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Teacher Training and Professional Development

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Teacher Training and Professional Development

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Teacher training and professional development

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What is the difference between PGCE and School Direct?

In many ways, your teacher training experience will be similar with PGCE and School Direct as both combine substantive in-school-training supported by intensive study of how to teach.

At first glance it's tricky to tell what the differences are so we asked Julie Stevens, PGCE course leader and School Direct Lead at Plymouth Marjon University, to explain: "The support around the trainee is different for PGCE and School Direct. School Direct is best suited to trainees who can work on their own initiative. It is great for independent self-starters who already have some work experience in education and schools, people who already know enough to hit the ground running. PGCE trainees tend to come straight from university, or they might have had a year out, but they need much more structure and more subject knowledge.

"I'm a tutor for our School Direct partners so we often interview together to work out what is going to work best for the candidate. If I think they haven't got much experience then they're going to need a lot more structure, so we'd say come to us for a PGCE. If they're flying already, they know a lot about teaching and learning and have school experience, then they may be more suited to a School Direct route. They'll still get support from the university but they are ready to go into school".

School Direct can be a good option for trainees who would like to work at their placement school once they are qualified. While this is not guaranteed, schools will often take trainees on in subjects where they know they have a shortage or they anticipate that someone is leaving, so there is sometimes a chance of a job at the end.

Likewise with School Direct you're part of the school team as you're there most of the time, so you're that bit more integrated and well positioned to find out about job openings.

When choosing between PGCE and School Direct ask the various training providers about whether subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses are available, and any associated costs. SKE courses can either be used to update your knowledge of your core subject or to add a second string to your bow.

Back to Julie to explain how SKE courses can make trainees more employable: "Subject knowledge enhancement is all about employability. When my trainees are secure in the core subject they want to teach, they might then think about doing another subject. Take PE teachers for example, there are many PE teachers, all competing for the same jobs. If a PE teacher can also offer a shortage subject like maths, science, or languages, and they have some experience of teaching it in school, they'll have more to offer the school than just the one subject. It makes them way more employable".

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In many ways, your teacher training experience will be similar with PGCE and School Direct as both combine substantive in-school-training supported by intensive study of how to teach. At first glance it's tricky to tell what the differences are so we asked Julie Stevens, PGCE course leader and School Direct Lead at Plymouth Marjon University, to explain: "The support around the trainee is different for PGCE and School Direct.

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Cat Scutt MBE, Director of Education and Research at the Chartered College of Teaching, offers this perspective on the Early Career Framework:

"Early career teachers are only just beginning their journey in the teaching profession - the most rewarding profession there is. Research shows that teachers' effectiveness increases rapidly in their first few years in the classroom (Kraft and Papay, 2014), and whilst new teachers will have learnt a huge amount during initial teacher education, there is not enough time in the relatively short period of an ITE programme to learn everything there is to know and develop all the skills necessary as a teacher.

"The Chartered College of Teaching, as the professional body for the teaching profession, has therefore been supportive from the start about the principle of the Early Career Framework, which sets out a programme of support and development for new teachers that covers the two years after they complete initial teacher training. I was privileged to be a member of the group of experts convened by the DfE to advise on its development.

"We believe that an entitlement to development for new teachers across two years, as well as strengthened expectations of mentoring, supports not just the development of Early Career Teachers themselves but also provides opportunities for development and progression of more experienced teachers who may act as mentors. High-quality training, delivered by national delivery providers or developed in-house, should again support both new teachers and their mentors, contributing to a culture of professional learning at a system level.

"However, it will only be successful if schools are able to really take advantage of the time, resources and funding available to support it; we recognise that its roll-out comes at a particularly challenging time. We have produced a number of resources ourselves to support the implementation of the Early Career Framework, including a handbook for Early Career Teachers and their mentors - The Early Career Framework Handbook - published through Sage; an annual online webinar series, the Early Career Festival; and the Early Career Hub, an area of our member website designed exclusively for early career teachers, with resources aligned to the Early Career Framework, including self-review activities, case studies, videos of classroom practice and subject-specific examples.

"We will be continuing to develop our offer in the coming months, and would love to hear from new teachers, schools and training providers of anything we can do to help!"

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Cat Scutt MBE, Director of Education and Research at the Chartered College of Teaching, offers this perspective on the Early Career Framework: "Early career teachers are only just beginning their journey in the teaching profession - the most rewarding profession there is.

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School workforce in England, Reporting Year 2021

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School workforce in England, Reporting year 2022

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This release is largely based on the School Workforce Census. The census, which runs each November, collects information from schools and local authorities on the school workforce in state-funded schools in England. Independent schools, non-maintained special schools, sixth-form colleges and further education establishments are not included.

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Initial teacher training application statistics for courses starting in the 2024 to 2025 academic year - Apply for teacher training - GOV.UK

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These statistics cover applications for courses in England starting in the 2024 to 2025 academic year. To allow for comparison statistics covering the 2023 to 2024 academic year are also included.

