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 vaguely considered teaching at one point, I would have been teaching physics and was offered a 30k busary for the training year (at the time this was based on qualifications - I have a 1st class degree and PhD so got the maximum). It seemed a little ridiculous to be honest that once qualified I'd then have a massive pay cut. It was very obvious from the recruitment events I attended they were desperate.

Very few comprehensive schools had a physict specialist. Most had biologists who had learned to teach physics too. This is fine for the majority of students up to GCSE but the very bright students and those taking A-level really do need someone with a physics degree to stretch them further and answer questions off syllabus. (As a physict I'm sure I could deliver a decent biology GCSE education to a bog standard student. I certainly wouldn't be enough for a student with a love for the subject and lots of clever questions)

Not,

It is not even that simple.

There is an immense difference (even at year 7) between a confident Physics graduate inspiring students with interesting concepts and ideas and a Biology (or other not directly relevant degree) graduate effectively going through a pre prepared lesson plan and answering questions on a simplistic level.

You have to get your students to choose Physics A level before you teach it to them! And, especially for girls, this is an uphill struggle.

The only solution that I can see is second career teachers who do it for the passion (and have already made money). This will help, but nowhere near solve the problem. Alternatively, increase the pay in scarcity subjects until the supply and demand is more balanced.

There is no reason not to pay a decent STEM teacher £100k + if you believe the long term benefit to the economy of having more home-grown STEM graduates is worth it.

(After all, they are currently paying consultants who can do a bit of programming £1 million per annum equivalent for helping with the useless track and trace).

Although I take your point, lots of state schools do Latin GCSE. My DDs school did for example ( academy in Bedfordshire)

It's really not lots. I know what school that is and it is the only state school in Beds to do it!!

This suggests that in 2015 18% of state schools taught Latin.

www.museums.cam.ac.uk/blog/2018/11/01/amo-amas-amat-and-so-much-more-than-that-the-minimus-primary-latin-project/

I wish more state schools did offer it. I don’t know the percentages for Latin of Mandarin or Russian for example but all languages are useful

@larrygrylls You're probably right. I could give a decent lesson on Biology and cover the syllabus material to a reasonable standard I certainly wouldn't be inspiring in the same way I would be teaching physics. That said though often in Y7 the science isn't separated in the schools I've been in so you'd only have a specialist in one disciplin anyway.