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!

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? Sorry Iguana Just travelled 350 miles back up to Scotland and couldn't post. The fact is the heart has completely gone out of the job. You can't put a price on that. They're shipping 'mercenaries' from other countries (apologies to good teachers from other countries). All the spinning, focus on data etc. doesn't seem to have improved Britain's overall academic standards from the articles I've read. I could be wrong though. Is that the case?

The government can spin the figures to show huge improvement or dismal progress. Whatever they want.

The government don't want to show improvement, they want to show that they have stopped grade inflation and that schools should become academies.

With the push from progress 8 (not even implemented properly) to 90% of children having to take ebacc subjects, its going to get harder and harder to recruitment dedicated people to the role.

Teachers will find it harder to project grades as the boundaries will move every year and if the information that was passed on to us is correct primary pupils will not come to secondary with a grade/level but a statement of "secondary ready" or not.

And how many primaries will say kids aren't "secondary ready" and have therefore "failed" ?

Zero you say?

"I was given 20k tax-free (School Direct), two yrs ago, for a 1st in MFL."

Ah, is Schools Direct only for people with first class degrees or do you get more funding because of it?

"If you have a good degree and want to teach maths or physics, they'll throw £25-30k at you. "

I was thinking of MFL and also about attracting people over 25 who will not want to be in a classroom full of youngsters, but would like to train on the job.

Disclaimer: my training was two years ago so rules have probably changed since then
School Direct then was training on the job, but with one day a week of training either at the school consortium or university.
It was not a classroom full of 22 years old ( tho I would not have minded if it were!) as School Direct only took career changers then.
You could have a 2:1 but I think the bursary was lower. No sure about 2:2
The outcome was QTS and PGCE.
Some of the cohort were salaried instead of getting the bursary, but training and outcome was the same. You had to do a short second placement in another school in order to qualify - same as with PGCE.
My training was absolute rubbish - the university was amateurish and disorganised. The assignments were a joke - academically rigorous-not. And the uni staff were quite openly hostile to the School Direct scheme - a threat to their own PGCE fiefdoms where they normally lord it over 22 year-olds - not used to being questioned or held to account by people with experience outside education.
But 4 days a week in the classroom in very challenging schools was great - I really enjoyed that part, hence why I am now a supply teacher with no intention of ever being PT perm.
At a school I regularly go to there are some trainees who are career changers. They are salaried, and will get QTS but do not do the written assignments so will not get the PGCE element. If you want to teach abroad I think you need the PGCE but in the UK not necessary.

They can recruit, but that is useless unless they can retain and they can't.

Gwen, languages also get a £25k bursary.

Full list of bursaries here:

getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/bursaries-and-funding

Thanks noblegiraffe, but I'm in Wales and that site seems to be for England.

IguanaTail
"And how many primaries will say kids aren't "secondary ready" and have therefore "failed" ?

Zero you say?"

That is the problem, what is the criteria for secondary ready?
Will the pupils come with some sort of guidance as to what levels they are at?
What they are supposed to attain?

Boneyback exactly.

We're still doing levels and have had no guidance on progress 8 or how we're going to implement it. It's baffling to think that this can do anything BUT hinder the transition from primary to secondary- probably one of the biggest issues at my school when I began teaching. Now there are so many problems, that practically pales into the background.

No idea. (That answer for all three of your questions).