Headteacher at Uplands Community College, Liam Collins, shares facts and figures about recruitment and retention and explores way in which the education system can improve both.

1. Improving Recruitment in a
challenging climate*
Liam Collins FRSA (@kalinski1970)
* I don’t have the answers

2. Context
• Good School, hopefully moving to great
• VA 1012 (32nd percentile)
• Value Added KS5
• Small (ish) school
• Members of Teacher Development Trust
• No graded lesson observations
• Personalised CPD
• No blame culture
• Differences in style of teaching celebrated
• No colour pen preferred
• No triple marking
• All observations are developmental – Lesson study, lesson study
light, live coaching
• The ‘O’ word is banned in the school

3. Underpinned by this philosophy
“If there was no Ofsted, no league tables, no
SLT... just you and your class..what would you
choose to do to make it GREAT?
Well do that anyway...”
Tom
Sherrington

4. Do what makes your pupils
successful…
If a teacher can get amazing pupil
outcomes from using films, Mr Men,
constant teacher talk, or rote learning, then
power to their elbow.
Laura McInerney
But!
Test it. Question it. Share it.

5. And…

6. So…easy to recruit teachers
then…?

7. Number of applicants
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16
Head of Maths 3 - - - 1
Maths - 0 3 0 0
English 3 - 1 1 -
Geography 4 - 0 3 -
History - 3 2 - -
MFL 2 0 1 0 0
Head of Science 3 - - - -
D&T - - - 1 -
RE 2 - - 0 0
Drama - - 2 - -
Total 17 3 9 5 1
Cost £7,020 £3,510 £7,020 £7020 £5,850
Cost per applicant £412 £1,170 £780 £1,404 £5,850
So for us, this situation is not new, but it is still getting worse

8. Marketing a Position – Head of Maths Example
• TES Silver (£1,170)
• Newly written candidate pack
• Use of social media (Twitter gained over 100 hits to website)
• Personal phone calls and emails
• At least 4 candidates said they were going to apply, all gained pay-rises at their
current school
• One applicant from USA!
• Interview via Skype
• Offer
• Candidate has more than one offer, due to her request to her previous school
for a reference
• More phone calls and emails
• Additional costs of relocation, Visa application etc.
• But position accepted

9. One word sums it all up…
EXHAUSTING
janeldrewisanimation.blogspot.com

10. One bonus is that once here they
stay!

11. Improving Recruitment
in a challenging climate*
* I don’t have the answers

12. Solving
Recruitment
•Ways in
•Keeping them in
(which Tim will
be covering)
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/numerology/images/22189661/title/number-2-photo

13. Key Facts
NAO report “Training new Teachers”. 10/02/16
4
Years since the DfE’s
trainee recruitment
targets were met
Yet
155 school-centred
training compared to 56
in 2011/12
841 School Direct
partnerships in 2015/16
compared to none in
2011/12

14. These are very
worrying based on
the new Maths
curriculum and the
threat of
compulsory
languages
I worry about
these courses
surviving. We are
having to remove
courses because
we can’t find the
staff

15. Reason we are missing targets?

16. Choice of provider by region

17. The number of applicants for teacher training courses
has continued to fall with new figures showing a drop of
more than 4,500 compared to last year.

18. Trainees Entering Teaching – good
news?
The latest initial teacher training statistics show that almost nine out of ten trainees who gain
qualified status (QTS) are in a teaching job six months later

19. Cost of Routes

20. Cost/benefit – highest cost is Teach First
However, there is no
data collected on any
other route and
retention rates?

21. Getting the figures or Zombie Stats
The correct data to use if you want to see how many people gain QTS and then don't start teaching shows just 15%
of those who gained QTS in 2012 were either not in a teaching job or had an "unknown" status six months after
completion. It was 16% in 2011.
ITT Performance Profiles 2012-13
Statistics - NCTL

22. Opportunities? Men
DfE Statistics: school workforce SFR21/2015

23. Opportunities? Increase BAME
DfE Statistics: school workforce SFR21/2015

24. So the major problems are…
• We have confused ways in to training
• It is expensive to gain a degree and then a PGCE
• There is very little planning in trainee teacher
recruitment
• The cut offs on trainee numbers have created a
perverse incentive to recruit quickly rather than
carefully
• There are regional issues that are causing regional
shortages
• The most expensive route in has a two year cliff edge
on retention
• The profession is not attractive

25. A promise…we will try to solve
some of these issues later
efficiencie.com