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Official Department for Education guidance on teacher training. Find out how to become a teacher, get qualified teacher status (QTS) through a PGCE or school direct and the salaries and funding available.

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Teacher Labour Market Annual Report 2020 NFER

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Teacher Labour Market Annual Report 2020 NFER

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Jack Worth

05 June 2020

NFER's annual Teacher Labour Market report series, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, aims to monitor the progress the school system is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions. This second annual report presents data from a range of sources, which together highlight the trends that describe the teacher supply situation, up to 2018/19.

Recruitment and retention trends suggest that teacher supply in England is very likely to remain an important issue over the next few years. There are some early signs of progress, but the trends are a sharp reminder that the profession is facing many challenges attracting and keeping teachers in our school.

Key Findings

Despite the number of entries to postgraduate secondary teacher training increasing in 2019/20 compared to the year before, secondary recruitment remains substantially below the numbers required to meet demand. The recruitment situation has significantly worsened for perennial shortage subjects such as physics, maths, modern foreign languages and chemistry.

Teachers work longer term-time hours than other professionals in a typical week, but the latest data suggests that teachers' working hours reduced by one hour per week in 2018/19. This may be emerging evidence that the substantial joint campaign launched by DfE, Ofsted and teaching unions in March 2018, which aimed to reduce teacher workload, is having some success. There is also evidence that teachers' perceptions of their workload may also be improving.

The secondary teacher leaving rate has fallen by 0.5 percentage points in 2018/19, which represents 1,350 teachers: nearly half of the under-recruitment to initial teacher training in 2019/20. However, the retention rate of newly qualified teachers into their second year of teaching has continued to fall, as has the rate for second years going into their third year.

Methodology Appendix
Data Appendix

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nfer teacher labour market in england annual report 2020

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Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2020

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Jack Worth 05 June 2020 NFER's annual Teacher Labour Market report series, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, aims to monitor the progress the school system is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions.

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How do Trainee Teachers Perceive Their Future Selves  as Teachers and How Can We Support Them in Their Careers?

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How do Trainee Teachers Perceive Their Future Selves  as Teachers and How Can We Support Them in Their Careers?

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Kate Sida-Nicholls, Secondary PGCE course leader, Suffolk and Norfolk SCITT, UK

This scoping study involved 103 initial teacher training (ITT) primary and secondary trainees as they started their school-centred initial teacher training programme in September 2020. The purpose of the study was to capture views about novice teachers' identity and consider whether their perception of their future teacher identity provides any insight into the current retention issue in teaching, as outlined in the Department for Education's Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy (January 2019).

Within our context, the trainees involved in this research are a mixture of primary and secondary, salaried and tuition trainee teachers. We work in partnership with approximately 130 primary and secondary schools across Suffolk and Norfolk and, due to the number of schools in our school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) partnership, we are very aware of the different experiences that trainees have during their training year. Training to be a teacher is very context-driven and the opportunities that are provided to novice teachers to 'learn to think like a teacher; learn to know like a teacher, learn to feel like a teacher and learn to behave like a teacher' are crucial parts of the development of an early career and of trainee teachers' professional identity (Feiman-Nemser, 2008, p. 698).

The stimulus for this research derives from my interest in the varying contexts in which trainees find themselves training and how their experiences during their training year inevitably influence their expectations of their 'future selves' in teaching. I wanted to find out whether a continuous conflict between the vision of 'future selves' as a teacher and the reality of becoming a teacher could create any insight into the retention issue that we face with early career teachers. Trainee teachers' identity starts to take internal positions, 'I as teacher', alongside the growth of their external ownership of 'my students, my colleagues, my classroom' throughout their early years of teaching. However, what is crucial to the constructing and negotiating of these identities is the trainees' interactions with students, mentors, colleagues and parents, and the conventions and social rules with which they find themselves working (Lee and Schallert, 2016).

The trainee teachers were approached via email with an outline of the aims of the research, and asked to complete an anonymous three-question questionnaire. Out of 127 trainees who were asked to be involved, 102 responded and completed the questions. The questions link with the possible selves (expected and feared selves) theory from Markus and Nurius (1986). This is a well-established psychological framework and one that lends itself well to studying how the future-orientated thinking of trainee teachers might affect their self-regulation towards future possible goals (Hamman et al., 2013a, Hamman et al., 2013b). Possible selves theory, by Markus and Nurius (1986), is centred around the representation of self in the past and includes representations of the self in the future. Possible future selves is focused on specific individual hopes and fears but is also highly socialised. Possible future selves can only be imagined by an individual due to the previous social interactions and comparisons that an individual has had within their social context. The questions were created based on the reading that I have carried out in regard to professional identity for my PhD, and I wanted to capture the trainees' views about teaching at the very early stage of their training year. At the stage in mid-September when the trainees were asked the questions, many of the trainees had not started their placement in schools due to the delay that we had put in place to support our partnership schools in adjusting to COVID restrictions in schools at the start of term.

I looked at all respondents' data and grouped the answers from each question into broad themes that emerged from my analysis, and I was able to generate percentages from the number of trainees whose answer fitted into the broad categories.

