SecEd The ONLY weekly voice for secondary education Inside this issue England’s schools have lost Analysing the


Pupil Premium A year into the Pupil Premium scheme and schools will need to start showing the impact the money has had. Nick Bannister takes a look how Pages 8 and 9


Effective VLEs


Ten years after the first VLEs began to appear, school leader Ben Solly offers 10 tips on effectively developing your school's platform Page 10


By Pete Henshaw


Cuts to school budgets, govern- ment criticism of the profession and declining job satisfaction have all been blamed for the loss of more than 10,000 teachers’ jobs in the past year. One teachers’ union this week


expressed fears that the workforce was “disintegrating” in the face of continuing cuts to school budgets. Figures released this week


show that as of November 2011, a total of 438,000 teachers are employed in state-funded schools in England – compared to 448,100 the previous year. The dramatic expansion of


the academies programme means that 56,500 more teachers are now working in academy schools. However, there has been a 57,500 drop in teachers employed by state maintained secondaries. There are also 1,400 less pri-


Three-year KS4


Head Philip Cantwell's school has moved to a three- year key stage 4. He explains why and how Page 14


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mary and nursery teachers and 7,500 less centrally employed local authority teachers working in schools. Headteachers have blamed


the figures on budget cuts which they say have left schools with no choice but to lose staff. Brian Lightman, general secre-


tary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It’s not surprising to see that the number of teachers has decreased slightly. We predicted two years ago that as budgets were cut, some schools would have to make hard decisions about staffing levels as the only way to make ends meet. “Often this is done when teach-


er retire, by not replacing them like-for-like, but instead increas- ing class sizes slightly, shifting responsibilities among staff and


using teaching assistants and sup- port staff more effectively.” Teachers, meanwhile, have


warned of decreasing job satisfac- tion which they say has led more and more to consider quitting. The NASUWT teaching union


pointed to a recent survey of 16,000 members which found that almost half had considered leaving the profession in the last year. A similar number also said that their job satisfaction has declined. General secretary Chris Keates


said: “The evidence is clear that the schools workforce is disinte- grating. We will continue to make representations to the secretary of


state, but he refuses to acknowl- edge our key message – that as a result of the coalition government’s policies, this is a profession in crisis. “Furthermore, the situation is


dire for the future of the profes- sion following the recent news that there has been a 30 per cent drop in applications for teacher training for this year.” It comes as the total number of


teachers on teacher training courses stands at a five-year low. Figures show that the number of people training to become a teacher – both on university and employment- based routes – stands at 36,470 for


2011/12, which is 2,000 down on 2010/11. Also, recent reports show that


while there are more than 13,700 places allocated for secondary PGCEs – still the main route into teaching – in 2012/13, so far only 6,800 students have been accepted onto courses – 10 per cent less than this time last year. Shadow education minister


Stephen Twigg accused the govern- ment of leading a “triple whammy” against schools. He said: “Fewer people are being attracted into the profession, the government is cut- ting teacher training places and more are leaving. “Michael Gove has lambasted


teachers as the ‘enemies of prom- ise’ and ‘whingers’. If you insult teachers, it is no wonder they quit. Of course we need to raise stand- ards, but we can only do that by taking the profession with you, not insulting them.” The Department for Education


took a positive view on the fig- ures, pointing to a 3,400 rise in the number of secondary teachers in English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects. The figures show that between


November 2010 and 2011 there are 600 more teachers of maths, his- tory and geography, while there are 500 more English teachers.


Academies


Nursery/Primary Secondary Special


Issue 316 • May 3 2012 Price £1.00 www.sec-ed.com


10,100 teachers in a year… …and those who are left are being paid £100 less on average


Schools minister Nick Gibb


said: “The figures show an encour- aging trend that reflects the fact that schools are offering more of these core academic subjects. In 2011 there were around 3,400 more teachers teaching in these subjects and an increase of 23,000 teaching hours on the previous year.” When it comes to pay, the fig-


ures show that the average wage for full-time classroom teachers is £34,700 across all phases – £100 less than last year. Broken down, the wage aver-


age in state maintained secondaries has remained the same as in 2010 – £36,200. There is still a notable pay gap between female teachers (£35,700 on average) and male teachers (£37,000). In academies, meanwhile, the


average teacher’s wage is £35,700 – £100 down on 2010. Average pay for women in academies has also gone down by £100 to £35,100 while men’s pay has stayed the same at an average of £36,700. For school leaders, the average


wage across all publicly funded schools stands at £55,500, up from £55,170 last year. However, for maintained secondary school leaders, the average is £60,900, £200 higher than in 2010, while in academies the average is £61,500, £600 lower than in 2010.


Nov, 2010 Nov, 2011 Change +/- 22,800


79,300


196,300 195,600 15,100


Centrally employed 18,200 Total teachers


448,100


194,900 138,100 15,000 10,700


438,000


+56,500 -1,400


-57,500 -100


-7,500 -10,100 The figures: Teachers working in pubicly funded schools


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