Teachers 'offered days off to lure them into jobs'

 By Javier Espinoza, Education Editor

Teachers are being offered extra days off to attend events during school hours, like the cricket, in a bid to lure them into jobs, a headteacher has said.

"More creative thinking is needed about the recruitment and retention of teachers."

The number of disenchanted teachers who quit the classroom last year reached a record of 50,000 – the highest since records began in 1997.

An extra 160,000 teachers over the next three years will be needed to help cope with a soaring pupils population. However, there are fears that 52,000 teachers who qualified between 2010 and 2014 may be lost by 2028.

Retention is also a problem. A quarter of teachers leave the profession after qualifying and ten years after qualification, less than four in ten science teachers are still in service.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Thompson, who has been a teacher for 12 years, said: “The big shift I’ve noticed in recruiting new staff is that teachers now realise they are a marketable product. Before I could advertise for a post and set the salary but now I have to bargain if I’ve got a good teacher in front of me.

It has emerged that some headteachers are offering new hires salary increases of up £10,000 to poach teachers. However, Mr Thompson pointed out this risks running into difficulty with funding further down the line.

The areas where it is more difficult to recruit in 2015

Inner London

London (all areas combined)

South East England

Outer London

West Midlands

East of England

Yorkshire and the Humber

East Midlands

South West England

North West England

Instead, he’s chosen relatively cheap incentives as sweeteners to recruits. He said: “We – and other schools I know of – run a scheme where teachers can accrue lieu days. It doesn’t cost the school anything and we cover it internally.”

He said teachers need to request the day off two weeks in advance, the school needs come first and the day off can’t be attached at the start or end of a holiday.

Separately, Mr Thompson said teachers are also being offered free lunches. He explained: “The teachers get a healthy, home-cooked meal that costs the school very little in return for them to sit down with the children.”

A TES Global study showed how difficult is for schools to recruit new teachers in some areas compared to the same survey in 2012.

It found that inner London, Yorkshire and Humber and North West England have experienced the most rapid falls in recruitment rates since 2012.

The analysis of nearly 5,000 interviews of primary and secondary school teachers also found schools recruiting for physics teachers in London currently receive just two applications on average compared to eight in 2012.

Separately, schools recruiting for maths teachers in the East of England now receive just three applications on average compared to seven in 2012.

The survey also found over a quarter of schools are increasing the use of supply teachers to tackle the shortage of new recruits, while over 16 per cent are using teachers to teach lessons in subjects they do not specialise. Over seven per cent of classes are increasing class sizes.

Rob Grimshaw, chief executive of TES Global, said: “School leaders are finding it exceptionally hard to fill roles in certain regions and subjects.

"More creative thinking is needed about the recruitment and retention of teachers, such as easier routes for teaching assistants with suitable degrees to become qualified teachers.”

The subjects that are more difficult to recruit for in 2015

Physics

Maths

English

IT

Chemistry

Biology

Hospitality/Catering

Economics

Geography

Psychology

/Telegraph