Teacher recruitment crisis or not?!

[rollonthesummer]

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I am sick of reading articles like this where independent studies have shown teaching is heading for a massive recruitment crisis, only for the last sentence of the article to be 'but a spokesman from the DFE says there has never been a better time to be a teacher. Recruitment is at an all time high'

They can't both be right?! Which is it?
I think the spokesperson should be named and evidence provided!

What shocks me is the complete lack of willingness in schools to try and retain their existing staff. From speaking to colleagues in a range of different schools, SLT who were previously positive, encouraging and appreciative, all seem to be out to 'get rid' of expensive teachers and replace with NQTs. And then those NQTs leave! We lost 12 last year. 12! It's just crazy.

I agree-this wasn't the case 10 years ago?! There is the assumption they are 'past it' and crap teachers.

Does that happens with nurses? Do senior managers try to get rid of older nurses by suggesting they are past it and doing things wrong? Or are they valued for their wealth and experience?!

It certainly doesn't happen to accountants, architects or lawyers.

I'm definitely a better teacher now then when I was an NQT, in my first four years of teaching I felt like a golden child who could do no wrong. Now, despite the fact I do even more 'extra' stuff than ever before, it is as if SLT have put a target on my head and I'm feeling increasingly unhappy at work.

It makes me so sad. I love delivering, planning and marking still, but I hate the atmosphere at work. It is the most negative working environment I've ever been in- and it's 100% due to the management.

It's depressing isn't it? I'm a much better teacher than I was in my NQT and I remember really looking up to the white-haired lady in the class next door who had been doing it forever, got excellent results and just seemed to know everything instinctively! In my old school, some of the new teachers (and SMT) pulled faces everytime one of our older teachers spoke like they were a joke. It was horrible.

The UPS was created to value experienced teachers and to keep them in the classroom rather than lose them to management roles but there now seems to be a sense of SMT questioning, 'what 'extra' do they do for their money when we could hire a teacher on half their wage!?'

Preadvent. I'm not really interested in FE. From what I hear it's all temp contracts, very part time hours, etc. Not sure if that's just my local FE or a nationwide thing.

Thes an element of getting rid of senior, more expensive nurses in the nhs as well. Where I work it's very NQ heavy. With 8 years experience I'm one of the most senior ones in my dept of 100+ staff. anyone more senior on a whole have walked already.

People don't value inexperienced doctors over ones who have 20 years experience just because they are cheap so why is it ok with teachers?!

That's a very good point roll

They are treated with more respect.
Can you imagine someone inspecting them with tossy clipboards telling them they were "requiring improvement".

"you can do Schools Direct (which I think replaced the Graduate Teacher Programme)."

Thanks Schwab. From a quick google, I think it's still called GTP in Wales.
I think I looked into training on the job earlier, but thought that there are very few places. There seem to be only 30 funded places for next year :(

tossy clipboards

If the government really was worried about recruitment, wouldn't they have lots of funded places available?!

Or might it be easier to say there is no problem?

There is a fucking problem.

Ah but derxa it's just a case of carefully spinning the numbers and continuing to deny everything and then the problem just goes away... doesn't it?

It makes me so angry that we're losing so many good teachers to schools abroad, and to supply, and to other professions.

I feel like asking my HOF point blank- do they want me to go? Would you rather I leave? I would find another school, but I fear they're all the same now.

There's a retention problem. I'm a professional tutor for NQTs in my school And they're very hard to hang onto- and this is in an outstanding comp with pretty good behaviour in a rural location.
Young nqts will go abroad, think again and not teach at all, or move into the private sector for better behaviour.
Coupled with a media and government blatant disrespect for the profession and there is no surprise really. Really sad.
I love teaching but not schools. I'm leaving the profession to go abroad with Dh and dcs and I hope I will be able to broaden my horizons and try something new

I work in a lovely school where behaviour is very good, parents are supportive and results are excellent. Despite this staff are leaving in droves to either teach abroad or start a different career. The government has made it an impossible job where children at dehumanised and reduced to data on a spreadsheet.
The problem is that they are throwing money at new recruits so graduates train, stay long enough to get the financial incentive then leave. Clearly this is not working. The money would be better spent on making the job more sustainable eg. Smaller class sizes.
It is very sad. Bearing in mind that I work in a "nice" school I wonder what it's like in more challenging schools.

