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/

This is the issue generally though. In days gone by teaching was a good profession comparable to what you could achieve in the private sector with your degree and post grad.
Everyone has a degree now and could teach. Teaching is the harder option.
Not sure any government can afford to retain Comp Sci/ Physics teachers in this day and age.

When I last looked at the data in 2018, only 25% of classics trainees were expected to go on to work in the state sector.

I have been a student teacher mentor for a number of years and have recently seen a very sinister turn in teacher training. All of my trainees used to come from local universities. PGCEs were structured courses that gently eased trainees into teaching roles (in your first term you would go into school in pairs, Fridays were always university days etc) This is how I learned to teach. PGCEs we’re very competitive - I didn’t get onto the course the first time I tried and had to spend a year volunteering in a school. Recently a local secondary school has managed to get itself accredited as an ITT provider, the trainees from there are appalling, the honestly take any one. The last music teacher trainee they tried to send me had no music degree, couldn’t play an instrument or even sing - their only link to music was that they had an interest in listening to music. These students are not being taught how to teach, they are just being thrown into a school and we have to do all the work. These trainees are paying this local school £8,000 to become teachers and I have never seen anyone fail. This school are making an absolute fortune and these teachers go off and get jobs, realise they know nothing about teaching and go off sick or leave, then your kids are being taught by cover teachers. Honestly Panarama should look into teacher training because it is an absolute scandal.

I ‘ve found this too.

The truth is there are some teachers like this who I know. But you need to have supreme confidence and a very strong backbone.

The other issue is forced academisation - if a school gets inadequate or RI twice they can be forced to join or move to a new academy trust. The new trust will usually appoint a new head, and the new head will have initiatives etc..

Some of these heads and CEOs seem not to care that it is difficult to recruit. They will upset really good teachers (and average ones) and push them into leaving. And then fail to recruit a replacement - but initially that's not their problem as such, it all falls on the department to solve. Eventually, they will likely be criticised by Ofsted for this but by that point it's too late.

Also it's not as simple as all the extra work being meaningless. Some of it is things like SEN referrals, some of it is convoluted systems for student praise, some of it relates to safeguarding or absence and so on. Many teachers don't feel like they can ignore it all!

It's awful. My dd has not had a science teacher this year. Just supply teachers who don't know any science and just give them work sheets.

She currently has supply 'teachers' for around 1/3 of her lessons. It wouldn't be as bad if that teachers taught them but they are not trained in the subjects they are covering so just give them photocopied sheets.

So many schools are recruiting and so many teachers are leaving and there is no one to replace them.

Science vacancies in England on TES - so as we've just said this isn't the full extent of the vacancies.

I genuinely don't know who is going to fill all of these posts. All the SCITT trainees locally to me who want jobs have jobs sorted. I would imagine it is the same for most pgces. Obviously some teachers could still move schools, but that just creates a vacancy elsewhere that needs to be filled.

I genuinely don't know what's going to happen in September.

I'm leaving in July after 20 years in the job. Have had three job offers for teaching since I handed my notice in simply off Linked in. The job has changed beyond recognition since 2010 and and I would not recommend any new graduate to consider PGCE. Have given 20 years to a good job but I will not put up with the conditions any longer. I am not qualified in mental health support and the sense of entitlement and poor attitude is getting far too much from younger students is staggering. I will get a good set of year 11s through who have worked hard but sadly I don't want to teach any longer.

A different spin on the problem: my SiL is a teacher and has been for twenty years. The behaviour and pupil/parent abuse is appalling. She spends her time focused on controlling badly behaved pupils who realise there are few consequences for their behaviour from either the school or, more specifically, parents. She is a great teacher - ex-pupils who have gone into a career relevant to her subject have gone to great universities and stayed in touch. She loves her topic and teaching it but its exhausting,

This! ^^

Teachers who’ve quit their full time jobs. You can make enough to live on as a supply teacher but with much less hassle.

To start with you’re not permanent staff so you can refuse to attend staff meetings. Ofsted is no longer your problem. If a pupil is a huge problem you can just refuse to teach them, and you can say either they’re removed from my class or I walk. You can control your workload and refuse to accept additional classes that would otherwise be forced on you. You can’t be forced to come in during the holidays. You literally come in, teach your classes, mark the work and go home.

