A shortage of physics teachers needs to be “addressed urgently” to avoid the problem becoming “compounded”, a subject leader has warned.
Around 400 schools in England don’t have a teacher for physics A level, and without swift action, the shortage would become more pronounced, as the squeeze on specialists was creating “extra challenges” to those that remain in the profession, Rachel Youngman, deputy chief executive at the Institute of Physics (IoP) told Tes.
She said that a scheme supporting engineering graduates to go into physics teaching was needed to solve the recruitment issue and that it was vital to ensure that those in the job at the moment were being offered professional development opportunities to make sure they did not leave their roles.
Just 22 per cent of the necessary physics teachers were recruited last year, according to Department for Education data.
Several physics and science teachers told Tes that high contact hours and the requirement to teach multiple sciences were likely to be contributing factors to specialists leaving the teaching profession, but many said that bigger salary opportunities in other roles were a huge draw for graduates and that any recruitment campaign would have to address this issue.
The government announced last October that teachers in the early years of their careers will be able to get a salary boost of up to £3,000 tax-free to teach maths, physics, chemistry and computing, but could not reveal further details - such as when the boost would be available from - when asked by Tes this week.
Building the workforce to meet skills demands ‘starts at school’
Ms Youngman’s call comes after a new report released by the IoP found that “significant unmet demand for physics skills exists” and that “action to bolster the development of physics skills among the current and future workforce” was needed.
The report, entitled Unlocking the potential of physics skills in the UK and Ireland, says that meeting the demand for these skills “begins at school” and that shortages of teachers “with the capability and training to teach science well in primary schools and of specialist physics teachers in secondary and further education must be addressed”.
Ms Youngman said one of the issues was that not enough science teachers in the UK are specialist physicists. “Of science teachers, you would expect a third of those - or you would hope a third of those - are physics specialists. But in fact, it’s around about a fifth. We just haven’t got the kind of volume there.
“One of the problems we have with physics is that it tends to be looked at as a science. So sometimes the physics bit in that can be a little bit masked.”
Ms Youngman warned that if not addressed quickly, the issue with shortages could become “compounded”, explaining: “[The shortage] does need to be addressed urgently. Not only do we have a gap in the number of teachers that we need, but the gap can get more pronounced, particularly if we’re not keeping up with [hiring] targets that have been set. We’re just compounding the problem.
“Teachers and physics teachers are under a lot of demand, but when you’re in short supply, that can add an extra challenge.”
Asked how the shortages could be addressed, Ms Youngman said: “We really want to make sure that there are schemes to recruit, train and support engineering graduates to teach physics, because engineering will have come through physics, of course. So we think that there’s a really good opportunity there and that’s something that IoP is actively working on.
“We want to keep the bursaries and the scholarships really strong, and have an added emphasis on retention as well. One thing is getting the teachers recruited the other, of course, is keeping them in teaching and making sure that there is specialist CPD available.
“We need to make sure that we’re investing in our teachers because that’s retention but also deepening the specialism.”
‘The government needs to put its money where its mouth is’
Physics teachers who spoke to Tes said there is a range of reasons that the profession might be struggling to recruit and retain staff, but the most prominent issue is ensuring a competitive salary.
One physics teacher at a secondary school in West London told Tes that to introduce a scheme to recruit engineering graduates, as suggested by Ms Youngman, then sizeable financial incentives would have to be offered.
He said: “To make a sizeable impact, it would have to be worth it, with things like bursaries. That’s how you get people in - the government needs to put its money where its mouth is.”
Another physics teacher, Bob Pritchard, who works at the Ellesmere Port Church of England College in Cheshire, said that physicists can earn a lot more in other roles in finance, engineering and other subject areas and that this was a big factor.
Talking about schemes that would hire engineering graduates, he said: “This increases the possible candidates, but finance is a big part of it. [The salaries] need to be competitive.”
When talking specifically about CPD, teachers told Tes that their problem was with having time to access resources, rather than the resources per se.
Mr Pritchard said: “I can appreciate that the more staff have access to, in terms of CPD, the more rewarding the job, but there’s plenty out there. The factor is contact time. If there’s more time then there’s more time to develop and also to develop non-specialists.”
Alex Bellew, head of physics at Horsforth School in West Yorkshire, said: “You can’t do the things that would make you better as a teacher like CPD, or observing teachers, because you don’t have time.”
Tes also spoke to a head of science at a secondary school in Lancashire, who is leaving the profession this term after eight years to pursue a different career.
He said there were several reasons for this, such as a change in expectations placed on teachers since the start of the pandemic, but also raised issues with teaching science in schools, saying: “With science, you’re expected to teach at least two subjects - like chemistry and physics, chemistry and biology and so on. With most subjects, you’re not expected to do that.
“But we’re not given extra time to do that in our timetables. If teachers want to get better at teaching a subject they don’t specialise in, they have to do it in their own time.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “We have taken a wide range of action to attract physics teachers to the profession. In addition to the existing tax-free £24,000 bursary or £26,000 scholarship for physics graduate trainee teachers, we have announced a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax-free for physics teachers in years one to five of their careers.
“We are also working with the Institute of Physics and other sector experts to explore how best to attract and train engineering graduates to teach physics.”
