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/

yes, yes that was exactly what I was saying 🙄

I'm not a teacher, a parent who's yr 13 dc will have a quarter less time to complete a supervised project than the exam board has said she should have due to teacher shortages. This will make up the bulk of her grade.

Her school has been amazing and I know the staff are doing their best under difficult circumstances (I challenged the MP about funding formula shortly after the last election and surprise surprise, didn't hear back), but there is only so long you can work miracles.

I'm a Head in a union that doesn't strike. So this isn't union "propaganda" as you seem to be implying, it is the day to day lived experience of teachers and school leaders who are battling an impossible job.

DH works in a grammar school. Hard working students, excel in the sciences, maths etc as well as all other subjects obviously. A talented sixth form with nearly 400 kids. He oversees all the UCAS applications. How many want to teach? ONE. Repeat, ONE ( and one undecided) Out of 400.
I imagine Rishi Sinak’s ex school friends don’t teach either.
I always say to the haters, if it’s such a well paid, easy job with great hours and holidays, why does no one want to do it?? This is a genuine question.

I'm not querying the accuracy of this thread. It's the daily threads of the same vain, and was really just an off the cuff musing on whether this is a new union comms approach.

As I said I am supportive of the strikes and think education in this country needs much better investment and an overhall.

It’s a shit show. And let’s be honest; is anyone surprised? The pressure of teaching is immense, it’s seen as a “calling” more than a profession in and of itself, & therefore is badly paid (comparatively.) It’s not actually very compatible either with family life, & teachers are the first to get blamed when things go wrong. Add to that the aggressive inspections adding even more pressure & the relentless working hours - yeah I can see why the market is over-saturated with teachers (not)

When sufficient people will not comply/work in the government's system, then the system will be forced to change. About time too.

Unfortunately, the government will not go gently into that good night in terms of ceding to change, so there will be a good few years of chaos.

No need to be rude @Nordicrain

I was simply stating a reason as to why we are advised to be in a union

It’s cheaper to pay cover supervisors from an agency to teach classes than an UPS3 teacher. If you have no budget left-that’s the sort of choice heads are making.

Primary supply, £110 a day gross, but the school is charged a bit more.
There’s no job security, no sick pay and I couldn’t pay into my TPS before I retired as supply aren’t eligible. Pick and choose when they want me.
Haven’t had a pay rise in eight years, I’d be £40,000+ for a school to employ ft. So I assume that it’s a roughly similar situation in Secondary

It's crystal clear the whole system needs a complete revamp. Sticking bandaids on a broken leg doesn't work.

Fed up teachers, disruptive classrooms full of disenchanted staff and children pushed me to leave and home educate my own children. That was 10 years ago and things have seem to have become significantly worse in schools since then. I'm so glad I jumped ship when I did for me and my DC.

If I needed to prove to anyone that schools were in a progressively bad way I'd be showing them this thread. It's going to become impossible to convince people school is the best place to educate their children with things as they are.

It's the daily threads of the same vain, and was really just an off the cuff musing on whether this is a new union comms approach

I think rather than this being a new ‘union spin’, it’s just that things in schools now really are this bad and everyone is talking about it.

My dad was at the end of his career at this point. He went to work and he came home. He didn’t bring marking home as he did it all in school. I even remember him coming home for lunch a few days a week.
I always remember parents evenings as he stayed so late.

I was a student in another school at the same time, there was zero behavioural issues. It’s hard to explain to DD but very little happened in my school. Most of the bad behaviour was very minor and stupid. Students were scared of parents getting involved as the parents would go mad.
I’m not a teacher but I’ve dealt with many parents who when called will tell you their child has done nothing, it’s all the teacher blah blah. Very badly behaved teenagers whose parents will always believe they aren’t in the wrong. It’s impossible.

Many are opting out but they are putting in other options and adjustments to salaries instead. Some offering a choice of scheme. I don’t think it will have a big impact on recruitment.

There was me thinking you were the rude one for suggesting that I didn't realise teachers were in unions. I mean I would more of less have to be living under a rock. For the record, I'm all for unions and wish they were wider spread in the private sector too.

We are a nice secondary school with good results, and today we are interviewing for a Maths job- only 2 candidates have arrived for interview and 1 has just told us that they also have an interview in the city later in the week (for a non-teaching post). It's pretty dire circumstances tbh.

