Teacher training bursaries slashed/axed in response to pandemic (but Classics still qualifies)

[noblegiraffe]

Next year's teacher training bursaries have been announced and it's clear that they're expecting that there will be a large boost in people applying to teach due to the covid recession.

Bursaries of £24k for secondary maths, physics, chemistry and computer studies students
£10k for MFL and classics
£7k for biology

Other subjects and phases will not be supported.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2021-to-2022

They'd better hope that the increase in recruitment isn't accompanied by a large number of teachers jumping ship in response to how they've been treated by the government, especially as there's a concern there won't be enough experienced teachers available to mentor the bumper crop of trainees.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-huge-concerns-over-post-covid-school-mentor-shortage

Also....Classics still on the list. They all ship out to private schools the minute they qualify. The Tories always find money for their mates...

🤦‍♀️

I’m pretty appalled Classics is on there. I’ve never seen classics taught anywhere other than Private schools.

Also loads of Biologists (and chemists) teach Physics.

DD's state comprehensive teaches Latin.

Can I train as a Classics teacher with my A Level Latin?

Bit gutted though, I’ve been hoping for the £9k bursary I would have had this year to train as an English teacher, would cover the tuition fees at least.

Classics is taught at a couple of the state secondaries near me, As well as the independent schools.

Will Covid really encourage people to want to be teachers?!

I did a thread about the Tory government spending taxpayer money to train classics teachers for the private sector in 2018.

A quote “In 2019-2020 it is estimated that nineteen Classics NQTs will be needed in the state sector. In order to achieve this number, the number of ITT students needed in 2018-2019 is sixty nine.

They are only expecting 27.5% of Classics ITT students to end up working in the state sector as NQTs.”

And let’s face it, they aren’t paying people to train in English or Primary Maths or Design and Technology, so trying to justify spending money on Classics in a recession because a few state schools teach Latin really isn’t going to cut it.

Our state school teaches classic and Latin up to GCSE, as do the 4 neighbouring ones. This is the exception not the norm though as far as I can tell and maybe to do with the fact were in London.

Will Covid really encourage people to want to be teachers?!

Apparently so. Teaching always does well in a recession.

“The overall number of postgraduate teacher training applicants up to mid-August 2020 was 16 per cent higher than at the same point in 2019, and 14 per cent higher than the 2017-19 average, according to a report published today by the National Foundation For Educational Research (NFER).”

www.tes.com/news/lockdown-teacher-training-applications-leap-third

Not sure about whether there will be enough placements though.

To be fair noble we do Latin at my gaffe. Taught by a physics teacher. We haven't had any trainees.

Yes, I get that some state schools teach Latin. But a government priority to train up more Latin teachers knowing they will go to the private schools and with Latin hardly being critically important to the economy - it’s just taking the piss. How can they justify keeping it while dropping primary maths?

Oh fuck, that's screwed me over well and truly.

It is crazy, especially along with their campaign to persuade talented ballerinas to suddenly work In cyber stuff...

Sorry to hear that Zola, were you relying on there being a bursary for your subject?

Good to see on the gov bursary page that they’re still plugging away with Troops to Teachers.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

DD's state comprehensive teaches Latin.

Camden School for Girls? Or are there other state schools that teach it? There can’t be many.

If anyone dares tell me that the government can’t afford to fund hand sanitiser for schools again, I’ll be pointing them at this thread.

@Camdenish were not in one but almost all Harris academies, of which there are a lot, as well as the Michela copy and paste schools teach Latin and some form of classics.

I doubt an influx of teachers due to a drying job market will help teacher retention. Going for teaching because there's nothing else is a pretty low bar. They'll just leave in droves when this is over or once they step into a classroom or have to teach Y8 science with an English degree

@OhCrumbsWhereNow interesting, thanks. I didn’t realize the Micheala schools taught Classics or that there were so many Harris schools, mostly London area though...
Anyway, sorry, de-rail...

Not CSG, or Harris or Michaela... but another London comp. Alongside Latin they also offer Classical Civilisation as one of the History options for GCSE.

They did Latin at her Primary as well - over 50% FSM and well over 50% EAL.

DDs state school (bulk standard comp) teaches Latin. Smallish town noone has ever heard off.

Just did a search for Latin/Classics on TES. Every single advert (only 4 for classics) was for a private/international school.

Clearly a desperate shortage needing government intervention.

Do we think, potentially, this has something to do with the big academy chains and Michaela's links to Teach First??

Noble, I so often agree with you, and I do think you have a case about funding priorities, but you lost me at the 'hardly vital for the economy' line. I'm a classics grad (who never set foot in a private school) and I've been happily contributing to the economy all my working life, thanks very much. IME the majority of people end up working in roles that use very little of their specific subject knowledge. I spent part of my career working in finance and never needed to use anything beyond primary school maths. Most jobs use skills, not knowledge - and Classics is just as useful a subject in this regard as other humanities and languages (arguably more so, as it blends the two). Arguing that funding should always prioritise 'staple' subjects ignores the importance of a broad, skills-based education and also risks squeezing out humanities, arts and creative subjects which are already getting marginalised. I'd love to see classics taught in more state schools. Happily, both grammars and the secondary modern that we're looking at for DS teach Latin.

The state school I work in has a flourishing Classics Department and we currently have two trainees.