Teacher shortage crisis to get even worse

[noblegiraffe]

The current data for teacher training applications for September 2022 has just come out and it is not only down 24% on last year, when more people decided to train as teachers in an uncertain economy, it is also 8% down on the same time in 2019 well before covid. The government have missed recruitment targets for years so there's already a critical shortage, particularly in subjects like maths, physics and computer science, and especially in the disadvantaged areas of the country that the government is supposed to be 'levelling up'.

The government had banked on lots of people wanting to train as teachers in a recession and cut the training bursaries massively. This has clearly had an impact and we are now facing an emergency unless something happens that turns this around.

[quote KleineDracheKokosnuss]@Canaloha can I ask what boot camp you did?[/quote]
I did one as part of a women in cyber initiative, but now it seems there are a fair few funded ones:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-a-skills-bootcamp/list-of-skills-bootcamps

Feel free to PM me if you like!

I'm just a SEN 1to1 TA and I'm thinking of getting out. I work with a child who kicks and bites and spits and spends most of the day telling me to fuck off. I get that this child has huge issues, exacerbated by a toxic home life, but I'm exhausted. I daren't take my eyes off this child in case they hurt someone else. I have to learn technique after technique to deal with this child, and am constantly criticised by SLT as the fact that no technique to manage this child's behaviour works is my fault. All for barely minimum wage.

The teachers in my school are micromanaged to within an inch of their lives, we are bombarded with emails daily, changing procedures or creating new ones. The latest being that all teachers (categorically not TAs) must hear every child in the class read for ten minutes every week and make notes on their reading ability. So 15 (ish) minutes x 30 children = over 6 hours a week?!? There is simply no time in an already overcrowded day. Plus we are still in class "bubbles" (which is a farce as all the children meet up out of school anyway) so children have to be accompanied to the toilet to make sure they don't "burst a bubble".

If it wasn't for the dedication of the teachers I work with, their desire not to let down the children they support, they'd be gone tomorrow. At least three will leave at the end of the year.

I've worked in high pressure roles in the City; a doddle compared to working in a school!

I had to print stuff out in blue paper too.

Repo had to buy loads of turquoise paper. Pale blue wasn’t the correct colour🙄

I have had to print on various colours over the years. Is visual stress a bit of a myth then?

Hah, my school hasn’t been able to afford to pay someone to come in for staff training for years. We have a member of staff do an online course or read a book then they train everyone else.

l think the trend to homeschool will definately continue, the school system is so antiquated and limiting, it was much better suited before the introduction of technology. l don' t know of a single teacher who enjoys their job and that must reflect in the classroom. When l walked through my sons secondary school whilst classes were sitting, it felt like a soulless prison.
l think it will be a positive change if teachers keep leaving and nobody wants to go into the job, it will finally force long needed change so that the school system is more in touch and relevant to the real world.

@Arbitrage

Set yourself up as a dyslexia consultant. Schools bring you in to do in-school training at £2000 per day. People like easy fixes - getting teachers to make print-outs in different colours makes perfect sense from your perspective because you won't be the person who has to do it.

They obviously didn’t do a very good job. Coloured paper is for visual difficulties (supposedly) - dyslexia is a phonological deficit

l don' t know of a single teacher who enjoys their job and that must reflect in the classroom.
I love my job. I don't love the endless bullshit but I love teaching.

I wanted to but can't afford to train, I need the £16k I earn to pay bills. They also said my 2:2 isn't good enough despite a masters, 24 years in related work. I looked into being a social worker too, also told my degree wasn't good enough - far fewer people got top degrees back then!

I’m off too. I said I’d do 10 years- I did 7.

Going to SAHM before my baby goes to school and use the time to finish my masters and upskill. No idea what I’m doing next- but I’m not teaching.

Saying that, I could be tempted into an intervention teacher or PPA post when my daughter has some nursery days- but I imagine everyone wants those.

