Schools in “levelling up” areas have fewer vacancies and are a third less likely to advertise for specialist science teachers than elsewhere, research has found.
The researchers suggest this is a potential barrier to plans for attracting more specialist teachers into these levelling-up “cold spots”, or “education investment areas” (EIAs) through bonus payments.
Last month, the Department for Education revealed up to 7,000 early career teachers (ECTs) teaching mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing in EIAs would be given a levelling-up “premium” payment from this autumn, worth up to £3,000 per year.
This would work if schools in these areas were seeking out specialist teachers, say researchers behind the data released today by the Gatsby Foundation with school data analysts SchoolDash.
But, according to today’s data, schools in EIAs are significantly less likely to advertise for specialist science teachers than those elsewhere.
For non-EIA schools, around 30 per cent of science teacher adverts specify “biology”, “chemistry” or “physics”, rather than just general “science”.
However, this is much lower in EIA schools, at 20 per cent, the research found.
This reflects the fact that schools in these areas were more likely to enter students for GCSEs in double science than in the individual science subjects, the research found.
It also found that the number of teaching vacancies tended to be lower in the EIAs - a trend that predated the pandemic.
The researchers said that their study lent some support to the idea that retention bonuses for early-career teachers in subjects such as chemistry and physics could help schools to keep teachers in high-priority subjects.
And it also suggested the bonuses should be higher for EIA schools, they said.
“However, success will also require the schools themselves to seek such specialist teachers in the first place,” they added.
The analysis looked at the number of vacancies posted in schools and colleges across England from 2019 to 2022.
Premium payments ‘miss the point’
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said there were too few trainees coming through in the first place, and poor retention rates.
Ms McCulloch added that premium payments for certain subject teachers “completely miss the point that there is a system-wide problem that needs addressing”.
“We need a strategy from the government based on reversing the pay erosion it has implemented, improving school and college funding, and toning down its excessively harsh accountability regime which wears staff down,” she said.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
You need a Tes subscription to read this article
Subscribe now to read this article and get other subscriber-only content:
