The ebb and flow of the teacher workforce: solutions

The Government’s aspiration to have a world-class teaching profession where UK schools are on a par with those elsewhere in the world is certainly laudable. It is, however, only an aspiration without the vital ingredient of high quality teachers in our schools who will ensure that every child achieves his or her potential. 

Minus this critical ingredient, this aspiration is nothing short of a pipedream and the fact is there is a national crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers in this country. 

Recruitment

In relation to the first issue, recruitment, the DfE has missed its recruitment targets consistently for the last four years with shortfalls in Primary numbers and in many Secondary subjects.

Miscalculations by the National College in their Teacher Supply Model have vastly underestimated the number of teachers needed. This is worsened by a population surge where 750,000 school places will be needed in our schools by 2025 to meet demand. 

Who will teach them?

Changes to recruitment approaches that U-turn almost annually make any long-term planning very challenging indeed for providers.

The Government’s lack of awareness of  geographical disparities and regional needs that are masked in their data, or the fact that small and rural schools many of whom are at breaking point from a lack of teachers seems clear to everyone else.

There is fierce competition amongst schools even in the same communities to recruit which seems to fly in the face of the realities of the school-to-school support mantra.

Retention

A second and related issue of retention is equally chilling. We know that 40% of those who enter ITT are not teaching in 5 years.  A tragedy. 

Low morale, a rising bar of Standards,  increased workload, ever changing legislation and the Grim Reaper of Ofsted (and I haven’t even mentioned salaries compared with other professions) have led us to this crisis.

Here too the approach has missed the mark. Offers of bursaries are ineffective. The introduction of  new ways to be a teacher with initiatives like Troops To Teachers, Teach First and School Direct and the emphasis on academisation have diverted the Government from the core business of resolving this crisis in our teacher workforce and the urgent problem of recruitment and retention. Its strategy is not working and the response to do nothing different to help meet missed targets is frankly unbelievable.

The solution

This excellent report is very welcome and the authors are to be applauded. Career long professional learning is key to recruiting and retaining the quality educators our children deserve.

The Shaping the future of CPD: Recruit, train, develop, retain report tells us that effective career-long professional learning for teachers must include:

• Access to cutting edge research so that their practice is evidence-informed and they reflect this in their classrooms

• Discussion about what is ‘best practice’, including non-judgemental, constructive feedback on observations of their own and colleagues’ practice

We aspire to be world class. Let us invest in the ingredient that will deliver this: our teachers. And then support them completely with high quality professional learning throughout their careers.

This is such an important issue; we cannot afford to get it wrong.

Get your free copy of the report here>>

This is a guest blog post by Dr Jonathan Doherty, Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. John's professional interests are in education policy, teacher education, teachers' professional learning and social justice in education. He sits on a number of national committees and Boards advising and informing on Early Years and Primary Education and is currently on the Executive Committee of the National Primary Teacher Education Council.