FEAT


ATURE: RECRUITMENT we believe school budgets could benefit from an


more teaching assistants, with spare change for teams to hire an additional full-time teacher or average of £30,000 each, allowing leadership


wellbeing or wider SEND support for children and to support teacher and pupil mental health and directed towards the external expertise required Alternatively, this unspent resource could be interactive whiteboards or library books. other wish list items such as computers,


young people within the school.


Year 3 pupil, Edith, from Salisbury, would spend her £30,000 on: “a slide and climbing frame for the field, a neck cushion and comfy pillow for my teacher, a charity dog to help the poorly children, a stress ball for the top of all of our pencils, a time out chair, a special helper to help me write when I get stuck…and pancake


In contrast, 15-year old, Annie, from Berkshire, day everyWednesday!”.


books to work in and pens and pencils.My school just wants some basic resources: “I would buy


really struggles with giving us things like that.”


for those in need and a lack of budget to provide levels, a lack of resource to support interventions that we read about almost daily – teacher stress experiencing first hand, the sector-wide issues children as young as eight are aware of, and What is clear from these responses is that


what many would consider to be the very basic


This alone should be enough to make everyone resources for schools and their pupils.


understand the need for change and to want to in the system stand up and take notice – to


market will help control expenditure, increase consolidation of the education recruitment At Teacher Booker, we believe that work together to drive this forward.


standard of service from recruitment providers. flexibility for workers and raise the overall


We believe that schools should be given the support to pool resources between groups of schools for collaborative on-demand provision,


out recruitment cycles and patterns of demand to share models and share best practice and map experiment with new flexible working and job


Alongside this, recruitment providers and predict staffing requirements in advance.


and fluidity into the labour market. For example, technology can help introduce greater flexibility leaders in education need to explore how


using platforms and online services to directly connect teachers and schools - increasing transparency and communication, decreasing administrative burdens and overhead costs, and opening up a far broader range of opportunities and choice for both schools and


However, it’s not just a ‘supply’ candidates.


So far, the responses to our problem.


campaign from teachers are overwhelmingly consistent.We need to do more to help them. A year 9 teacher summarised


what she would spend £30,000 on as: “Simple.More teachers!”


Explaining that too many teachers in schools are having to cover specialist subjects with little or no knowledge of the area. And whilst they are, of course, happy to help out their colleagues, the lack of subject- specific teachers doesn’t help their pupils.


34 www.education-today.co.uk


In-class support is equally in demand with calls for additional support and training to help those with special educational needs and disabilities as well those from


disadvantaged areas. A year 6 teacher in Berkshire said: “We have recently lost our specialist support worker, which is a huge loss to those children who require both emotional and academic support. As a result, more pressure is being placed on class teachers and their already overstretched teaching assistants.” We cannot continue to ignore the soaring levels of teacher stress and the increasing


pressures of workload facing our


schools. This needs to be addressed to help


improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession


and retain existing teachers. Looking at the bigger picture,


we asked LoicMenzies, CEO at The Centre for Education & Youth how he


would support the education sector as a whole, with the £0.5bn currently lost in recruitment fees. He suggests that we look at ways of reducing the burden on teachers, saying: “In my experience, one of the most frustrating sources of this is when you suddenly have to cover a lesson at short notice and lose a free period where you'd lanned to catch up on all sorts of jobs (or have a


b p


“While I believe schools should have autonomy reather).


over how they spend money and allocate resources, I'd strongly encourage school leaders to consider using the


money to resource


capacity in the form of an additional staff


in-house cover supervisor who could reduce the cover load on teachers whilst ensuring there’s a familiar face in the room who understands the school’s culture and systems.” We are passionate about the


#WasteNotWantMore campaign because put simply, the well-documented problems regarding teacher attraction, recruitment and retention impact the outcomes of the learners in our system and reduce their life chances.


Imagine what the world would be like if every child had reliable, consistent access to great teachers throughout their entire


education. Imagine giving every child a better chance in life.


Imagine “what would they be able to achieve for the world?”. The consequences of not solving these


problems are generational and immeasurable. In today’s economic climate, every pound wasted is a pound too much.


in the sector collaborates We believe that if everyone


solving these problems – and works towards


and providers - together policy makers, schools


we can reinvest lost


supported in the job they ensure teachers are well teaching profession and attractiveness of the funds, improve the


outcomes for the children This ultimately improves love for the long term.


and young people of our future.


Find outmore #WasteNotW


tWa


ntMore campaign at about the


teacherbooker.com March 2020


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