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?

Yes

And good teachers are also very under valued. There are lots of problems.

@Twiglets1 this is a worry for me too - I'm currently retraining to be a TA but seriously wondering whether I'm doing the right thing as only this week had to assist another TA with a days teaching and am just not prepared at any point in future to take on the role of a teacher for the money I'm paid.

Ah well...that's ok then 👍 Fuck what's happening right now, it'll even out 'in the end' 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Idiot!

from the threads, it is not just funding, students behaviour & parent’s expectation are significant reasons. (may mentioned teachers left for low-paid but less stress/more respect jobs)

In the country where I received primary and secondary education, culturally, it is the norm to respect teachers. Teacher is a sought-after profession, although the pay is just ok (not high-paid), it is very secured and well-respected.

All of our TAs are expected to do whole class ‘teaching’ and are used for cover now rather than getting a supply teacher in. We have a defecit budget and aren’t allowed to use any more supply this year…! This would never have happened in the past!

Have you ever bothered to check the qualifications of all the staff at your DCs private school? My best friend started aa a TA four years ago at a very expensive private school...she now teaches A level English there! Absolutely no teaching qualifications whatsoever other than shadowing the 'then' English teacher as his TA! Her degree (which she completed 20 years ago) was in History. I mean...she does at least have a degree I suppose 🤷‍♀️

This is very common in independent schools. You don't actually need a teaching degree to teach in one. Parents often don't know this though.

And good teachers are also very under valued. There are lots of problems
This.
Of the people I know who have left, the vast majority are excellent teachers.

Of course there are many excellent teachers in the system still, but on the whole it seems that strong and experienced staff are leaving, and being replaced by mixed quality teachers/cover supervisors who'll burn out in a few years and won't get the benefit of experienced staff mentoring and supporting.

The standards and staffing levels are better though, to be honest having a PGCE doesn't necessarily make a decent teacher, sufficient support and reasonable class sizes etc do though. I'd rather have an unqualified teacher in a decent setting than a NQT or whatever they're called these days in a short staffed school with huge classes and not enough resources to go round.

Yes and they pay them less. Private schools have been doing this for years but it’s on the increase, many independents were hit badly by covid and do not have the money they used to have.

Not true

Also when you say teaching degree few people have a full honours in teacher many have a PGCE which takes less than a year to complete. I had a year of madness and did one actually in a shortage subject unrelated to my degree. It was intense but it was mainly classroom management (which didn't apply to actual school settings it seemed) and how to complete lots of the arduous and pointless additional things the gov expects schools to do; the placements were fine but I suspect you'd get more support being a permanent member of staff rather than a student just there for a few weeks.

I've recently returned to teaching in FE where it is even worse in terms of pay and staff retention. I moved because secondary conditions were so awful. Behaviour and workload is so much better and being older I can just about survive on the pay. Those with bigger outgoings and young families can't. We have lost 3 of the 4 existing science lecturers since Christmas. Top of scale is £35K, That's 10k less than UP3 give or take and we don't get school holidays. I'm hoping to stay in FE but as it stands I am the sole science teacher for 3 FE level 3 programmes of study in September and I can't see us finding anyone else in time for term start if at all.

Private schools round here have far worse recruitment problems than the state ones as they have all pulled out (or about to pull out) of the teacher pension which is one of the last semi-decent perks left.

(also, you don't have to be a qualified teacher at a private school).

One issue is that there are lots of tasks that involve so much more time and stress than they used to. Two examples spring to mind. One is grade predictions - it used to be that you gave out predictions, there were a couple of grumbles and questions, and that was that. Now the stakes are higher, and there are loads of angry emails because X doesnt have the prediction they need for the course they want, demands for meetings, demands for an explanation and evidence to justify the prediction, complaints to the HT or governors if a prediction isn't changed. And that's in state - in the private sector they'll often bring their lawyers.

Another is organising school trips. They were always a faff, but there's far more involved now. Loads of admin around airlines and passports when you book. Meetings with individual parents whose children have SEN or anxiety or allergies about how they'll be looked after on the trip. And hundreds of emails with questions or complaints - what will my fussy eater child be able to have, does the coach have seat belts, will there be other people staying in the hotel, it's outrageous they can access their phones at night what about sexting, it's outrageous they can't have their phones at night what if they want to call home, it's outrageous they don't know their room-mates in advance it's causing my daughter so much stress, it's outrageous you've put her with X you need to change the rooming, or (my personal favourite) can you move the whole booking to the Hotel Splendid down the road we stayed there last year and it was lovely. All of those emails need a reply, even if it's just a polite version of 'no'. And then only three parents say thank you when they pick up.

@JRHartleysmum very true. My friend is on an unqualified pay scale which is shocking! She is actually struggling as her knowledge of the KS3 and KS4 English curriculum is quite poor to be honest. I'm English Lead at my school and I've been helping where I can (but my workload is beyond ridiculous!)

It saddens me when I read that people think that they feel that having an unqualified person teaching their child in a 'smaller class size' is preferable to having an experienced, qualified teacher in an average class. NOTHING can replace an experienced class teacher!!!

I have a full honours degree. I did a four year BEd (Hons). We are a dying breed 🤣

There is also another factor at play which isn't widely recognised yet. The government in its wisdom are pulling the funding in England for large level 3 BTEC programmes starting with Health and Social care and sciences BTECs in 2025 I believe. This means that post 16 students will no longer be able to go to their local FE college to do a level 3 BTEC (equivalent to 3 A levels) to get UCAS points for university. They will only have the choice of A levels in school or T levels in college. I am currently delivering the new T level and is it woefully short on academic knowledge. It is specifically not designed for university progression. It is designed for apprenticeships and entry into industry. So in 2025, those students currently opting to go to FE colleges will have stay in the school sixth form provision. The large numbers of students who don't get their 5 good GCSEs and who currently do a level 2 college course followed by level 3 at college will no longer exist. This is often one of the biggest cohorts in FE.

This is then being rolled out over the engineering, building trades, hair and beauty etc over the next few years. All my years and specialist skills in delivering outstanding BTEC programmes will be worthless. Also T levels are not funded for those over 19, so any 20 year olds wishing to return to level 3 education have no ready pathway back into education.

Some of the budget problem will be money flowing the wrong way. Amalgamations happening with no apparent improvement on function, it just seems to be an exercise in sending money up to the top where the management sit in meetings and produce reports and write policies and compliance, compliance, compliance. Oh so much time wasted on policies and paperwork that no parents read. This is just not what education should be. We just want more people on the ground being with our kids, not stuck in back offices being invisible except for when they’re wheeled out for marketing the school to parents/prospective parents.

I don’t have experience of international schools. Does anyone else? I always wonder what it’s like to work in other countries and how different or similar it is.

Agreed. I teach in a 'leafy lane' school with a good reputation. Behaviour is poor. This is exasperated by having too many children with SEND in the class without support and a curriculum unfit for purpose.
I'm out in July after 30 years in the profession. Always used to love my job and was proud to be a teacher. Now I can't wait to leave. It's heartbreaking. But I can't do it anymore. The stress and workload are making me ill.
Glad my DC are adults but worry for the current kids.

Wow that's quite a shortfall! I'm especially surprised English teachers are so short of the target as I thought it was mainly STEM subjects they were struggling to recruit for.

Having said that, I do think it's a shit job, and I certainly discouraged all my children from considering teaching after seeing the hours my teacher friends were putting in.

A level and degree numbers in English have fallen massively since Gove’s woeful changes

The state vs private qualified vs unqualified teacher argument isn't straightforward. Sometimes the question is actually would you rather have a teacher who doesn't have a PGCE but is a subject specialist with ten years of private school teaching experience vs in theory a qualified teacher but in practice a succession of non-subject-specialist cover teachers and sometimes TAs? I know what I'd rather.

Most people don't have the option to make that choice.

Oh no, of course they don't!! I just meant it's not as simple as ''qualified teacher good, unqualified teacher bad'.