not a coincidence.

I’m south east so should have said I don’t really know much about what it is like in other parts of the country but since Covid have been unable to recruit at pretty much any level, from the most junior roles to pretty senior ones. Even with salaries increased to try and attract there is not enough interest.

My DH has just left teaching (GCSE and A level Biol and Chem). He is a great teacher and over the last 3 years only 2 of his students received a B grade, literally all the other grades were A or higher.
He is absolutely exhausted, just couldnt carry on, early retirement was the only way out.

So who does supply?

Another huge issue is that teaching is the only profession where experience goes against you. Staffing budgets should be centralised like they are in other countries. What school is not going to get best value for money and use its budget on cheaper teachers to make the money go further? The system is flawed and leads to many being forced out of the classroom after bullying senior leaders decide their performance is suddenly not good enough anymore due to their expensive salaries. Retention is more of an issue than recruitment at the moment!

Funny you should say that, @Convovulus.

Wycombe Abbey is advertising for a Head of Classics for September. The job description says it’s a significant middle management role.

There must be a limited pool of suitable applicants available as most independent schools in my experience require a term’s notice (too late now). Perhaps they are expecting to recruit from those state schools which still teach Classics.

They are two other teaching vacancies for September, but I suppose they could go to NQTs. The Deputy Head (Pastoral) job is for next January.

I was surprised to see in the TES earlier this week that Christ Church Cathedral School is advertising for a Head of Maths, a job suitable for NQTs. I hope that’s not accurate, but it would get round the notice period.

Or is it that people are hanging on to see their exam classes through and will be resigning at the end of May which is the date for end of year resignations? Seeing the vacancies listed in early June will be a sharp shock to many.

Or schools can't afford to advertise in the TES other than for leadership roles?

I was idly looking up vacancies in X subject in Y County in the TES and there appeared to be none. There are absolutely dozens advertised in the local press and on the county council website, though.

National adverts aren't affordable necessarily with zero money in schools for paper or glue sticks.

I think tutoring is going to become ever more popular. A lot of middle class parents got into the habit of using tutoring during COVID and found it very helpful, and if state schools are struggling while private schools get ever more expensive, it's an obvious way to do things. Pity for the kids whose parents can't afford tutors or don't care, though....

Tbh, I feel like most of what I learnt at school (and uni) didn't really help me in the work world in any tangible way.

Yep fuck if we don’t need education anyway. Because there is no evidence whatsoever that having an educated population supports the economy, health, well being, etc of a nation

@newusername2009 yes there is a recruitment crisis across the country. But by suggesting that is the issue schools are facing takes away from recognising the systemic and political influences on the problem.

The problems schools face is a deliberate attack on the state education system after years of slowly grinding it down. Same as every public sector. This is not accidental.

As a nation we are now suffering as we’ve been buffered from the impact of it due to dedicated people. The problem we face now is that a) those dedicated people are broken so going to work for Aldi and b) others now know how shit it is working in the public sector so are not training to go into these jobs.

Schools funding has reduced/budgets because alot of academic schools are paying lord and lady nothing-to-do with education £300k per year to be executive head of academic chains.

It's outrageous... but as a society everyone keeps voting in these boat people obsessed, tax dodging feral economy destroying political group in power.

Strikes will make no difference... they have taken nurses to court over strike action. This is the society of food banks.

I just hope people think carefully in the next election.

DD2 is a dedicated, excellent teacher (secondary) who cares about her students and loves to teach. She’s two years into her career and says she will definitely be gone within 5, I was shocked. Both of her friends who are 3 years in are leaving this term, some of her PGCE cohort didn’t even bother starting.

Her best friend has just landed a data analyst job. Starting salary more than my daughter, Mon-Fri flexitime. Great office banter, no stress, one Friday in 4 off if you hit your targets. His immediate boss on more than a UPS teacher. He can’t believe what she has to do for her £29,000 and said his job is a ‘doddle’ and thinks she’s crazy to teach.

DD1 applying now for first teaching jobs (primary) Another talented teacher, will get a mortgage then leave.

Both are, in my opinion anyway, born teachers (teacher myself, end of career) Caring, talented, dedicated and will go over and above for their students. Work hard, love the students, hate the politics, pressure from SLT, Ofsted and general attitude towards teachers.

Sad, and worrrying.

Incidentally, DD1 says that the quality of her primary cohort was dire. University appeared to accept anyone who bothered to apply. Many have not the most basic grasp of maths and English, talk and mess about through lectures, don’t hand work in on time, impersonated a lecturer with a disability, and think the course is a huge joke. This is the calibre of future teachers folks!

@newusername2009 thing is though, lack of teachers = lack of education for todays children = uneducated adults for the future.

This will have real long term, bigger picture consequences. I can’t think of many other professions where it will have such an impact on the present and the future.

I mean bog standard as in it’s not a grammar and it’s not a private school. Just a mixed ability, suburban, non privileged school. Just a good one.

There is a wrong assumption that kids who aren’t private or grammar can’t access them and it’s not true.