Teacher shortages: no shit, Sherlock

[echt]

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/10/teacher-shortfall-schools-overseas-recruits

Are we surprised?

The only surprise is that it's taken so long for this to be news. They can bleat all they like about there never being a better time to be a teacher, but any teacher knows that's not true.

I've been saying that the tipping point is coming and the education system will truly be in crisis.

They will just accept more and more unqualified teachers I suppose. After all, anyone who has been to school seems to be an expert.

Well seeing as its now teaching by numbers, i.e. no thinking for yourself and following a set prescriptive lesson plan, pretty much anyone can do it can't they As long as the results keep going up, due to massive amounts of intervention meaning kids are not allowed to get less than a C, nobody gives a crap!

(I am currently a supply teacher on a long term placement due to inability of the school to recruit two teachers in my department!)

I honestly don't know how the government can keep saying that there isn't a recruitment crisis. Where do their figures come from??

And why do they keep pouring money into bursaries to attract new teachers into the profession, but then do fuck-all to keep experienced teachers?

They don't do a lot to keep the new teachers (in FT Perm jobs) either.
I got a 25k bursary 2 years ago. The course was dire, the university was the least professional, most chaotic set-up I have seen (and I had seen many organisations in many years of my previous career) and to add insult to injury they charged 9k for a substandard course.
As I enjoy being in the classroom, I decided to do supply instead of NQT year, and have no intention of ever doing an NQT year now - supply is great, plenty of interesting work and no pressure or stress. I get to teach lots of subjects for which I have no specialism which is great for my personal development, and necessary because they can't get teachers for those subjects (eg Physics, Maths...) but not a great indicator of a healthy education system.

I thought you had to complete your NQT year within 5 years, because they didn't want people doing supply forever without being properly qualified?

Experienced teachers are expensive, so why would you want to keep them, when you can have more inexperienced ones- until, of course, they become experienced themselves and so on and so on.

Successive governments and inspection regimes have ensured that teaching is a short term career- unless, of course, you are an academy chain CEO or have climbed the greasy pole in some other fashion.

There is a thread on AIBU which has attracted so much vitriol that it saddens me. Why would anyone willingly put themselves through the type of opprobrium so common these days, forfeit any home life or time for leisure pursuits and make themselves unwell because of it.

TBF I think the teacher shortage depends on where you are and what subject you teach. In the NW there doesn't seem to be a shortage of teachers for some subjects. When I "retired" made redundant a year ago there were lots of applicants for my job (MFL) - they appointed an NQT.

I am a physics/chemistry teacher currently on the look out for block supply work.

I am completely inundated everyday with agencies offering me opportunities. I am learning to be selective.

We have advertised FOUR times and managed a grand total of 3 applicants, all 3 completely unsuitable!!

What subject, Spaniel?

I do think that shortages were regional, but I think that they are now becoming more widespread. Perhaps it's just a question of short term careers now and people teaching for a short time only. Having said that, I think that there are older teachers, who have spent a career in teaching and are now under the cosh because they are expensive.

why would anyone take on the trauma and slavery of a permanent job when supply is better paid, and comes with no out of school responsibilities or commitments?

You will have to do an NQT year at some point - at the moment you're not fully qualified; 5 years after you did your training year you will have to stop and train again if you want to qualify.

Is supply better paid? I understood that the hourly rate for supply is higher to account for the fact that supply teachers aren't paid for the holidays - so they get their holiday pay up front whereas contracted teachers get it in the holidays.

Supply is about £100 a day and no holiday pay. That's definitely not better paid than a full time contract.

it works out about the same in the bank, but supply teachers don't have to put in the hundreds of hours outside of school, particularly daily supply, so hours are less than half, and pay per hour is hugely more.

when I do daily supply, I agree to remain behind one hour each day to do marking, compare that to the 6+ hours a day of meetings, marking, preparation, target setting, paperwork, record keeping etc that I used to take home after every day of being a full time teacher...........

and the one hour is voluntary, I don't even need to do that.

Would be better not to volunteer - if you do that you are doing yourself and other teachers a disservice - will become the norm.
No I will never do an NQT year. only necessary if you want to work in a LA maintained school. Where I live there are all academies free school and indies where that does not apply. Don't see that changing back any time soon.

charis, I do the same in primary.
In by 8ish, out by 5pm or so. Earlier if there's not much to do, or if I've marked everything by end of lunchtime.
Nothing outside of those hours, no long-term stress. Evenings and weekends are mine to do with as I wish. I'm well-suited.

I can see what you mean about volunteering the extra hour, it does seem fair to mark some of the work i actually set, but i see your point about others not wanting to feel obliged to if it became the norm. Maybe I won't in future,

MrsUltra, if they pay for a teacher for the day, that's what I give them. Including doing duty and marking what I can. It would feel dishonest not to.

noble - if you do only short term supply work, you don't get all the crap that comes with a permanent job - the paperwork, the tracking, the planning, etc - you get to teach and go home. So if you compare '£ per hours worked' then a lot of supply people will be better off.
Purely in terms of money you are right, the daily rate for supply is supposed to be 195th of your annual salary, so per day it seems higher, but of course it would be the same over the year if you worked every single day, as you wouldn't get anything for the holidays. However, a LOT of agencies take larger and larger cuts, so nowadays, supply teachers don't usually get as good a rate as they did before supply agencies came into existence.

It works out around £100 net a day directly into my account. But the life you have is so much better. I sleep 7 unbroken hours a night! I can go out in the middle of the week! I have fingernails.

FT Teachers who are breaking point and leaving the profession are doing so not because of the money but because of what has been piled on, relentlessly.
As supply teacher, I refuse to do primary because of the marking and duties.
I have plenty of secondary work - there are no marking or duty reqs.
As supply, we don't get paid sick leave, any of the normal Ts and Cs of security/redundancy/ or CPD, or Teacher Pension in many cases. Sometimes we aren't even allowed to park in the car park!
If we take on more and more of the other crap - more fool us!
Do your 6 hrs professionally, and to the best of you ability, and then leave. Otherwise - you are part of the problem.