In the second of a four-part series exploring Supporting Education Group’s broad impact, James Marsh explores how innovative approaches can tackle recruitment challenges.
The challenge of teacher recruitment and retention is becoming a familiar story to everyone across the education sector.
Disheartening research statistics seem to arrive at regular intervals, adding further detail and understanding to a saga playing out in thousands of schools and trusts across the country.
Recent data from the sector
When the NFER unveils its latest research on the subject, it’s always worth paying attention. According to the organisation’s recent report, teacher vacancy rates reached their highest level in more than a decade in 2023/24, with 11% of newly qualified teachers leaving the profession within their first year. Often, this is because they entered Initial Teacher Training without sufficient understanding of classroom realities, making the transition shock more severe.
High workload is one of the key factors; according to the NFER research, 90% of teachers cite it as a major factor for considering leaving the profession.
SEND needs, which have grown significantly in the post-pandemic years, is another, along with pupil behaviour and budget pressures.
How we help
It might be a discouraging picture if it weren’t for the efforts being made across the sector, with Supporting Education Group at the forefront.
In our latest impact report, we’ve outlined the contribution we are making to changing the story as part of one of our four key missions: providing great teachers and support staff wherever they are needed.
Our partnerships with schools, multi-academy trusts and local authorities are enabling them to increase their teacher recruitment pipeline and deliver high-quality learning across their settings. It’s an approach that strengthens workforce capacity and enhances educational outcomes through specialised professional development.
The numbers speak for themselves:
• 1,000 teachers entered the sector last year through our initial teacher training, the majority of these were into the early years sector where SEG is the number one provider of Early Years Initial Teacher Training.
• We trained more than 7,000 school leaders in NPQs last year, including 5,000 SEN specialists across early years and school settings.
• Last year, we placed 25,000 supply teachers, support staff and tutors into our customer schools. Those staff provided 1.1 million days of teaching, which equated to more than 5 million lessons to pupils.
Future Teachers Programme
Many aspiring teachers begin expensive initial teacher training with minimal classroom experience, only to discover the reality doesn’t match their expectations – leading to early dropout and wasted investment for both individuals and the sector. Getting interested candidates to experience the joys of being a teacher ‘before they buy’ is forming an important part of our efforts. The Future Teachers programme gives graduates considering a career in teaching a year of practical experience before they enter the teaching workforce through initial teacher training.
Future Teachers is designed to increase teacher recruitment and improve the consistency and quality of education for pupils. This ‘try before you buy’ approach means participants can make an informed decision about a career in teaching while gaining invaluable paid experience, reducing the likelihood of costly early exits from the profession. It also means that schools can recruit staff from the earliest stage in their career and shape their development while fully embedding them into school life. The approach also reduces supply costs for schools as they have a readily available in-house pool of future trainees able to cover and teach lessons.
What schools say
The programme has been well received by school and trust leaders. Stuart Ingram, United Learning’s Regional Director, said it has decreased in-school variation in the quality of teaching and offered financial benefits by reducing staff cover costs at a school and trust level, while Rob Price, Director of Education for Acorn Trust, said that graduates following the route were “very strong and ready for the classroom”.
Recruitment remains a challenge for our sector but programmes such as Future Teachers show that an innovative, energetic approach created and delivered in partnership with the sector does offer real hope that we can turn the tide.
The impact of Supporting Education Group in its four missions is explored in detail in the new Supporting Education Group Impact Report 2024.