Based on the answers from the first question about what had led them to this point of wishing to become a teacher and why they decided to become a teacher, this research group showed many of the expected reasons for wishing to become a teacher (see Table 1). These range from desiring a more valuable career to wanting to help make life changes for young people. However, 39 per cent of the research group stated that it was their previous experience in some kind of role in schools that had helped them to decide to become a teacher. Therefore, based on this small-scale research, it is perhaps relevant for schools to think about being proactive in providing roles for unqualified teachers, as this might be a successful recruitment strategy.
Table 1: What has led you to this point of wishing to become a teacher? How and why did you decide to become a teacher? (Note: only significant numbers included)
Passion for subject Experience of teaching, e.g. TA/unqualified teacher More valuable career Making changes to lives of young people

The second question that the trainees were asked was about what kind of teacher they wanted to become (see Table 2). Various answers emerged - for example, making a difference, addressing disadvantage, creating a positive learning environment and, predictably from the secondary trainees, having a passion for their subject. However, 50 per cent of the trainees answered this question with what I ended up defining as 'positive teacher attributes'. The kind of teacher that trainees want to be is 'kind', 'funny', 'fair', 'organised', 'sensitive', 'approachable', 'nurturing', 'enthusiastic', 'compassionate', 'supportive' and 'engaging'. It appears that they are less concerned about being committed to the role, being a positive role model or putting learning into a real-world context. They are focused on developing the attributes that some of the trainees described as being a 'teacher that students remember'.
Table 2: What kind of teacher do you want to become? (Note: only significant numbers included)
Finally, the third question was about what kind of teacher they did not want to become (see Table 3). Some answers that might be seen as predictable became clear, such as that the trainees did not want to be uncaring, to only teach to the exam or to be unable to build relationships with students. Once again, a clear response emerged from the data and it was what I ended up defining as 'negative teacher attributes'. Sixty per cent of the research group stated that they did not want be the kind of teacher who was 'boring', 'negative', 'disorganised', 'lazy', 'strict', 'jaded', 'stuck in their ways', 'long-winded', 'confusing' or 'old-fashioned'. When thinking about their possible future selves, trainee teachers were mainly concerned about being described as 'boring'. I did not ask them to state who they thought would define them as boring but I have assumed that it would be the students that they would teach in their future teaching career.
Table 3: What kind of teacher don't you want to become? (Note: only significant numbers included)
This small-scale research has highlighted how trainees, when thinking about their possible future selves, are more focused on developing personal attributes rather than pedagogical and assessment skills and knowledge. Should we be reflecting on how more of a balance can be reached between the content of the ITT and early career framework and what novice teachers perceive to be important in their career? As Hamman et al. (2013a) suggest in their research, the training of teachers is context-driven. Perhaps we should start to encourage mentors and other experienced teachers to explicitly discuss with the trainees and early career teachers the view that they have of their possible future teaching selves? If mentors can have these types of conversations, then they might be able to offer solutions and strategies for when a conflict arises for novice teachers between their possible future selves and the reality of teaching.

Markus and Nurius (1986) also point out that possible selves can both inform and motivate. In the case of teaching, early career teachers inevitably check their progress against their perceived future self. This is where frustration, anxiety and, worst-case scenario, desire to leave the profession can originate. However, the flip side is that it can also be motivating, as individuals can be empowered by their future selves. In the case of novice teachers, providing them with regular opportunities to discuss and share the type of teacher that they want to be and being very clear about the steps that they need to take could be something to develop when thinking about how to retain early career teachers.

The intention of this scoping study was to support trainees and, subsequently, early career teachers to create a schema about the type of teacher that they would and wouldn't like to be. Within this schema, and with support from their tutors and mentors, they can put into place tangible steps that allow them to complete their goals. Our intention is that it will enable us, as a training provider, to provide more personalised ongoing support to trainees during their training and newly qualified induction years. We hope that by encouraging novice teachers to acknowledge the fact that aspects of their possible future selves as teachers might not be attained in the early years and by providing them with steps to address any conflict, we can encourage them not to leave in the first five years of their career.

References

Department of Education (DfE) (2019) Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/786856/DFE_Teacher_Retention_Strategy_Report.pdf (accessed 8 December 2020).

Feiman-Nemser S (2008) Teacher learning: How do teachers learn to teach? In: Cochran-Smith M, Feiman-Nemser S, Mclntyre DJ et al. (eds) Handbook of Research on Teacher Education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts, 3rd ed. USA: Routledge, pp. 697-705.

Hamman D, Wang E and Burley H (2013a) What I expect and fear next year: Measuring new teachers' possible selves. Journal of Education for Teaching 39(2): 222-234.

Hamman D, Wang E and Burley H (2013b) What I expect and fear next year: Measuring new teachers' possible selves. Journal of Education for Teaching 39(2): 222-234.

Lee S and Schallert D (2016) Becoming a teacher: Coordinating past, present and future selves with perspectival understandings about teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education 56: 72-83.

Markus H and Nurius P (1986) Possible selves. American Psychologist 41(9): 954-969.

