A former union leader will chair a new commission on teaching to draw up suggestions for the government to solve the recruitment and retention crisis.
Dr Mary Bousted today launched the Teaching Commission, which seeks to answer the question: “What must be done to recreate teaching as an attractive and sustainable profession?”
The commission will explore the causes of excessive workload, how to create positive working cultures, how schools can promote flexible working, and the competitiveness of teacher pay.
It will also examine the effects of the accountability system including inspection, the impact of the increase in child poverty and cuts to children’s services, and what the English education system could learn from overseas.
The commission is mostly funded by the National Education Union, with support also provided from other members.
‘We can’t just rely on government’
In an interview with Schools Week, Bousted lauded the “serious intent” of the government’s pledge to hire 6,500 new teachers, but she warned: “We can’t just rely on government to come and sort this out for us.”
The commission will seek case studies of “schools which are succeeding in recruiting and retaining teachers. “What are the different models of flexible working? Where are the schools where teachers really feel that their voice is heard, and they’ve got professional agency?
“If we just carry on saying, ‘we can’t have flexible working in teaching’, that’s not a position which can stand any longer.”
Bousted, who stood down as joint general secretary of the NEU last year, said she was prompted to set up the commission “because the problem is so immediate and the consequences, particularly for disadvantaged children, of inadequate teacher supply are so big”.
Recruitment is “really important, but if we want to improve each supply, we have to really focus on retention”.
She added: “Vacancies have doubled. Teachers are just haemorrhaging from the profession. It’s now taking 10 newly qualified teachers to replace every six who leave.
“But, even more serious than that, it’s the fact that teaching is a very young profession, and we’re losing those teachers within six to 10 years’ experience, who are just at the point in their careers where they can be role models. We’re losing the ability to learn from more experienced colleagues.”
Trade unionists and sector leaders join commission
Bousted is joined in her endeavour by 15 fellow commissioners.
They include NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman and ASCL deputy policy director Sara Tanton.
Former head and NEU president Dr Robin Bevan, NEU executive member and teacher Jess Edwards and Nansi Ellis, a former assistant general secretary of the union, also sit on the commission.
But membership is not limited to trade unionists. Leora Cruddas, CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts, Education Policy Institute CEO Natalie Perera, Dame Alison Peacock of the Chartered College and former Ofsted chief Dame Christine Gilbert are also on board.
Bousted said unions had an “important place on the commission”, but “I looked very deliberately for a broad church, so that the accusation can’t be levelled, ‘oh, it’s just a union takeover’.
“It’s really important to have all those voices in the commission because, if the findings are going to have any traction, then they have to have buy-in from the education work workforce.”
Schools Week and its publisher EducationScape are partners of the commission, along with UCL Institute of Education, the NEU, NAHT and ASCL unions and The Key Group.
The commissioners
Prof. Mary Bousted
Chair of the Teaching Commission
Former joint general secretary, National Education Union
Angelina Idun
Director of School Improvement
SSAT
Jess Edwards
Primary Teacher
Chair of Policy, Research and Campaigns, NEU executive
Nansi Ellis
Commission Project Lead
Education Policy Consultant
Leora Cruddas CBE
Chief Executive
Confederation of School Trusts
Yamina Bibi
WomenEd network leader
Diverse Educators’ Associate
Paul Whiteman
General Secretary
NAHT
Prof. Caroline Daly
Professor of Teacher Education
Director of the Centre for Teachers and Teaching Research, UCL Institute of Education
Dr Haili Hughes
Director of Education at IRIS Connect
Principal Lecturer at University of Sunderland
Dame Alison Peacock
CEO
Chartered College of Teaching
Dr Robin Bevan
Education Leadership Specialist
Former headteacher and NEU president
Natalie Perera
Chief Executive
Education Policy Institute
Russell Hobby
CEO
Teach First
Dame Christine Gilbert
Executive Chair, Education Endownment Foundation
Former Ofsted chief inspector
Helen Arya
Chief Education Officer
Oasis Community Learning
Sara Tanton
Deputy Director of Policy
Association of School and College Leaders
Update: This story was updated to make clear the project is funded mostly by the NEU
They need to hold MATS accountable for low retention. Our local MAT has such a high turnover rate and staff are treated appallingly and as a result the kids education is suffering.
No secondary school teachers?
No actual full time classroom teachers on the panel? It’s a failure from the start, then.
Wow! Just wow, yet another commission to restate and “investigate” the bleeding obvious….we know why teachers are leaving and why graduates are swerving the profession like the plague….ask ANY teacher and they will tell you something similar to the following:
Sort ever growing class sizes….
Sort sweat shop working conditions and ludicrous expectations of UNPAID overtime….
End the insanity of death by assessment at KS3 and the subsequent data monster…
End the sociopathic management tendencies in academy SLTs….in fact, return academies to local authority control….so teachers can once again have a degree of agency…
Bring back pay portability and NATIONAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS…
Shorten the teacher pay spine and integrate UPS as a matter of urgency (no more ridiculous jumping through hoops to earn a “professional” salary you can just about afford to pay the bills on- and thats UPS3! )…
Scrap the timid and totally ineffectual teacher pay review body and replace it with an INDEPENDENT pay review board capable of not being bullied by government ministers….
Pay teachers competitively (obviously) eg, in reality this would need to be about 6-12k more than they are currently earning….(teacher starting salary should be arould 38k, experienced teachers outside of London around 60k without “additional duties”)…
Develop an attractive career pathway that rewards experienced teachers for staying in the classroom (that doesn’t require a million hoops to be jumped through either eg automatic status as “Senior teacher” after 8 years in classroom)…
If it was implemented by Gove, get rid, eg the worlds most dull curriculum and the horrific slide towards enforced teaching through Powerpoint…
Make flexible working more of a reality, and where this is acknowledged as not possible pay should again reflect this: something for something, that’s how planet reality usually works…
End bloated SLT management teams and redirect saved monies into classroom roles….
Reform of SEND does not mean dumping unteachable children in mainstream schools (otherwise you’ll find this really is just the beginning of an even larger exodus of staff), resourcing needs to meet the demand that has been created so build more special school places, or units within schools with specially trained staff….
Reinstate the schools for the future building programme and provide funding for EVERY school to ensure it is fit for purpose and the roof isn’t going to collapse or that water isnt dripping onto children and staff sitting in class rooms or that heating can be a thing in winter etc etc. and finally….
Solutions to be sort, and quickly, on turning around the increasingly shocking behaviours now routinely on display in even “good schools” that are pushing talented teachers out of classrooms at an alarming rate.
Obviously most of this will require VERY large amounts of money and a huge degree of political will, equal in zeal to that which has happened over the last 14 years. I’m not holding my breath and am looking to get out like every other teacher that’s still got their marbles that’s seen it and heard it all before from politicians. The above changes will probably take years or even decades to properly sort out, even if the current government, to its credit, acknowledge the horrendous mess that education in this country has become and is intent on fixing a broken system.
Oh, did I mention OFSTED…..?!