A sufficient supply of specialist science teachers for GCSE students is not “realistic” in the “near future”, a leader in school-based teacher training is set to warn.
Speaking at the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) conference today, its executive director Emma Hollis will call for a “specialist Early Career Framework (ECF)” across all sciences up to A level to address subject teacher shortages.
The ECF, which launched in 2021, aims for early career teachers to be mentored on a one-to-one basis.
Today, Ms Hollis will also ask whether the sector needs to have specialist science teachers at key stages 3 and 4, stating: “The current reality is we can’t envisage a realistic near future in which we have enough physics teachers in the system to do that.
“Teachers could be upskilled via a specialist ECF across all sciences up to A level.”
She confirmed to Tes that this referred to teachers of other sciences, rather than teachers from a non-science background.
The suggestion follows findings that almost four in 10 secondary school leaders say some physics lessons were being taught by non-specialists.
The findings were accompanied by warnings from experts that teacher shortages - and the resulting use of non-specialist teachers in certain subjects - “may be acting as a drag on system-wide improvement of pupil outcomes”.
But today, Ms Hollis will say: “In terms of children being taught by ‘non-expert teachers’ in common subject areas, reflection on the required subject knowledge development should be the focus.”
This could look at the “broader skills teachers need to support effective teaching of those subjects” at GCSE and A level, she said, adding that the same model could be used for other subjects such as maths, modern foreign languages and drama.
The government failed to meet its initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment targets last year, with just 59 per cent of the target number of secondary teacher trainees starting courses.
School and workforce leaders and experts have repeatedly raised the alarm over the “vicious cycle” of low recruitment and the fact that teachers are now leaving the profession at the highest rate in four years.
A member of the advisory group for the prime minister’s maths-to-18 plans told Tes in August that providing non-maths teachers with training to teach the subject could be necessary.
CPD lead ‘should be funded SLT post’
Ms Hollis will also today call for the introduction of a funded senior leadership team role of teacher professional development lead in every school, with responsibility for ring-fenced time and funding for every teacher.
Ahead of today’s conference, NASBTT also surveyed 102 School-Centred ITT (SCITT) providers.
When asked about how ITT recruitment is at this stage of the year compared with last year, more than a third (35 per cent) reported that recruitment is better, with nearly six in 10 (58 per cent) reporting it to be the same.
Just 7 per cent of providers surveyed said that the picture for recruitment was worse than this time last year.
Yesterday’s ITT figures published by the DfE also indicated an initial uptick in recruitment this year. But experts warned that the picture “is not as rosy as it might seem”, because it is “primarily driven by a huge surge in interest from international applicants”.
Support for bursary review
Three-quarters of NASBTT members welcomed the proposed refresh of the DfE’s recruitment and retention strategy, which Tes revealed the DfE was set to update in September.
The survey also revealed that Labour’s plans to review bursary spending were the party’s most popular proposal among SCITTs.
Labour has also proposed an “ECF completion bonus” - a one-off payment of £2,400 on completion of the two-year ECF.
Writing in Tes last week, Ms Hollis said that these completion bonuses should come over years three, four and five on the pay progression scale “as part of an annual increase to encourage retention over a longer period”.
And Ms Hollis said that, while an incoming government should be “honest about issues with the ECF”, further significant change to the framework “so soon after it was rolled out” could be “a knee-jerk reaction”.