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How do trainee teachers perceive their future selves as teachers, and how can we support them in their careers? | impact.chartered.college

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Kate Sida-Nicholls, Secondary PGCE course leader, Suffolk and Norfolk SCITT, UK This scoping study involved 103 initial teacher training (ITT) primary and secondary trainees as they started their school-centred initial teacher training programme in September 2020. The purpose of the study was to ca

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Teacher Shortage in England - New Evidence for Understanding and Addressing Current Challenges 

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Teacher Shortage in England - New Evidence for Understanding and Addressing Current Challenges 

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REBECCA MORRIS, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, UK

BENG HUAT SEE AND STEPHEN GORARD, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, DURHAM UNIVERSITY, UK

There is widespread concern about the shortage of schoolteachers in England. In some regions and some subject areas or phases, finding and retaining appropriately qualified teaching staff is a major challenge for school leaders (Ovenden-Hope and Passy, 2020). Ensuring that we have enough teachers within the system continues to be a pressing issue for schools, policymakers and, perhaps, the life opportunities of young people (DfE, 2019b; Sorenson and Ladd, 2020).

While recent analyses have highlighted promising increases in the number of applications and offers for initial teacher training as a result of the COVID-19 crisis (Worth and McLean, 2020), it is impossible to know the longer-term effect of these new entrants to the profession and their impact on teacher shortages across the country. A suite of government initiatives designed to improve teacher recruitment and retention have also been introduced in recent years. These include approaches to understanding and reducing teacher workload (see DfE, 2018) and the Early Career Framework (ECF), which is designed to provide a two-year funded package of training and support for newly qualified teachers (DfE, 2019a), with a view to increasing their retention.

In this article, we outline some findings from a large ongoing ESRC-funded study of teacher shortage in England. We consider their implications for policy and practice, and make the case that further research is needed in some key areas relating to recruitment and retention.

Who wants to teach and why?

In 2018-2019, we conducted a large nationwide survey involving over 4,400 undergraduate students, studying at 53 universities across England. Our intention was to find out about their career interests and motivations, and - more specifically - their views on teaching as a career. Unlike the majority of studies in this field, which only engage with participants who have already begun training as teachers or who are teachers (see Heinz, 2015), our survey targeted all undergraduates, including those who had never considered teaching as a career. This provides a much broader and more accurate overview of undergraduates' career interests and the factors that might influence them to consider teaching (or not) than is usually portrayed.

The survey provided some important and sometimes surprising insights (see Gorard et al., 2020 for full discussion and data tables). Nearly 60 per cent of our participants had considered a career in teaching, and 20 per cent were intending to become a teacher. Across our whole sample, job satisfaction, pay, job security and career prospects were the most influential factors reported as affecting career choices. For those already applying or intending to teach, however, extrinsic factors such as salary, career status and progression were less important; instead, they were reporting more intrinsic drivers such as wanting to give back to society and sharing knowledge of their subject. This is in line with earlier literature that has only surveyed teachers (Heinz, 2015). Crucially, though, when we look to the group who considered but rejected the idea of teaching, extrinsic motivators such as pay and career status/opportunities were more important. This information would have been lost if we had not engaged with these participants, who form an important group if we are interested in attracting more people into the profession.

Our survey work also highlighted some interesting differences in the background characteristics of those considering or intending to teach compared to those who were not. The analyses revealed that prospective teachers were more likely to have lower tariff points on entry to university and were more likely to enter university with a vocational qualification (e.g. a BTEC). They were also less likely to be from families with professional backgrounds and more likely to expect second class degrees (2:1 or 2:2) rather than firsts at the end of their studies. Again, awareness of these potential differences is important for developing policy and targeting resources towards those who could be attracted to the profession.

Getting selected to train

Once students have made the decision to teach, they are required to select an ITT (initial teacher training) route and apply. The DfE have recently acknowledged the 'cumbersome systems' (DfE, 2019b, p. 32) involved with this early stage of the teacher pipeline and have sought to streamline and simplify the ITT application and recruitment process. Our time-series analyses of government and official statistics, however, suggest that looking closely at the selection phase may be helpful for addressing recruitment to teaching (See and Gorard, 2019).

Recent UCAS data, for example, shows that around 35 per cent of applicants to ITT did not receive an offer to train last year, and just 22 per cent of physics and maths applications received placement offers (UCAS, 2020). These figures potentially represent a considerable waste of prospective teachers at a time of national shortage. That is not to suggest that all applicants should or could be offered training opportunities; providers must ensure that applicants have the basic requirements to join ITT courses, and they are also committed to developing high-quality teachers. They may also face constraints in the numbers that they can accommodate due to staffing or other resource issues.

