The government is increasing bursaries for trainee teachers. Is this enough to avoid a teacher shortage? Can more be done? Are teachers in short supply? Here, ASCL members share their views.

Staff shortages?

Save the PGCE

I am deeply concerned that £8,000 tuition fees will put vast numbers off a fourth year at university to do a PGCE.

This is in severe danger of being lost from the profession and the effects will be disastrous. Once those tutors who have churned out high-quality pros year in year out have gone, they won’t be replaced. This is a big, big issue. We cannot survive the death of the PGCE.

Alex Atherton
Headteacher Park View, London

Shortage in many subjects

Recruitment of trainees for 2013/14 was very difficult and not just for the shortage subjects. The level of understanding of the new routes into teaching was very limited.

Many candidates came to interview having done insufficient research and often hadn’t heard of the skills tests. Many had applied for the wrong route for them.

Applications for our programmes for the Wakefield Regional Partnership for Initial Teacher Training (WRPITT) were significantly down on previous years. In our experience, the withdrawal of the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) route has greatly affected school offers to support training places, consequently far fewer high-quality career changers are recruited.

We remain increasingly frustrated that English is not considered a shortage subject. Schools are already feeling the impact of Initial Teacher Training (ITT) changes and are struggling to recruit high-quality teachers. Hopefully the increase in bursaries will help the trainees but offers little financial support for schools.

Sue Higgins
Assistant Head/Specialist Skills Tutor for WRPITT, The King’s School, Pontefract

Encourage foreign teachers

I am aware of a number of foreign nationals, fluent English speakers, who, having obtained a first degree in their country of birth, are now looking to train as a teacher in the UK.

Many of their early qualifications exceed our A levels in difficulty and level (such as the French Baccalaureate, the German Abitur or the Polish Matura); the range of subjects examined is most definitely greater. Why do we therefore require such potential teachers to jump through hoops and take the qualified teacher status (QTS) numeracy and English skills tests?

We should encourage a greater understanding of qualifications achieved outside the UK and therefore make prospective trainee teachers feel better valued from the start.

Helen Gordon
Senior Teacher, Fort Pitt Grammar School, Chatham, Kent

Deeply troubling situation

The recent shortage of graduates applying for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is deeply troubling. Being involved in the ITT provision for a number of years now, I have seen the numbers begin to dwindle due to misconceptions of the profession, exacerbated by certain sectors of the media and due to the restrictive or excessively bureaucratic policies implemented by those in charge of teacher training.

While I do believe that there are a number of graduates who wish to join the profession, too many times they face a fluid application process that appears to be mired in uncertainty and subject to constant change. If we are to remedy the shortfall, we must act soon, providing a fair and stable application process where all graduates, irrespective of geographical location, can find that chance to pursue their dream of a career in teaching.

Pam Clulow,
Principal, The Cheadle Academy, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

Need more maths teachers

As headteacher of an Ofsted-rated ‘outstanding’ school, in general we don’t have a problem with recruitment. We often get in excess of 50 applicants for a main scale post; however, my experience is that maths is an area of relative shortage.

I’m unsure of whether providing a large bursary – for example, £20,000 currently for computing and physics – is the appropriate incentive? Don’t we risk attracting the ‘wrong’ people in to the profession? Also, do taxpayers get the bursary refunded if holders do not go into teaching? Some of the ‘mature’ trainees (such as those making a career change) that I’ve encountered coming for placements at my school do not have as much to offer (despite their life experience) as fresh graduates; they are inflexible and less willing to learn from their placement experience.

As a National Support School we participate fully in ‘School Experience’. It seems to be an excellent idea to encourage would-be teachers to spend up to ten days in school before applying for PGCE. However, the problem is that this year only a limited range of subjects are on the programme. This is short sighted. I would prefer to see more funding going into this and less on the big bursaries.

Kim Sparling
Headteacher and National Leader of Education (NLE), Oldfi eld School, Bath, Somerset

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