You wait for one report on teacher recruitment and retention in England, then three come along at once. There is certainly no shortage of advice for the Department for Education (DfE) on ending a decade of recruitment challenges and rising resignations.
Six weeks ago, a National Audit Office report worried about headline targets. Two weeks ago, the Teaching Commission report investigated ways of keeping and developing educators. Then, last week, the public accounts committee (PAC) weighed in with a report challenging the DfE to share more details about targets, evidence and value on recruitment and retention.
Though I’m inclined to put it more bluntly than they do, my experience of changing career to teaching and then co-founding a charity to help others do the same chimes with all these studies.
The PAC’s headline recommendation is for more detail on finding 6,500 more teachers for £450 million. The DfE got ahead of this last week by explaining that these teachers will be secondary and FE teachers and include those retained at better rates.
Trainee recruitment is up this year, probably because of increased pay and incentives, but in reality, schools need far more than the pledge and an incremental improvement in trainees’ retention.
Currently, post-graduate secondary school hires must increase by about 30 per cent (5,467) to hit this year’s target of 19,270. More varied approaches are clearly required to show people that teaching really is one of the best jobs in the world.
The simple fact is that these shortfalls cannot be filled by just focusing on new graduates. We must develop different routes into teaching.
Targeted interventions
Now Teach have plans to contribute almost 1,600 career-changing teachers by the end of this parliament, or 25 per cent of the target. Many will be in STEM shortage areas, and with proven higher retention rates – all at a fraction of that £450 million budget.
I’d encourage civil servants to heed the PAC’s call to bring coherence and clarity to the DfE’s various recruitment initiatives. Specifically, it needs to look at evidence-based targets and the analysis of initiatives’ value for money.
As an economics teacher, I know this kind of thing is never easy (or we wouldn’t need economists) but it is a helpful challenge.My advice to the government is to dedicate funding to specific interventions for specific priority groups and to enable much more detailed tracking of these trainees and teachers.
For example, over the past three years, the demographic of trainees with the largest growth is the over-40s i.e, career changers. I know (because I was one) they are more likely to make the jump to teaching with a campaign and advice that speaks directly to them.
Whether its teachers coming back after having kids or people from different professional backgrounds sharing their experiences with students (both mentioned by the Teaching Commission), the Government needs to take heed of their additional value, as well as their numbers.
Peer-to-peer support
Retention is another area where the government can point to progress. The PAC’s reccomendation that the DfE explore elements beyond pay is a pragmatic direction with today’s funding settlements.
My experience tells me teachers don’t leave for lack of money but for lack of connection, support and agency. The more challenging the school, the more important this is.
One of the best ways of getting teachers to stay is providing a network where they can connect with people like them, that puts an arm around them, shares challenges and responds with solutions.
Data from the National Foundation for Educational Research demonstrated the impact of such an approach: 91 per cent of qualified ‘Now Teachers’ aged over 40 are still teaching a year after gaining QTS, compared to 61 per cent of the same age group nationally.
Good to great
When it comes to workload the DfE needs to find out more about why teachers leave; most studies point towards working conditions.
A majority of Now Teachers, including me, did tough jobs before, but even so the intensity of teaching is a culture shock. One-third of our teachers, many coming from demanding industries, said their new workloads were higher than their old jobs and nearly half reported that the terms and conditions were worse.
Flexible working can help lighten the load on teachers’ shoulders. Four-day weeks, career breaks, shortened days and an ability to do some tasks from home would boost the emotional, mental and physical wellbeing of teachers. One-quarter of our network work part-time and over half are interested in flexible roles.
None of this is easy. A profession and student body upended by Covid and declining budgets continue to be highly disrupted. The government have made strides in terms of big policies, but they are still working out the details – and that is difference between something good, and something great.
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