Nevertheless, these relatively high rejection rates do raise questions, prompting us to ask why those applicants with appropriate prior qualifications are not selected. As highlighted in other in-depth research (Davies et al., 2016), bias is likely to be a factor, with ITT providers being influenced by their own beliefs about teaching and teachers, and perhaps tending towards over-confidence in their professional judgement. Some selection practices may also favour certain applicants over others, while having limited association with the knowledge or skills needed to be a teacher. Research exploring new methods of selection, such as situational judgement tests and 'realistic job previews' (Klassen et al., 2020), argues that such approaches may offer more transparency and honesty for applicants in relation to the job role, in turn better preparing them for the realities of the teaching itself. While we do not yet know the extent to which these approaches might provide effective alternatives to traditional selection methods, rigorous testing of innovative strategies such as these is vital for understanding their impact on recruitment to the profession, and perhaps on retention too.

What does the evidence say about interventions to improve teacher shortage?

In the simplest sense, to reduce the persistent teacher shortage we need more people coming into the profession and fewer people leaving it early. But how can this be achieved, and what are the most promising policy interventions to improve the situation?

Another strand of our research, an international systematic review of the most effective approaches to improving recruitment and retention, set out to answer these questions (See et al., 2020). Based on 120 studies, our findings indicate the potential value of financial incentives (such as bursaries, bonuses, stipends or wage increases) for recruiting more teachers into the profession. Monetary rewards appear to be less effective for promoting retention. This was the case even where the financial incentives involved a kind of a tie-in, whereby teachers were committed to staying on in a school or district for a specified period or else incurring a penalty. This approach tended to be used in 'hard-to-staff' areas or those with higher levels of deprivation, but was rarely found to be beneficial for retaining the teachers who received these incentives. It is likely that teachers in these schools looked beyond financial gain and were perhaps more influenced by factors such as their working conditions (Waters-Weller, 2009).

The majority of studies included in our review focused on financial incentives as a way to improve recruitment and retention. While there may be considerable promise for approaches involving mentoring, induction programmes, leadership support, flexible working, professional development and improved workload, there are unfortunately very few studies where these initiatives have been robustly evaluated. This makes it very difficult for policymakers and school leaders to know which strategies to adopt and implement, and which are likely to be less useful. The introduction of the Early Career Framework in England, a policy that incorporates a number of the non-financial approaches noted above, provides an excellent opportunity for a rigorous assessment of their effectiveness in supporting the career progression and retention of new teachers.

Conclusion

This article has outlined some of the ongoing issues that the education community faces in relation to teacher recruitment and retention. It also highlights some of the most recent research - by us and others - that helps to understand and address these challenges. Tackling the teacher shortage is a complex process involving multiple stakeholders, including policymakers, teacher education providers, schools and teachers. It requires longer-term, more joined-up planning and well-resourced, evidence-informed policies, along with system-wide shifts in practice. As others have noted, while there may be cautious optimism that COVID-19 could improve recruitment issues, it will not necessarily impact retention and does not provide a sustainable approach to addressing teacher shortage on a national level (Waldegrave, 2020).

Our work also highlights the need for more high-quality research in this area. Relying on evidence gleaned from less robust research is unlikely to lead to any significant improvements in the system, and could indeed yield misleading conclusions, resulting in expensive and ineffectual policies. We end on an optimistic note, though: the introduction of the Early Career Framework is an important step-change in approaches to supporting the progression of new teachers and addressing teacher shortage in England. The outcomes for teachers could be positive, and its influence on future policies, both in the UK and internationally, could be substantial if its impact is rigorously assessed.

References

Davies P, Connolly M, Nelson J et al. (2016) 'Letting the right one in': Provider contexts for recruitment to initial teacher education in the United Kingdom. Teaching and Teacher Education 60: 291-302.

Department for Education (DfE) (2018) Reducing school workload. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/reducing-school-workload (accessed 24 November 2020)

Department for Education (DfE) (2019a) Early Career Framework. London: DfE. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/913646/Early-Career_Framework.pdf (accessed 24 November 2020).

Department for Education (DfE) (2019b) Teacher recruitment and retention strategy. London: DfE. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-strategy (accessed 24 November 2020).

Gorard S, Ventista O, Morris R et al. (2020) Who wants to be a teacher? Findings from a survey of undergraduate in England. Project report. Durham University Evidence Centre for Education. Available at: http://dro.dur.ac.uk/30754 (accessed 24 November 2020).

Heinz M (2015) Why choose teaching? An international review of empirical studies exploring student teachers' career motivations and levels of commitment to teaching. Educational Research and Evaluation 21(3) 258-297.

Klassen R, Granger H and Bardach L (2020) Attracting prospective STEM teachers using realistic job previews: A mixed methods study. Teacher selection project working paper. Available at: www.teacherselect.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Klassen-et-al.-2020-TSP-Working-Paper-08.08.20-Teacher-Recruitment-Study-.pdf (accessed 24 November 2020).

Ovenden-Hope T and Passy R (2020) Exploring Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Contextual Challenges from International Perspectives Oxon: Routledge.

See BH and Gorard S (2019) Why don't we have enough teachers? A reconsideration of the available evidence. Research Papers in Education 35(4): 416-442.

See BH, Morris R, Gorard S et al. (2020) Teacher recruitment and retention: A critical review of international evidence of most promising interventions. Education Sciences 10(10): 262.

