Teach First will offer a £2,000 grant to trainees who relocate to train with the initial teacher training (ITT) provider amid concerns over teacher recruitment and the cost of living.
The charity announced today that the one-off payment will be given to those who relocate to take up a place in Teach First’s Autumn Institute, which begins its ITT programme in September.
Trainees who decide to commute rather than relocate will be eligible for a grant of £1,000, provided it costs them more than £150 a month to commute to the school at which they are based.
Teach First said it was launching the pilot payment scheme after a large increase in requests from school leaders for trainees training with the charity.
It comes after the Department for Education missed its target for secondary teacher trainee entrants by 41 per cent last year, and recent data revealed that the number of state school teachers leaving the profession hit the highest rate in four years last year.
The key aims of charity and ITT provider Teach First are to recruit “the best and brightest” graduates and career changers who have the potential to be highly skilled teachers and leaders, and who would be otherwise unlikely to join the profession.
Trainees are also paid a salary from their first day of teaching and will have access to the charity’s Hardship Fund if they need it.
Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First, said: “We’ve had a huge influx of requests from schools for our trainee teachers, many in more isolated parts of the country.”
He said that the charity “wanted to find an additional way of helping, particularly because of the cost-of-living crisis impacting people’s career decisions”.
Mr Hobby added: “Through this small pilot scheme, we want to help address the financial barriers graduates are facing to training as teachers in schools in low-income areas, enabling them to start the training programme with us and relocate or commute to the schools that need them most.”
It comes after the chief executive of the National Institute of Teaching recently urged the DfE to review its teacher recruitment and retention strategy to take into account the impact of the pandemic.
Trainees will only be able to apply for one of the two grants. It is expected that if a trainee relocates, they should move to somewhere from where they can afford their commute to their school.
David Oakes, headteacher of The Regis School, a Teach First partner school in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, said: “Schools like ours have pockets of real deprivation and support pupils and families who, at times, face incredible and genuine challenges.
“Social problems within Bognor Regis can be overwhelming, so attracting new and ambitious teachers into the area is hugely important and highly impactful.
“It would make a world of difference if we had access to financial support for new teachers, that supported them either with their relocation or commute into Bognor Regis from surrounding areas in Sussex.
“This would ease the stresses of paying off their graduate loans, help them to pay their bills and allow them to truly imbed themselves into our wonderful school.”
To qualify for the relocation grant, trainees will need to provide evidence of a new address, for instance, a tenancy agreement, which they took up between being matched with an employment school and starting work there.
