Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it is easy to dwell on what we could have done better in response to the pandemic, but let’s take a moment to shine a light on a little-known Welsh success story.
How many times have successive governments come together to talk about recruitment and retention in the education profession? There have been all sorts of weird and wonderful suggestions about how to encourage people, once they’ve been through their initial teacher training, to stay in Wales and get a job.
But a new programme launched by the Welsh government as a direct result of the pandemic to support trainee teachers who missed out on the opportunity to gain classroom experience could well hold the key.
Under the scheme, around 400 NQTs were placed in schools and their wages were centrally funded for, initially, just the autumn term 2021 - but this was later extended to cover spring 2022.
As well as giving NQTs more opportunity for training and mentoring, the support also allows schools to increase capacity and free up other teachers to provide extra help to vulnerable learners.
The government paying NQTs’ wages in Wales
It’s worth pointing out that although the programme itself has been a huge success, it has not all been plain sailing.
Not every school was successful in being allocated someone, and that has been a criticism of the programme, given that staff absence has crippled some schools’ ability to stay open.
There was no direct say in which NQTs were allocated to which schools, although there was consideration in deciding placements based on location and a host of other factors.
Some school leaders said that meant that NQTs who were known to their schools were not necessarily placed with them and therefore they missed out on strengthening existing relationships and supporting those they knew.
Crucially, what is disappointing is that a recent survey carried out by us at [school leaders’ union] NAHT Cymru revealed that, of our members who had been allocated an NQT through the programme, only 50 per cent said they were able to offer them permanent employment, as a result of budget constraints.
We can choose to be positive and say that 50 per cent will go on to get permanent employment, and that the remainder have gained some valuable experience that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. Or we can once again go down the rabbit hole of school funding and spend valuable time and energy trying to figure out how we ensure that our schools get the fully funded support they need to deliver first-class education to our learners. That’s for another day.
The success of the NQT programme could have been more down to luck than judgement on the government’s part, or it could have been down to the unwavering support that school leaders have shown these fresh-faced new recruits who were drafted in during a time of crisis, or it could have been due to the talents of the NQTs themselves.
More likely, though, its success has been a combination of all three. But the important thing is that it has worked. It is still working. And we want to keep it working.
So, to adapt a well-known phrase: please minister, can we have some more?
Laura Doel is the director of school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru
