East Midlands schools 'struggling to recruit'

Crisis? What crisis? It's the phrase assigned to Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan who denied chaos in the economy. Now there is government denial that there is a crisis in the recruitment of teachers.

But the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has said there is a growing shortage.

Now the National Audit Office has produced figures which show vacancy rates doubling, external, with the government missing its trainee teacher recruitment targets for the last four years. There has also been an 11% rise in the number of teachers quitting the profession between 2011 and 2014.

What worries head teachers in secondary schools is the number of classes having to be taught by teachers without a relevant post A-level qualification in their subject. For example, over a quarter of physics classes are now taken by a teacher without such a qualification.

At Djanogly City Academy in Nottingham, the head teacher is having to teach physics for that reason. David Hooker said he's finding it difficult to get teachers of quality and experience.

"You can put adverts in the national press at great expense and get no applicants," he said.

He thinks the government could do more to help with recruitment to what he believes is a great profession, which needs to be made more attractive to experienced people.

"All the positive things happening in schools nobody hears about. We've got to attract more high quality people into teaching."

Over in rural Derbyshire, in the village of Findern, there is more evidence of a problem finding the right teachers.

The head of the primary school, Emma Titchener, said they also recently advertised nationally for an experienced teacher and didn't get a single application. They advertised again and only one person applied.

She said it put the governors in an awkward position. Do they fill the post with that person or try again leaving the school without a teacher?

The government said there is no crisis - and that 90% of teachers stay in the profession from one year to the next, and that's better than other industries. It said the number of teachers returning to the classroom rises year after year and there are more teachers in schools than ever before.

To talk of a crisis in teacher supply, said a spokesman for the Department for Education, external is disingenuous and misleading. The spokesman even called it "scaremongering".

At a recent meeting of primary school heads from Leicestershire with the Education Secretary, Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan, she told them the same... there is not a teaching recruitment crisis. There is a challenge.

I've been told the response in that meeting from the head teachers was one of hollow laughter.

I've heard the problem is the number of disillusioned teachers leaving the profession within the first five years - fed up with the workload and what Labour has called government diktat on the curriculum.

Emma Titchener said retention is the problem. "After a few years teachers become quite despondent with the workload and different pressures of accountability," she said.

There is clearly a problem. A Department for Education press release, external calling for applicants to join the National Teaching Service even uses the phrase "in schools in the North West that are struggling to attract and retain the professionals they need".

It's also hard to fill leadership positions and head teacher posts in challenging areas. The teachers at the top feel continued pressure to hit targets as well as everything else. One likened it to working in an ejector seat.

Andrew Bridgen, the Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, said the government may be a victim of its own success with the economy creating a lot of other opportunities for graduates.

He acknowledges "every pupil needs gifted teachers and we all know what an impact that can have on their education".

In Leicestershire, he said a change to school funding could help.

"At the moment Leicestershire schools get £500 less per pupil than a school in Leicester and £1,000 less than a school in Birmingham," he said.

"Fairer funding next year will mean schools have the extra money to pay and attract more experienced, and more expensive teachers."