Teach Secondary 14.4

The art of effective recruitment Once we established the need, the next challenge was finding the right candidate. In an increasingly competitive market, simply placing an advert on the Tes website is no longer enough. Below are some different strategies that have previously worked for us: • Grow Your Own Talent We have established strong partnerships with teacher training providers and universities to ensure a steady pipeline of enthusiastic new teachers who are already familiar with our school culture. Typically, we’ll aim to train SCITT students across different sites so that we can support need across the group as and when it arises. • Apprenticeships / Subject Knowledge Enhancement Encouraging non-traditional routes into teaching, such as apprenticeship schemes and SKE courses, has helped us secure candidates for shortage subjects like maths, physics and computing. For example, we recently helped a highly skilled science technician complete a teaching apprenticeship, resulting in a committed and highly knowledgeable newmember of staff. • Re-engaging former teachers There’s a significant pool of qualified teachers who have left the profession due to work-life balance concerns. Offering part-time and flexible working arrangements has enabled us to bring experienced teachers back into the classroom. One of our most successful recruits last year was a former English teacher returning after a career break. By tailoring a part-time role to fit her availability, we filled a key vacancy. Our experience of advertising for part-time teachers is that there are many teachers out there who are more interested in working three days a week than full time. That might say a lot about the demands of the role, but it’s a strategy we’ve used inmany cases to recruit very strong, committed teachers. • International Recruitment With the right support, international teachers can be an invaluable asset. Our group of schools has successfully recruited highly skilled teachers from overseas, particularly in subjects facing acute shortages – but this involves careful planning around visa sponsorships, cultural integration and pastoral support, and a different approach to recruitment. It might not be possible to ‘see’ a lesson being taught by the candidate, but having them send over a video of them teaching is a good way of getting round this – with the added advantage that you can see how they set out their learning environment, and how they interact with children they knowwell. Retaining staff Recruitment is only half the battle; retention is equally, if not more important. After all, what’s the point of recruiting a brilliant teacher, TEACHER RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN 2025 Each year, education data specialist SchoolDash, in partnership with the Gatsby Foundation and Teacher Tapp, produces a review of recruitment trends across the country’s schools. So, how are things going for secondary schools on that front in 2025? Up, then down Well, it’s a mixed picture. Compared to last year, there’s been a 31% drop in teacher recruitment across secondary schools and colleges in England, though it should be noted that this followed three consecutive years of higher than usual recruitment activity. That said, the review also points out that school enrolments remain squeezed, and that schools remain just as exposed to less than ideal labour market conditions as any other sector, resulting in more cautious recruitment decisions across the board – as seen by the 45% of secondary headteachers who are expecting to reduce their teacher headcount as of next September. Levelling off Beyond that, the review’s authors observe that fewer teachers seem to be changing jobs, after a spike in turnover following the pandemic. Headteacher turnover rates are similarly down across both primary and secondary, to the point where they’re now at, or even slightly below those pre-pandemic – though just 42% of deputy and assistant headteachers currently aspire to become headteachers themselves. Subject analysis The review also charts the changing picture over time of teacher recruitment according to subject. Based on an analysis of job advert placings, the review’s authors conclude that since 2018/19, the smallest declines in recruitment can be seen in arts (-8%), humanities (-16%) and technology (-17%) subjects. Conversely, the most marked declines have been in English (-32%), maths (-28%) and science (28%) – though again, with these core subjects having seen the most dramatic rises in recruitment between 2020 and 2025, it’s perhaps understandable if these figures seem especially pronounced. Regional variations Perhaps to no one’s great surprise, London and the South East both continue to see the most recruitment activity compared to other regions, with new recruits predominantly joining schools with higher proportions of disadvantaged students. An important caveat to all this, though, is that this year’s SchoolDash review has been published slightly earlier than usual, making it harder to draw direct-on-year comparisons – something its authors plan to correct with an update to the figures that will be issued in June. For now, the full ‘Teacher Recruitment and Retention in 2025’ report can be downloaded via tinyurl.com/ts144-TR1 . 46 teachwire.net/secondary