Weekly round-up: ITT recruitment trouble and staff leaving

Catch up on all of your must-read Tes news and analysis:

• Exclusive: Third of Stem teacher trainee applications rejected
  A third of applicants to teacher training courses in science, technology, engineering and maths subjects have been rejected this year, Tes analysis reveals, prompting warnings that an increase in overseas applicants won’t solve schools’ staffing problems.
• The scale of the teacher retention crisis revealed
  Over 12 years, 40,438 state school teachers left within one year of qualifying. New Department for Education data exposes the extent of the problem, which leaders say must be a post-election priority.
• Warning over “endemic” use of non-specialist teachers
  Seven subject associations have warned that the use of non-specialist teachers has become “endemic” and must be addressed by the party that forms the next government.
• How to entice more teachers? Simple: talk up teaching
  The next government must restore the status of teachers if it wants to solve staff shortages, writes Caroline Derbyshire, chair of the Headteachers’ Roundtable.
• Poorer high-ability pupils in primary miss top GCSE grades
  Less than half of disadvantaged yet highly able pupils in primary school go on to achieve top maths GCSE grades, research reveals.
• Main parties “silent” on urgent school funding problems
  The two main political parties have been “silent” about urgent funding issues, despite funding being the “most significant” problem that schools face, school finance leaders and governors have warned.
• Exam board: 1.5 million pupils struggling to engage at school
  More than 95 per cent of teachers have witnessed pupils having difficulty engaging in learning, according to research by exam board Pearson.
• Labour’s breakfast clubs plan “risks school mission creep”
  Labour’s pledge to fund a free breakfast club in every primary is part of measures that could “present additional challenges for schools already struggling with pay, workload and recruitment pressures”, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.
• “Rural schools are in danger of complete extinction”
  For too long the difficulties for small, rural schools have been ignored - the next government needs to save these vital “community anchors”, writes Dan Morrow, CEO of Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust.
• How we almost doubled MFL uptake in three years
  One leader outlines the four steps his school took to dramatically increase the number of students taking at least one language at GCSE.

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