I also think that new teachers, quite rightly, come in with a different attitude. It's become less of a profession/vocation and more of a job that you do your best at, and with committment and drive. But for a finite period, and then you move on. Especially if you feel undervalued, overwhelmed or that your experience is seen as irrelevant.
No outdated sense of loyalty to one school, woolly, fuzzy feelings about the school community or 'What about the children' Not a career for life.
That change was forced on schools by successive governments, and so you have a different workforce, professional but unsentimental.

I am constantly being told by my 25 year old Head of Department that I am paid loads of money and constantly made to feel that I am past it and no longer relevant.

I really don't want to leave teaching as I do love being in the classroom, but the amount of additional work I am expected to do outside the classroom is getting beyond a joke and impacting on my marriage.

My last payrise of 1% was swallowed up by the increase in pension contribution, I cant get promotion, because I don't seem to be able to produce the correct buzz words in interviews and the responsibilities are given to younger and younger colleagues who know what to say but don't actually have the life experiences to do the jobs, so pass their stress down to us at the chalkboard, through more and more incentives they have read in a book

I've been teaching ten years in a very stable maths department but I have seen enough crappy new hires come and go in that time to know that replacing me - a teacher who gets results rather than parental complaints - will not be an easy job. My school wouldn't fight to keep me, I think (they are shit at retention) but at least they aren't actively trying to get rid of me despite me being UPS2. I find it shocking that other schools are actually getting rid of experienced staff. I know how much better I am now than I was, what experience has taught me, and it's not insignificant.

"If the government really was worried about recruitment, wouldn't they have lots of funded places available?!"

This is what I'm thinking. If they were crying out for people, they'd make it easier for people to train. They're obviously not that desperate.

So, are the government really just believing everything's fine and it's not a problem that needs addressing (despite the teachers workload survey, independent reviews into recruitment etc) OR is there actually a more devious plan? Could it be they are they well aware there is a massive problem, they are pretending to us it's fine but are using Ofsted, PMR, workload etc to break the backbone of teaching and the unions and when all that's left is a handful of SMT and a load of supply teachers, announce a whole new staffing structure for schools?!

Or is that a bit too much like a conspiracy theory?!

I think being an MP is one of the few jobs where you can ignore evidence, refuse to answer direct questions, consistently fail to meet targets, reset targets, vote your own payrises, fiddle expenses and still keep your job.
Who monitors the top of the pile? They do, and if things aren't suiting them, they change the rules.
1066 and All That had it right.
'Magna Charter

THERE also happened in this reign the memorable Charta, known as Magna Charter on account of the Latin Magna (great) and Charter (a Charter); this was the first of the famous Chartas and Gartas of the Realm and was invented by the Barons on a desert island in the Thames called Ganymede. By congregating there, armed to the teeth, the Barons compelled John to sign the Magna Charter, which said:

1. That no one was to be put to death, save for some reason (except the Common People).

1. That everyone should be free (except the Common People).

1. That everything should be of the same weight and measure throughout the Realm (except the Common People).

1. That the Courts should be stationary, instead of following a very tiresome medieval official known as the King's Person all over the country.

1. That `no person should be fined to his utter ruin' (except the King's Person).

1. That the Barons should not be tried except by a special jury of other Barons who would understand.

They're obviously not that desperate. If you have a good degree and want to teach maths or physics, they'll throw £25-30k at you. That's more than you earn in a year as an NQT!

I was given 20k tax-free (School Direct), two yrs ago, for a 1st in MFL.
9K went on fees for the PGCE element.
Would not have taken on a 9k debt otherwise.