Teacher vacancies at Nottinghamshire schools rose significantly last year

The Association of School and College Leaders said teacher shortages are at a “crisis point” and urged the Government to address falling recruitment and retention.

Data from teaching jobs site TeachVac shows Nottinghamshire schools posted 1,424 vacancies – 480 by primary schools and 944 by secondaries – through its website over the course of last year, up 49 per cent on 957 the year before.

Across England, teacher vacancies increased significantly in 2022 as the profession faced increasing recruitment and retention pressures following the coronavirus pandemic – job listings on TeachVac increased from 64,283 in 2021 to 107,104 last year.

The ASCL said teacher shortages are in crisis, with 95 per cent of schools reporting they have struggled to recruit new teachers in the past.

Geoff Barton, ASCL general secretary, said the Government repeatedly misses trainee recruitment targets and nearly a third of new teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying.

He said: “This is the result of a decade of real-term pay cuts, plus workload pressures caused by government underfunding of education, leaving staff doing more work with fewer resources.

“If schools cannot put teachers in front of classes, they cannot possibly maintain and improve educational standards.

“The Government must work with the profession on a strategy to improve teacher recruitment and retention and back this up with sufficient funding.”

Across the country, the increase in teacher vacancies through TeachVac was largely driven by state schools, where job advertisements increased by 68 per cent in 2022, compared with 52 per cent for independent schools.

In Nottinghamshire, state school advertisements jumped 49 per cent, while private school vacancies rose from 16 to 18.

Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of teaching trade union NASUWT, said: “The crisis in teacher recruitment and retention is the product of 12 years of failure by a government that has lost the confidence of the teaching profession.”

The Department for Education said there are 24,000 more teachers working in state-funded schools than in 2010, while tax-free bursaries worth up to £27,000 and a new £3,000 premium encourage trainees to teach subjects including maths, physics, chemistry and computing.