Teacher recruitment - we need a coherent plan

The key themes of my presentation at Shaping the Future of CPD, Cambridge University, were the reality of what schools were faced with when it comes to teacher recruitment. Since that meeting there have been clear reasons to worry that the message is not being listened to:

Firstly, “Three teaching recruitment schemes funded by the government have postponed their application deadlines at least twice, fuelling speculation that few contenders are stepping forward – and schools already strapped for staff could be left short.” Sophie Scott, Schools Week, May 27, 2016.

Secondly and possibly most worryingly, June’s Public Accounts Committee’s report on “Training New Teachers” revealed that the Department for Education’s approach to tackling teacher training “lacks coherence”, its plans are “experimental and unevaluated” and the department shows “no sense of leadership or urgency”.

What needs fixing?

In terms of teacher recruitment it is clear that there needs to be a coherent plan to hitting the recruitment targets that have been missed in all of the last 4 years. Simply, the plan should be to return to universities as the front door of all recruitment on to teacher training courses. Yes, work with successful SCITTs and teaching schools, but ensure that all those interested know that there is one place to apply removing all the confusion in a single stroke.

Regional analysis - A regional plan needs to be in place to alleviate the shortages in subjects on a region by region analysis. The guillotine on recruitment has created a rush to the bottom from providers, piling in the applicants to fill places rather than taking the time to find the best.

ITT routes and retention - There needs to be a detailed analysis of retention from all ITT routes. Those that don’t deliver, lose their public funding. We can’t just rely on each one collating and publishing as only TeachFirst have.

Public sector reward - A national service element must be added from those that leave university and work in the public sector. I believe strongly, with Jonathan Simons of the Policy Exchange, that there should be a reward for working in the public sector. I would propose a student loan repayment scheme. No money collected from those working in the public sector and a third of the fees is paid off for each three years of public service.

The next stage is retention

Firstly, I believe that in schools there is a plan, schools such as Uplands and Oriel High School are working with others creating professional development that has improvement not punishment at its heart. Schools have started to see CPD as a way of ensuring marginal gains in teaching, as Dylan Wiliam says,

“every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.”

Secondly and in my opinion, most importantly, the development of the College of Teachers will have an enormous impact. Focussing on developing teachers over time and allowing for recognition of teacher’s work and development will become crucial. The change in understanding that teachers must develop over the long run and not just in the first 3 years will add a layer of recognition to the profession.

It is up to us to drive those expectations through, but with excellent leadership of the college, we will all see that our professionalism improves over time.

Download the Shaping the Future of CPD report, "Recruit, train, develop, retain".

Liam Collins (@LiamHCollins), Headteacher of Uplands Community College and Vice Chair of the Headteachers’ Roundtable, shares his reflections on teacher recruitment, training and retention following the release of the Shaping the Future of CPD 2016 report.