Sorenson L and Ladd H (2020) The hidden costs of teacher turnover. AERA Open 6(1): 1-24. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2332858420905812 (accessed 8 December 2020).

UCAS (2020) UCAS teacher training statistical release: 2019 full cycle, Report A and Report B. Available at: www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/ucas-teacher-training-statistical-releases (accessed 24 November 2020).

Waldegrave K (2020) Response to NFER: 'It is critically important that the focus not move away from initiatives which are underway to improve recruitment AND retention'. In: NowTeach. Available at: https://blog.nowteach.org.uk/post/102gfn9/response-to-nfer-it-is-critically-important-that-the-focus-not-move-away-from-i (accessed 24 November 2020)

Waters-Weller CD (2009) Attracting veteran teachers to low socioeconomic status schools: Initiatives and considerations. Doctoral Dissertation, Walden University, USA.

Worth J and McLean D (2020) The impact of Covid-19 on initial teacher training. Implications for teacher supply in England. Slough: NFER. Available at: www.nfer.ac.uk/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-initial-teacher-training (accessed 24 November 2020).

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Teacher shortage in England - new evidence for understanding and addressing current challenges | impact.chartered.college

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REBECCA MORRIS, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, UK BENG HUAT SEE AND STEPHEN GORARD, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, DURHAM UNIVERSITY, UK There is widespread concern about the shortage of schoolteachers in England. In some regions and some subject areas or phases, finding and retaini

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About the PE and sport premium

All children and young people should live healthy active lives. The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend that all children and young people should take part in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity for at least 60 minutes every day. Children with special educational needs and disabilities should take part in 20 minutes of daily activity.

The Childhood Obesity Plan says that at least 30 minutes of daily activity should take place in schools.

Schools have a key role to play in achieving this aim. This is particularly true of primary schools where the foundations of positive and enjoyable participation in regular physical activity are embedded. All children should have equal access to high-quality PE provision and opportunities to experience and participate in a wide range of sports and physical activities. Academic achievement can improve in school because of the benefits children can gain.

Schools should use the PE and sport premium funding to help achieve these aims. It must not be used for core-type school activities. They should use it to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity they provide, such as:

funding high-quality PE and sport for at least 2 hours a week, complemented by a wide range of extracurricular sport and competitive opportunities

providing or improving equal access to sport for boys and girls

Schools should prioritise PE and sport premium spending to improve in the following 5 key areas:

increasing all staff's confidence, knowledge and skills in teaching PE and sport

increasing engagement of all pupils in regular physical activity and sport

raising the profile of PE and sport across the school, to support whole school improvement

offer a broader and more equal experience of a range of sports and physical activities to all pupils

increase participation in competitive sport

Eligibility

Most schools with primary-age pupils receive the PE and sport premium. The exceptions are:

nursery schools

studio schools

university technical colleges

independent schools, except for non-maintained special schools

How funding is calculated and the amounts payable for 2023 to 2024

Schools receive PE and sport premium funding based on the number of pupils they have in years 1 to 6. In cases where schools may not have set year groups (for example, in some special schools), pupils aged 5 to 10 attract the funding.

In most cases, we determine funding by using data from the January 2023 school census. For a new school, or a school teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the academic year 2023 to 2024, funding is based on data from the autumn 2023 school census.

For the year 2023 to 2024, the amounts payable will be:

schools with 16 or fewer eligible pupils will receive £1,000 per pupil

schools with 17 or more eligible pupils will receive £16,000 and an additional payment of £10 per pupil

Maintained schools, including PRUs and general hospitals

Maintained schools, including pupil referral units ( PRUs) and general hospitals, do not receive funding directly from the Department for Education ( DfE). We give the funding to the local authority and they pass it on to the school.

We give local authorities PE and sport premium funding for maintained schools in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

7/12 of the funding allocation on 31 October 2023

5/12 of the funding allocation on 30 April 2024

For a new maintained school or for a school that is teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, local authorities will receive:

7/12 of the school's funding allocation on 29 February 2024

5/12 of the school's funding allocation on 30 April 2024

Academies and free schools

We send academies (including free schools) the PE and sport premium funding in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

7/12 of the funding allocation on 8 November 2023

5/12 of the funding allocation on 8 May 2024

An academy (including a free school) which is new, or teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, will receive:

7/12 of the funding allocation on 8 March 2024

5/12 of the funding allocation on 8 May 2024

Non-maintained special schools

We send non-maintained special schools the PE and sport premium funding in 2 separate payments. They will receive:

7/12 of the funding allocation on 18 December 2023

5/12 of the funding allocation ion 18 April 2024

Using the PE and sport premium

Any use of the PE and sport premium must be in accordance with the terms outlined in the conditions of grant document. This means schools must use the PE and sport premium to:

build capacity and capability in the school and make sure that improvements made to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity provision now are sustainable and will benefit pupils joining the school in future

develop or add to the PE, sport and physical activity that the school provides

Continued professional development

Schools should see the continued professional development (CPD) of teachers as a key priority to make sure that the future quality of the teaching of PE, sport and physical activity is sustainable. This includes providing staff with:

professional development

mentoring

appropriate training

access to external resources

We recommend that schools use established quality assured local, regional and national subject-specific and suitably qualified CPD providers.

