Applications to postgraduate courses in England are up a fifth on this time last year to 29,445, says the Graduate Teacher Training Registry.

In Wales, applications to primary courses have almost doubled, to 1,421, while secondary is up a fifth to 1,064.

Primary courses are filling up, but there are plenty of places in secondary subjects - which often recruit into the autumn. Maths applications in England are up a quarter, and English more than a third, with big increases (albeit in some cases from low bases) in chemistry, physics, and design and technology. Applications for information technology and business studies are up more than two-thirds.

However, modern languages has so far drawn only 24 more applications than last year, and the number of religious education recruits is down 13 per cent, from 386 to 336.

Recruitment expert John Howson fears maths, science, technology subjects, languages, RE, music and geography will not hit recruitment targets.

Though applications are important, the figure that counts is the number of accepted offers of places. Last year, a 15.8 per cent increase in secondary applications in England and Wales translated into just 4.2 per cent more actual trainees. Acceptance figures are released in October.

See www.gttr.ac.uk