No class teacher for next term

[Det54]

Really worried about my sons school. He will be going into year 5 next year. The current year 5 teacher is leaving, the school have advertised through the usual channels twice for a replacement - not a single applicant!! Without giving away too much, it's a small church school in bucks, generally nice well behaved children and pretty supportive parents, why no applicants?
What are the options for the school if they can't recruit, it's getting a bit late in the day now to recruit for a September start. I'm quite concerned about the impact on my child as we were hopeful that he had the potential to pass the eleven plus but without a good class teacher for the next year I'm worried his progress might be affected.

There's loads of time to recruit for September! I thought you meant for this term still to come.

There is a shortage unfortunately.

Teacher retention and recruitment are low. Write to your MP whilst you're waiting.

Deadlines for handing in notice for September start is May 31st.

I'm sure they won't leave Y5 without a teacher.

If they're a teacher down, it'll be Y3 who will be left without a permanent teacher.

Still time for them to recruit, or they could use a long term supply, who basically is permanent, or if they have a teacher who does PPA cover they could make her a class teacher.

Basically it's school's problem and they will do the best that they can do. But it's very unlikely, that with just one vacancy, Y5 or Y6 will be left without a teacher.

Oh, and one reason Bucks schools struggle to recruit is because just a few miles away teachers can get paid more due to London weighting........

I think NQTs/teachers coming back in after a break tend to apply after half term as they're not up against the more experienced teachers who have to give their notice in at the current school by half term.

That's the reality of life in every Bucks primary school I know (and I know plenty). As stated above, you don't have to go far down the M40 to get London weighting. Large parts of the county are incredibly expensive for new teachers to move to. The significant squeeze on school budgets means that schools don't have the option to offer an enhanced salary or conditions to attract the right candidate, whatever the Government rhetoric. Bucks school funding is historically one of the lowest in the country so school don't have anything they can cut to release funding to attract new teachers. If you look on the Bucks job website there are currently 46 primary vacancies advertised, the majority of which are in lovely schools that I would be very happy to work in. And above all, there's a significant teacher recruitment and retention crisis due to the unsustainable workload faced by all classroom teachers. The leadership team of your son's school will be even more concerned than you are as they are facing a pretty unpalatable set of choices for next year. This is the reality of life in primary schools in this area - so make sure your MP knows about your concerns.

What toomuchicecream said. I worked in a very large Primary not too far out of Bucks and we once went into the summer holidays with 6 vacant teaching posts.

The positions were filled with a combination of supply and foreign teachers.

It's very hard to run an effective school with recruitment problems like that though.

It is a long time to September and the school have plenty of time to advertise again.
Yes there are issues but when push comes to shove , the school will have to take a teacher on short term supply rather than have no teacher, which is not acceptable for a term or more.

I read that Bucks was a winner in the new formula funding and although keeping some back for SEN, which runs at double the percentage of children in other similar areas, the rest is going to schools. Bucks is historically a low spender on schools and unfortunately a LA that, in the south, has competition from London.

There will still be NQTs, arrangements with supply teachers and part time teachers who could job share. The school should actively think about this. We have several at our Bucks school and it works well. Schools have to be creative!

Perfect storm, OP:

• Economy stronger than for the past decade so more job options for new graduates to choose from
• accountability measures and ludicrous workload causing teachers to leave the profession
• house prices in Bucks are high because of grammar schools
• salary in Bucks is lower than with London weighting

There's a shortage of teachers.
Equally there are teachers who will work long term supply yhrough agencies for 1-3 terms without being a direct employee. As far as the parents or kids see it isn't any different to a teacher employed by the school directly.

Plus after half term the job market will be exclusively NQT and people either currently on supply or ending fixed term contracts so there's still time to get someone for September.

Our school has not advertised vacancy for September yet...

There is a huge recruitment and retention crisis in teaching at the moment-Tory education policies aren't helping.

There's still time-they'll probably manage to hire an NQT or a graduate who they can train in the job (SCITT type scheme). Failing that/they'll get a supply in or put a combination of the head/deputy/Senco in class.

Still plenty of time to recruit. I would be very surprised if yr 5 did not have a regular teacher

We recently advertised for a KS1 teacher in a leafy area independent school - had very few applicants, asked three to interview, one didn't even bother turning up on the day, one was hopeless and the other not suitable. We did not appoint!
Finding decent teachers at the moment is hard!

It's the new normal. Our school has no HT and 4 out of 7 classes have no permanent or long term temp teacher. We are home edding now.

Recruitment is an issue and worrying for schools and parents. I have three supply teachers contracted for this half term after advertising posts at least twice. Even decent supply proved to be a huge issue with good supply teachers really hard to find. Teachers not current, teachers out of key stage, teachers who don't want to work full time, teachers who didn't follow the school policies leading to inconsistencies for the children; invited at least 15 into school and didn't want any of them really, but no choice , children can't be left without. Education is a mess.