Schools should monitor and assess the effectiveness of the CPD being provided to make sure that it is up to standard.

Other effective ways to spend the premium

Schools can also:

embed physical activity into the school day by encouraging active travel to and from school and having active break times

provide targeted activities or support to involve and encourage the least active children

help to provide equal access for all pupils to the range of sports and physical activities that the school offers

Schools can also use the PE and sport premium to raise attainment in primary school swimming and water safety by funding top-up swimming sessions for those pupils that do not meet national curriculum requirements after they've completed core swimming lessons.

Sustainability

Achieving sustainable outcomes is key to any spending of the PE and sport premium.

Before making any decision on what the funding should be used for, schools (in particular, governors and trustees) should consider how the spending will benefit future pupils and what the lasting legacy of this spending will be.

Schools should focus their efforts on upskilling the whole staff workforce so that they feel confident and able to lead a PE lesson independently.

Use of external coaches

Schools may wish to engage the expertise of external coaches to offer their pupils a wider variety of sports. Governing bodies, trustees or proprietors should seek assurance that providers have appropriate safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures in place, including inspecting these as needed.

We do not expect:

these coaches to replace the need for the primary teaching staff

schools to use the grant to fund annually repeated coach-led initiatives

Spending in an academic year

Schools must spend the PE and sport premium funding in full within the academic year it has been allocated for. Funding should not be allocated to only benefit a certain year group.

Schools cannot roll over any unused funding into the following academic year. They must spend the funding before 31 July 2024 so it can be accounted for in:

What the PE and sport premium should not be used for

Funding must not be used for:

capital expenditure (except for goods within the de minimis value for purchases set by the school)

employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment arrangements (this should be funded from the school's core staffing budgets)

teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum or, for academies, the existing PE curriculum - apart from top-up swimming lessons after pupils have completed core lessons. Teaching the curriculum should be funded through the school's core funding

buying services that will be delivered or used in following academic years (this includes paying for invoices and subscriptions in advance)

buying staff PE kit

Examples of what comes under capital expenditure include:

multi-use games areas and Daily Mile tracks

Forest School environments and Trim Trails

buying vehicles

fixed playground equipment, such as climbing frames

trophy cabinets or similar

Examples of what schools should pay for from their staffing budget include:

subsidising core staffing, such as PE subject leaders or external coaches who are engaged in repeated annual initiatives

funding the cost of a teaching assistant or apprentice to deliver PE lessons instead of primary teaching staff

Schools receive separate funding for the national PE curriculum. An example that falls under this is swimming and water safety lessons and any associated costs, other than additional top-up lessons for pupils who have not been able to meet the national curriculum requirements.

Defining capital expenditure

Schools can only use PE and sport premium funding for revenue expenditure. If you're not sure whether a particular cost can be classified as revenue expenditure, ask for local professional advice. We cannot provide individual advice on this.

Capital expenditure for the purposes of this grant funding is defined as: 'The purchase of an asset (tangible or intangible), or expenditure which adds to/enhances and not merely maintains the value of an existing asset.'

For expenditure to be treated as capital, the asset must:

be used for more than one year

be above the school's (local authority's or trust's) de minimis threshold for recognition of assets to its balance sheet - this can include:

individual assets worth over the de minimis threshold

grouped assets, that is assets of a similar nature that the school buys at the same time, which cost more than the de minimis threshold

bulked assets, for example a bulk purchase of equipment where the value of the individual item is below the set value, which cost more overall than the de minimis threshold

increase the useful life, performance or value of the asset

If the spending would trigger asset recognition for the school or local authority, under your own local accounting policy, the spending would not be eligible to be funded through this grant.

Schools can use grant funds to maintain existing assets because the funding can be used towards maintenance costs. For example, repainting lines on the playground is allowable as the playground should already be recognised as an asset, and the cost of repainting lines on it is a revenue maintenance cost.

Accountability and reporting

Schools are accountable for how they use the PE and sport premium funding allocated to them. The school's senior leadership team should make sure that the funding is spent for the purpose it has been provided - that is to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity offered.

As part of their role, governors and academy trustees should monitor how the funding is being spent and determine how it fits into school improvement plans and assess the impact it is having on pupils.

Schools, local authorities and academy proprietors must follow the terms set out in the conditions of grant document. If a school, local authority or academy proprietor fails to comply with these terms, the Secretary of State may require the school to repay all or any part of the premium paid.

As part of the conditions of grant, schools must publish a report detailing how they have spent their PE and sport premium funding allocation on their school website by 31 July 2024.

Reports must include:

the amount of PE and sport premium received

a full breakdown of how it has been spent, including justifying any additional costs incurred and describing:

the measurable impact that the school has seen on pupils' PE attainment, physical activity and sport participation due to the spending

how the spend will be sustainable in the future

Schools must also publish the percentage of pupils within its year 6 cohort in the 2023 to 2024 academic year who met the national curriculum swimming and water safety requirements. We collect this as part of a school's PE and sport premium reporting requirements even though the funding can only be used to provide additional support for pupils failing to meet the curriculum standards.

