Anyone worried about teacher shortages?

[blackcatbabe]

Schools are struggling to recruit at the moment, particularly in the South East. Anyone particularly worried about this in their kids' schools?

Also practically had enough. Same here. So much tat piled upon tat. Changing everything again for the sake of it which involves hours and hours and hours of work.

Latest thing is marking every kids' work in class every week - how am I supposed to teach and mark all of their books at the same time? It takes me three to four hours to mark a set of books properly, I can't do that in a classroom whilst trying to teach, supporting the SEN kids, sorting out the notes for the kids with toilet passes, showing off my questioning skills when SLT do a drop in, dealing with the drama bubbling at the back of the class and actually trying to make sure all the kids make progress, bearing in mind the class's reading ages spread from 4.5 years to 16 years.

We are a teacher down in my department come September, have already advertised twice, no one wants to work here. Not surprised.

Don't know what the solution is but I'm really glad my youngest is nearly out of school.

Not a teacher but a science tech, several are taking the extra nice bursary Royal soceity of Chemistry is handing out to train Chemistry teachers which is why there are so many compared to combined science….. we still don’t know the timetable for September as we are still recruiting. Handing out lead practitioner roles to overseas teachers just to get them in the door….. not promoting internally as need the extra tlr bribes to tempt people in….

I’m a secondary teacher in an over-subscribed school which gets great results. Lovely community etc. Even we struggle to recruit. We had 16 amazing teachers leave last year. We have a handful
more this year. All of which will be hugely missed by staff and students, just like last year’s are. Let’s just say their replacements are not encouraging. The trainees we had last year and this year are not encouraging for the profession either.

Yes! Another teacher here...

Same as others have said. I work at an outstanding comp, 20 years in. First time we have really struggled to recruit (apart from physics which has always been tough). Our head basically told us to strike in a staff meeting to aim for fully funded pay increase. She is fab but her stress levels must be insane.

Theres a big population decline in the UK now with the average woman having 1.5 children so having less teachers is a problem temporarily but it will even out in the end.

Yes. Mainly because I'm a teacher and we can't recruit in my secondary in London. My kids primary is currently okay.

Ah yes, the long view.
Which ignores any child currently or coming into school, and doesn't address the chronic under funding of schools or any of the worktime issues which will only get worse.

I saw an advert for a secondary school English teacher in London borough offering £85 per day! They'd earn more in a cafe without the stress. Bloody ridiculous.

And it's not just teachers. Schools are struggling to recruit IT technicians, counsellors, teaching assistants, lab technicians and other support staff. Schools don't have the money in their budget to pay the support staff a decent wage.

Do most parents realise this? How many of them actually have a clue that this is what the strikes are really about. Suppressed wages equals no new blood in the profession and what you do get doesn’t stick around for long.

Also know a bloody good science teacher leaving with no job to go to yet. She can’t decide whether to give up completely or supply and try to find a school with less stress. They can’t replace her. The impact will be huge.

Yes, I worry a lot about this.

I’m not a teacher but there are a few in my family and friendship circle, so I see how stressful it is for them.

I’m surprised when people on MM say there is a lot of negativity towards the teacher strikes because pretty much everyone I know in real life supports them.

My daughter’s primary school seems ok at the moment but I do worry for when she reaches secondary.

Yes, I am leaving my school this year and they have not been able to replace either parts of my role (I have a tlr for a whole school responsibility and nobody wants it!) and my subject role which has never been a shortage subject before and indeed they did get 3 applicants but none of them were qualified teachers…

Yes I'm worried for my DC.
I've seen first hand the difficulty staffing problems cause.
Like other posters I'm also planning my exit and might be returning to be former career.

It worries me.
There seems to be a lot of cover lessons (some long term, half a term without a maths teacher, 2 terms without computer science). Bigger groups in English to manage staff problems. I hear of similar probs from friends in other schools.

I see job ads on Glassdoor for an 'unqualified science teacher'. Not just a one off, a few, particularly in London. Is this because they are cheaper? Or because they can't get applications? Some of the jobs offer to support through QTS. Either way it's not great.

Yes it's bad. GCSE options being dropped due to lack of teachers

Maybe if parents and governments valued the profession instead of bashing it constantly we could recruit more teachers instead of them leaving in droves

Independents are struggling to recruit too as many have opted out of tps. They can also recruit unqualified staff which is happening more and more to save money. Don’t fool yourself that you can buy your way out of this

Why is he covering? Is his timetable light?
He should seek union advice, because that's not acceptable.

In a nutshell.

Yeah.

And it doesn't help the government are refusing to release how much money they'll give schools next year until the summer holidays.

They want them to fund lower than recommended pay rises through budgets they won't announce.

Yet - apparently - it's the teachers who are the problem 🙄

That's strange because net migration over the past two years has been 1.1m.
Most of these would be people of working age with children, or planning children.
All the schools in my city are oversubscribed.

A lot of areas for primary do have more applicants than jobs, but due to the way schools are funded it still isn't always great as inexperienced teachers are cheaper and therefore more appealing. This isn't to say they're incompetent or not good teachers, but ideally schools would have a combination and some don't. TAs and other support staff are also often being cut which affects teaching quality. I do agree though that secondary is a different kettle of fish and scary.

Most people who aren't bothered don't have children so no direct skin in the game (although the effects will filter into the workplace soon enough), or they have no clue how dire it is and the implications of this. Same with the critical lack of qualified staff in the NHS to be honest, I'm surprised more people aren't aware how dangerous it is currently and that its going to get worse.

That must be for an unqualified teacher. I wonder if they looked for a qualified one but gave up, or if budgets are so tight they went straight for unqualified.
Either way, it's not to benefit the children.