I now work in a lovely private school but did many years in an increasingly toxic state sector - so can echo all of the comments.

Performance management based on results when you've been given a bottom set full of kids who don't care/turn up. Teachers put on capability procedures because ambitious line managers think it will help their career if they can put this on their CVs, 70+ hours a week to still be told that your marking isn't up to scratch, micro managed to within an inch of your life, graded 1,2,3 or 4 based on a lesson observation with an awful class.

I could go on. I would have left teaching if a job in the private sector hadn't come up - and I have 20+ years experience and am bloody good at my job.

I did a primary pgce after graduating as I'd always wanted to teach, I'd done plenty of work experience over a course of 4 years or so but the reality was worse than I thought. Leaving was the best decision ever and this was before covid, can't even begin to imagine how crap it is now. I earn bordering on £50k to work 7.5 hours a day, nothing outside of that, and can work from home or go into the office as I please.

@Moonlette

I did a primary pgce after graduating as I'd always wanted to teach, I'd done plenty of work experience over a course of 4 years or so but the reality was worse than I thought. Leaving was the best decision ever and this was before covid, can't even begin to imagine how crap it is now. I earn bordering on £50k to work 7.5 hours a day, nothing outside of that, and can work from home or go into the office as I please.

Can I ask what type of work you do now please?

@Arbitrage

From what I saw, dyslexia was a disposable 'condition', used predominantly by the rich to purchase extra time for their kids in exams. To obtain the dyslexia label, parents have to pay for an EP report. Schools, especially in the state sector, don't have the budget to get their kids tested. In one of the more expensive private schools I worked in, up to 25% of the students sitting a GCSE or A Level exam had 25% extra time because they were dyslexic. Once these kids finished their academic careers, their 'dyslexia' mysteriously disappeared from their job application forms and CVs. At the very least, the fact that a dyslexic received extra time should be printed on all their exam certificates, so employers can make more informed recruitment decisions

What a horrible post based on total ignorance - I despair that such archaic attitudes persist in the teaching profession. Perhaps share your views with the 13 year old boy I saw yesterday who was weeping in my office at the shame and humiliation he felt because he struggled to read any thing near an age appropriate text. Tell his parents, who work in very ordinary jobs, and who had scraped together my fee because their son had been consistently failed by the education system. As for application forms, I advise adult clients to think carefully when and how they declare their dyslexia in the application process because some employers will discriminate (your post may give an insight into why I give this advice).

At the very least, the fact that a dyslexic received extra time should be printed on all their exam certificates, so employers can make more informed recruitment decisions. - so does this extend to anyone with a disability? The ASD student who may get 25% extra time, the VI student with 50% extra time, the dyspraxic student who uses a laptop?. I think you will find these are called “reasonable adjustments” and are part of our equality legislation

@Arbitrage

Good money to be made in the dyslexia industry - most of it being on the diagnosis side of the game.

Ha ha - what a joke.

I am one of those 'missing' applicants. Personally, it's nothing to do with bursaries, ECT years or similar. I just cannot be a part of a sector that is causing so much damage to children.

That's not to say I think teachers are the problem - I vehemently do not - however they are, undoubtably, a cog in the machine. The machine is inherently corrupt and I want no part of what the Tories are doing to education.

See there's numerous posts above me that entirely prove my point.

SEND isn't a fucking industry. Children with SEND should not have to 'declare' the reasonable adjustments they received to afford them the same access to education as their more privileged peers. SEND is NOT a trend.

Fuck off with that ableist bullshit. Get the fuck out of education and away from vulnerable children.

@Arbitrage

You’re right in the state schools can’t afford for kids to be assessed. We’ve managed to fund 3 EP this whole year and probably need 50 across the school, so amongst ourselves we are fighting over who we think should get those 3 assessments!

@OnceuponaRainbow18

I agree. I was lucky a few weeks ago to have an EP visit for a child in my class. I explained to her she could be here for at least ten of the class.