And I think this is where it all starts, poor parenting coupled with teachers being asked to go beyond teaching. Who are all these statistics and paperwork tasks benefiting?

why is such awful parenting rife?

It’s a society wide problem manifesting in schools.

Everyone has rights these days without considering they have responsibilities.

I'm impressed you had multiple applicants, and that 2 people actually turned up to the interviews.

The school sounds awful and maybe that is the real problem.

I left teaching in December 2011 (science) mostly due to a toxic department but also because I had maths on my timetable and was horrified at how bad at it I was. I did a bit of supply work so my CV was with some agencies. Since Covid, I have been getting 3 or 4 agency emails a WEEK asking me to get in touch about vacancies.

I still work in education and love my job - I work a compressed 9 day fortnight so I have one day a fortnight to do stuff for my ageing parents, I WFH 3 days a week, I have NO work to do outside of work hours and make more money than I ever could have by staying in the classroom. I loved teaching, the kids, the banter but couldn't do it any more and would never be tempted back.

Teachers who are sticking with it have be ultimate and total respect because it is a shit show.

We can only hope. What do people expect when they persistently vote conservative. The current cohort are particularly elitist (wasn't always the case, John Major's government was okay)

My DD is in Yr 9. Her English teacher left at Christmas. In the first 2 weeks back they had different cover teachers every day. One of them was teaching them nouns & adjectives...year 9 top set! They had an exam coming up, the other classes were covering the exam content, hers was not. They got a new teacher for week 3. English is not his first language, that would not necessarily have been a problem...until I looked at her book - he had marked spellings which she has done correctly as incorrect. The whole class dropped marks in tests, until he had to mark them again with the Head of English, & everyone's scores went back up. DD tells me her class are not covering things she hears other classes are. In her Spring report her grade had gone down. She is really worried he will be her teacher again next year...so am I.
In Year 8 she had cover teachers for technology for over a term.
Secondary schools are definitely in crisis now & it's only going to get worse.

No, it’s not a new union comms approach, it’s a standard noblegiraffe approach. I’ve been trying to get people to pay attention to this for years, do a search.

The government and media ignoring what’s going on in schools until it gets so terrible that it’s impossible to ignore is the standard approach for them. It happened in covid too, I tried to tell people, no one listened and schools ended up closing again.

Honestly Panarama should look into teacher training because it is an absolute scandal.

Absolutely. Along with ITT providers taking anyone they can get to make money, they should also investigate the ridiculously generous bursaries that trainees get who don't have enough interest/competence in remaining beyond the trainee year.

I understand the need for attractive offers to recruit to the profession but whilst it may attract STEM graduates many certainly don't have any aptitude for pedagogy. They take the bursary, get pushed through qualifying by the uni, realise they can't hack the classroom and leave during the NQT year. It is such a waste of money.

There needs to be way more focus on RETENTION but the government don't want to pay experienced and effective teachers what they are worth.

I’d actually love to teach maths and physics. I really would. I even have half a maths and physics degree from the OU (couldn’t afford the time to finish it). I’d intended to retrain.

But the conditions i hear about sound awful and I’d lose over half my salary to boot. And apparently get treated like an idiot, with unsupportive SLT who I apparently will have to battle to get even a modicum of respect. And that’s before we think about the pupils.

I also need to think about my own children’s education. If I don’t get into any of my 4 choices (of which I’d happily accept any) I’m going to have to pay for private. So I’ll need the salary I’ve got.

So I shall carry on as I am (unless I win enough on the lottery).

My child is currently in primary and am really really concerned what it will be like by the time they get to secondary. We've already had to move primary schools once because their old one hadn't had a head for over a year, teachers who were totally unapproachable, no reading books for a whole term, no school clubs or any enrichment activities. DC now at a great primary but fingers crossed the head doesnt leave and neither do the teachers. But even in that great primary, TAs have to buy resources out of their own pocket, teachers are regularly teaching without a TA and this is in a very leafing and very nice school.

Am very concerned that we're now in a US style education system - you either go private or education is essentially children being looked after during work hours with little else. Can it be turned around before DC hit secondary in five years - I fear not.

Absolutely no idea why parents are making more of a fuss. It's a disgrace - an absolute disgrace and kids are being failed left right and centre. Am livid and prey things change but no idea what happens if they dont.