Good News Stories

Recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers can be improved by having clear pathways of progression, and examples of success stories across the profession. You can use good news stories in any way you wish to promote teaching and support your recruitment.

Case Study – ITT, Recruitment and Beyond at Ignite Federation

Andrew Edwards is the Executive Head of the Ignite Federation comprising of two primary schools on the Warwickshire/Leicestershire border. Andrew is an experienced leader with a wealth of experience from the worlds of both business and education. In this piece, Andrew shares his experience of engaging with Initial Teacher Training at a federation and school level and offers insights on the significant benefits and rewards being reaped.

With significant ongoing challenges around recruitment and retention of qualified teachers, it was clear that we, as a federation of two schools, we had to face the challenge head on and find solutions. Having already undertaken a huge amount of work to address many issues affecting retention by tackling workload, mental health and work/life balance and levels of professional autonomy, we knew that next we had to tackle recruitment.

Following the pandemic, a brief market analysis together with personal anecdotal evidence suggested that there was an untapped market of people who could become great teachers. We recognised that this potential market could supply people with the passion and desire that is required to survive in such a professionally tough environment along with the experience and qualities to maintain the high levels of resilience that are also essential.

And so, our formal partnership with the Coventry & Central Warwickshire Teaching School Hub alongside the University of Warwick was born.

Communication is key

It was clear that getting the word out there was going to be key. A dedicated page was created on both our school websites which included a quick and simple ‘contact us’ form as well as direct links for further information:

• https://www.therevelprimaryschool.co.uk/train-to-teach-with-us/
• https://www.wolveyschool.co.uk/train-to-teach-with-us/

A dedicated email address ‘teachertraining@’ was created to keep things separate and manageable as well as to provide a dedicated look and feel.

Key school staff attended the various training and partnership meetings with the University of Warwick so that we knew exactly what to expect and could ensure adequate resources (personnel and time) could be put in place.

We then set about targeting our key potential markets: existing ambitious support staff together with our local community of parents and neighbours.

• All staff in school receive regular reminders that we are available for training should they wish to progress their careers.
• Individuals are approached and annual performance reviews are used to signpost potentially interested staff to myself for further discussion.
• Coventry and Central Warwickshire Teaching School Hub provide banners promoting the programme for the gates of both schools
• Newsletters include a regular feature to promote Initial Teacher Training, including profiling recent successful trainees who we have now employed as teachers in school.

Benefits – recruitment and beyond

As well as supporting us with high quality teacher recruitment, our engagement with and commitment to ITT has led to other benefits:

• Through regular engagement with various partnership resources and events at the University of Warwick, existing members of staff not only gain and rehearse valuable skills in mentorship and coaching but have also accessed a wide range of free CPD covering areas such as having difficult conversations and making reasonable adjustments for staff who may have additional needs.
• At a whole school level, our approach helps us to ‘mould’ potential recruits during the training process; we are able to assess their true potential and understanding our way of working is supportive of transition into the ECT phase should we recruit them.
• The approach has also enabled senior leaders to identify gaps in skills or weaker areas of pedagogy within our staff teams which may potentially have remained hidden had they not been exposed through access to cutting-edge research brought to us by a strong University partnership.
• Discovering new and enthusiastic entrants who have benefited from being immersed in school life and community during training has helped to ensure that they eventually enter the profession with their eyes fully wide open and we believe this is sure to help retention in the longer term.

Over recent years we have trained 5 trainees and have two more recruited for next year. Most of these trainees have direct or more indirect links to our schools.  As a federation, we are now realistically in the position of training more high-quality new teachers than we have vacancies for; our approach in not only benefiting pupils in our school community but those beyond too!

I will leave you with a recent quote from a parent who had expressed concerns over an Early Career Teacher, who we trained, being appointed to teach Year 6: “Having met Mrs O’Brien and seeing first-hand the positive impact she is having, I can only say it was an inspired decision!”

Case Study – Flexible Working at Harborne Academy

We met with Sarah Ross, Headteacher of Harborne Academy – a single academy trust in Birmingham, to talk about recruitment, retention and the power of flexible working in schools. From the outset of our conversation, it was clear that Sarah has a strong philosophy about what it means to run a school and how the attitudes and decisions of a headteacher influence culture and staff satisfaction.

Sarah is passionate about one key concept, that ‘trust is the thing’ that makes the whole culture work. In many ways Sarah’s ideas are innovative but not revolutionary. Put simply, at Harborne Academy, Sarah wants ‘the students in school for as long as possible and staff for as short as possible if that helps them to achieve a good work life balance’. For many schools and leaders this might feel a little alarming, but Sarah is committed to the approach and says she has felt the benefits by keeping great teachers in her team, indeed she claims that ‘many staff who leave this school get in touch saying that they wish they could come back.’

Running through all the flexible working and retention measures Sarah explained to us is a simple principle – school life doesn’t need to be inflexible for teachers, if headteachers and schools are willing to meet staff halfway: ‘Some of our staff are prepared to work early in the morning, whereas others are prepared to stay late – I don’t understand why the time teachers spend in the building has to be so fixed, particularly the start time.’ The rigidity of school timetables and expectations on staff are often cited as a barrier to part time work or to the recruitment and retention of teachers who are also parents or carers.

