Number of teacher vacancies at Peterborough schools up by 50 per cent on previous year

The number of teacher vacancies at Peterborough schools last year rose by 50 per cent on the previous year, as national teacher shortages reach “crisis point”.

New figures, published by teaching jobs site TeachVac, shows primary and secondary schools in Peterborough posted 433 vacancies over the course of last year – up by 50 per cent on 288 the year before.

Of the vacancies, 137 were advertised by primary schools and 296 by secondary schools.

Across England, teacher vacancies increased significantly in 2022, causing The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) to call for the Government to address falling recruitment and retention of staff on the back of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nationally, teacher vacancies listed on TeachVac increased from 64,283 in 2021 to 107,104 last year.

However, some jobs can be listed more than once if they are not initially filled, and not every teaching vacancy is posted to the TeachVac site.

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.

‘Decade of pay cuts’

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

Mr Barton said: "This is the result of a decade of real terms pay cuts which have eroded the value of salaries and 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 Peterborough, state school advertisements jumped by 69 per cent, while private school vacancies fell from 42 to 18.

‘Ever-rising workload’

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.

"It is little wonder that the Government’s failure to invest in the profession has resulted in many experienced teachers and headteachers quitting the profession prematurely as a consequence of real terms pay cuts and ever-rising workload pressures."

The Department for Education said there are 24,000 more teachers working in state-funded schools than in 2010.

A spokesperson said 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.They added: "We are making the highest pay awards in a generation – 5 per cent for experienced teachers and more for those early in their careers, including an up to 8.9 per cent increase to starting salary."