Schools should provide attainment data for year 6 pupils from their most recent swimming lessons. This may be data from previous years, depending on the swimming programme at the school. Schools must keep attainment data from swimming lessons in years 3 to 5 to be able to report this accurately in year 6.

To help schools plan, monitor and report on the impact of their spending, partners in the PE and school sport sector have developed a planning tool and a recording template. These are on the Association for PE and Youth Sport Trust websites. We recommend that schools use these to plan and record how they use the PE and sport premium throughout the year, to be ready to publish the report at the end of the school year.

Review of online reports

We'll continue to monitor published reports. We'll look at a selection of reports to confirm that the use of the PE and sport premium described in the report meets the requirements outlined within this guidance and the conditions of grant document.

If we identify concerns or discrepancies, we'll contact the school to address and investigate these fully. If any concerns are confirmed, we'll take appropriate and proportionate action against the school, which may include action to recover funding.

Digital tool

We'll be introducing a new digital PE and sport premium reporting tool for schools. This digital tool will capture details on how a school has used its PE and sport premium and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding.

The information gathered will include:

figures on the overall spend

what the funding has been spent on

whether there is any unspent funding

swimming and water safety attainment

We'll pilot the digital tool for the academic year 2023 to 2024. It will be a mandatory requirement for schools to complete it from the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

The digital tool will provide a further measure of accountability and will help identify any non-compliant spending of the PE and sport premium. We intend to launch the tool in May or June 2024. We'll send information to schools closer to this date, including details of training sessions on how to complete the digital form.

Further guidance

You can get further guidance at:

Other helpful guidance documents are:

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PE and sport premium for primary schools

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How much PE and sport premium funding schools will receive for the academic year 2023 to 2024 and advice on how to spend it.

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Initial teacher training (ITT): core content framework

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A framework to support trainee teacher development, designed with an expert advisory group.

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Proposed starting salaries for teachers

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Teachers in England are set for the biggest sustained uplift to their pay ranges since 2005.

Under proposals submitted today (21 January) to the independent School Teachers' Review Body (STRB), the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has outlined plans to increase starting salaries to at least £26,000 in September 2020, with those in outer and inner London to rise to £30,000 and £32,000 respectively.

This represents a significant step towards meeting the Government's commitment to increase teachers' starting salaries to £30,000 by September 2022, ensuring that the pay offer for teachers is amongst the most competitive in the graduate labour market.

Experienced teachers, heads and school leaders would see an above inflation pay increase of 2.5 per cent to their pay ranges, with early career teachers' salaries increasing by up to 6.7 per cent, supporting an attractive career path for the whole profession.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

We want to make teaching attractive to the most talented graduates by recognising the prestige that we as a society place on the profession.

We have set out proposals to significantly raise starting salaries for new teachers to £26,000 next year, rising to £30,000 by September 2022, alongside above-inflation pay increases for senior teachers and school leaders. These mark the biggest reform to teacher pay in a generation.

Departmental analysis suggests that the proposed changes to the pay system could see over 1,000 extra teachers retained per year by 2022/23.

The pay award will be affordable for schools thanks to Government plans to invest an extra £14 billion over the next three years - starting with an additional £2.6 billion in 2020-21 and rising to £7.1 billion more in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20 levels.

This funding boost will also allow schools to invest in other important resources and activities, alongside pay, which support improved outcomes for pupils.

The STRB will now consider the Department's proposals and respond with their recommendations later in the year.

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Teachers set for biggest sustained pay increase since 2005

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Teachers in England are set for the biggest sustained uplift to their pay ranges since 2005. Under proposals submitted today (21 January) to the independent School Teachers' Review Body (STRB), the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has outlined plans to increase starting salaries to at least £26,000 in September 2020, with those in outer and inner London to rise to £30,000 and £32,000 respectively.

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Teaching and Learning Tool Kit

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An accessible summary of the international evidence on teaching 5-16 year-olds.

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Behaviour Management for ITT

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ITT new core framework

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Great website explaining routes into teaching

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Great website explaining routes into teaching

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Written by Rachel Swain, Editorial managerProspects · October 2022

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Choose which route into teaching is right for you, including PGCE, School Direct and Teach First

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Bursaries and scholarships for teacher training | Get Into Teaching

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Tax-free funding is available in a range of subjects of up to £28,000. Find out more on the funding available to support your postgraduate teacher training.

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EVALUATING THE 'A' LISTIN PHYSICAL EDUCATION INITIAL TEACHER TRAININGGary Stidder

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EVALUATING THE 'A' LISTIN PHYSICAL EDUCATION INITIAL TEACHER TRAININGGary Stidder

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Image of the different routes into teaching

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All you need to know about applying for teaching.

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If you want to get into teaching, we can help. Get information on training courses, funding, pay scales and tips on how to make a great application.