Yes it pays less, but if you need to work to pay bills and full time teaching is too much, supply is a viable solution.

schools cant afford to retain expensive teachers, that is why

I think what parents need to understand is that we are at the point where any teacher who is half decent completing a PGCE can now pick and choose which school they work in . And in particular, you will find MFL, physics, chemistry and maths teachers can choose independent, grammar and outstanding. So if your child is in an average school- which most of our children are - or if you happen to live in a particularly difficult area, high lels of deprivation etc. teachers no longer need to work there. Some will make a choice to, but won't have to.

Anecdotally, I treach at an independent in a very deprived area broadly. 2 local schools that parents fight to get their children in have advertised more than once for MFL teachers (plural in one school) this year and not had any applicants let alone someone they could appoint. It is dire. These are good schools but the broader reputation of the area seems to be having an impact. Or there's just no one out there. Neither situation is good

You literally come in, teach your classes, mark the work and go home.

We have maths supply teachers doing long term cover who refuse to plan or mark so that falls on the rest of the department to cover.

The alternative is no maths teacher.

I am starting to wonder if the teachers union use MNs threads to spread their messages. We've had loads of these type of factual, pro-strikes threads recently. All ending with "if the government doesn't give into the demands of teachers all your children are screwed". I'm generally supportive of the teaching strikes and what they are looking to acheive, but this is all starting to feel a little propagandist..

as a supply teacher, you just walk into the classroom, follow the instructions left by the HOD, and walk out. Of course it might or might not be a subject you an answer pupils questions in, but it doesn't affect your pay if you are a history graduate teacher and covering a Russian lesson without knowing a word of Russian, for example

all of us are in teaching unions, if that is what you mean 😂all teachers are in a union!

but I think you will find the common denominator is we are all in schools

I mean it feels like it's part of the union's agenda/ comms plan.

I've been posting these types of threads for years, Nordicrain. As a teacher, not a union rep. I am in a union, most teachers are.

I've been tagging on the bit about the teacher strikes because it is absolutely fucking ridiculous that education is in this situation and the government won't even talk to teachers and is acting like wanting a pay increase is an outrageous demand rather than a basic first step in trying to tackle the recruitment/retention issue.

They've now backed themselves into a corner where they can't give us a pay increase even though the situation is desperate without looking like they've 'lost the battle against the unions'.

HT on one hand is asking staff to stay due to recruitment problems but his hands are tied in relation to retention. Class sizes and timetables make marking, reports and all the other stuff that gets dumped into education relentless.

My son and his gang wouldn’t consider teaching. Why should they when they get bonuses, opportunity to WFH, go on holidays when they want and little evening/weekend work to do

We are all strongly advised to be in a union @Nordicrain so we can access legal support when things go wrong.

Any teacher not in a union risks high legal:advice fees otherwise. It may be a case of false allegations, trip goes wrong, accident at work, employment issues with SLT etc

I know teachers are in unions, thanks. I'd have to be quite dim to miss that atm.

I was not on strike yesterday. I’m in ASCL and a senior leader. Before I was in leadership I was in NASUWT and over my career, I have personally found the NUT/NEU to be a little combative for my personal tastes.

Right now though they have my 100% full support. The situation is dire. We’ve had to timetable far too many lessons with non-specialists, have had to withdraw subjects from the curriculum at KS4 and 5 because we can’t find anyone to teach them, and long term absences are being covered by cover supervisors and daily supply because we can’t get anyone else. We’re used to Maths and Science teachers being like gold dust but now it’s also affecting humanities subjects and English which were rarely an issue in the past.

And don’t get me started on admin and support roles. We just can’t compete with the private sector on pay because of budget cuts, the term time only nature of those jobs used to mean people were falling over themselves to do them. Those days are long gone.

It’s not union propaganda… it’s the reality in schools. You’d be hard-pressed to find many teachers saying otherwise.

It's a short term issue as the Tories reduced the number if children. This uneducated bump will be with us for decades long after the baby boomers have died off

In other words, "I don't like people posting on mumsnet about the damage the tories have done to state schools. You should all stay silent while your kids' education is trashed."