Sarah explained some of the measures that are in place in detail:

At Harborne Academy, ‘All staff can go to all their kids’ events – teachers are parents too and you can’t underestimate the benefit staff feel when they are able to attend their child’s nativity play.’ Often, Sarah uses dependants’ leave to facilitate but as the culture has evolved staff increasingly use friendly cover, ‘which we advertise, support and encourage people to take advantage.’

The school is trialling a new system, whereby every teacher gets the chance to spend ‘one PPA period a week at home, either in the morning or in the afternoon’. This is a fairly novel initiative, and Sarah plans to review its benefits and impact in the Summer Term.

Colleagues are also entitled to one ‘Staff Day’ each academic year, which is ‘one day off per year,’ and the school asks for ‘half a term’s notice and in return Staff can choose the day they take’. Sarah tells us that this has far-reaching benefits. These strategies in and of themselves feel like a bonus and promote a positive, supportive environment across the school.

Sarah says this philosophy has had a positive impact on staff absence, attendance and the overall culture of the school: ‘Staff with poor attendance are going to have poor attendance no matter what you do, why should the rules be inflexible for everyone in school to address issues with a small proportion off your staff?’ There is always a concern for heads and cover managers that these arrangements leave them vulnerable in emergency circumstances: ‘I don’t really see it that way, this approach is mostly focused on wellbeing for main-scale staff. They can always leave when they have flexibility because they are never used for cover.’

‘In fact, it enables me to focus more of my attention of the staff who do have attendance issues than I was able to under the old model.’

Case Study – A New Career in Teaching

Not everyone enters the teaching profession straight from school.  Some people have successful careers in other professions before deciding to train as a teacher.

Think about your school and the community around it. There will be talented, intelligent committed people who could become excellent teachers. Career changers are one of the biggest untapped recruitment sources in this country. Consider how your school could support someone to make the best transition into teaching possible.

At school, Naomi had always planned to train as either a nurse or a teacher.  As a teenager, she completed a short placement in a school but at the time decided this was not for her.  She trained as a nurse, and during her career completed a Specialist Nursing Degree in District Nursing.  She dedicated 17 years to the nursing profession but increasingly felt that she wanted to re-consider a career in teaching.  Other members of Naomi’s family were teachers, and she enjoyed supporting them in their work when she was able to.

Here is Naomi’s journey.

Whilst on maternity leave, Naomi made the decision to change career and investigate routes into teaching.  She also took the opportunity to volunteer in a school to gain some first-hand experience.

Choosing a course

Initially, Naomi was unsure how to go about applying and the variety of options seemed confusing.

Naomi attended open days at different universities.  She spoke to people in the teaching profession, including the Head Teacher of her children’s school to identify the best route into teaching for her.  Naomi realised that because she had a degree through her nursing career, she was eligible to apply for a one-year course.  At the time, she felt she was unlikely to be accepted onto a salaried course and so opted for a university course with PGCE.

Benefits (and challenges) of training later in life

Naomi felt that undertaking teacher training as a mature student had specific benefits. She had to be very sure starting a training course was the right thing to do as there were other factors to consider, such as family and finance. In making the decision, she therefore felt a high level of commitment to completing the course to the highest possible standards.

As a mature trainee, Naomi had a great deal of life and work experience to bring, allowing her to see situations from different perspectives. Naomi found the most challenging aspect of the course was keeping up with the work requirements while continuing to meet the expectations of family life.  Organisation was key.

Worries before making the change

Naomi said that her biggest concern about changing career, was that after completing the training, she wouldn’t enjoy the job!  She admitted that the first few weeks of her teaching career were very challenging.  She worked long hours and was worried that she would not be able to maintain this and meet the demands of family life.  Establishing an appropriate work/life balance was important.  Naomi says that this is an on-going challenge but has improved significantly.

Finance as a mature student

Finance was a big consideration.  Not only was Naomi giving up a salary, but she also had a student loan for the course fees and maintenance grant.  She wasn’t eligible for any benefits to help with nursery fees due to her husband’s income.  Naomi was fortunate that her husband and family were able to support, and she did take on some bank nursing work at weekends but admitted it wasn’t easy.

However, Naomi did point out that this was for a finite period and that now in her 5^th year of teaching, she earns more than she did after 17 years of nursing.

The best bits

Naomi loves seeing children enjoying their learning and developing their confidence.  She enjoys the positive relationships she develops with pupils and watching their personalities grow. Most of all, Naomi loves those ‘lightbulb’ moments, when children understand a new concept or grasp a new skill!

Naomi loves her job and knows she made the right decision to change career.  She acknowledges that there are challenges but feels that teaching provides her with a range of opportunities and support.

Advice for career changers

• Do your research!
• Volunteer and spend some time in a school so that you are clear about what the job involves.
• Ask questions.  Where you don’t understand something, seek clarification.
• Look at the different routes into teaching, so that you can make informed decisions about which route is most suitable.  Don’t be afraid to apply for different routes if you believe they will work for you and your circumstances.

• Be clear on how you will fund the time you are training.