Correspondence

Teacher Recruitment Bulletin: April 2019

Updated 10 June 2019

Welcome to the April 2019 edition of the Teacher Recruitment Bulletin, containing vital information to support your recruitment of ITT trainees and teachers.

1. Letter to ITT providers - changes to Ofsted’s Initial Teacher Education (ITE) inspection handbook

Last month we wrote to providers of ITT about important changes to Ofsted’s initial teacher education (ITE) inspection handbook, which came into effect from 1 April 2019. These changes have been made in response to your feedback about the difficulty in maximising recruitment numbers whilst completion rates remained a key Ofsted outcomes measure. Inspectors will now consider how well leaders of ITE ensure the rigour of the recruitment and selection process by evaluating evidence of trainee completion rates across different subjects and training routes.

We hope that this will allow you greater flexibility in your recruitment practices. However, we are clear that the standard that trainees are expected to attain at the end of their training has, of course, not changed and should remain as high as ever.

DfE will continue to work with Ofsted to ensure that the new ITE inspection handbook (from 2020) reflects these changes and contains no potential disincentives to ITT recruitment.

The letter was sent from Lorna Howarth, Deputy Director for Teacher Recruitment: Initial Teacher Training Operation and Markets. It was sent to all accredited ITT providers, via an email from the Recruitment and Allocations Team, on Thursday 21 March 2019.

2. New content in the teacher workload reduction toolkit

We recently made some updates to the teacher workload reduction toolkit, in response to the recommendations of the ‘Making data work report’ published in November 2018 and feedback from teachers.

New practice examples and a new section on reducing workload when managing behavior may be of particular interest to ITT trainees and NQTs.

To acknowledge publication of the Early career framework in the Recruitment and retention strategy and to reflect latest research, we have updated the section on support for teachers at the early stages of their careers.

Other examples include managing behaviour from Redbridge Community School, a video on developing a supportive culture from Kensington Primary school and the programme of work to reduce the workload and improve wellbeing from King Charles I School, in the managing change section. Please share this information with your networks.

You can email the DfE Teacher workload and impact on schools team with any further comments at workload.solutions@education.gov.uk.

3. Teacher Vacancies - making it easier for teachers to find jobs

As a teacher training provider, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for new teachers to find their important first teaching role.

We’re aware that finding the right teaching position can be overwhelming for candidates with so many recruitment sites available. To make it easier to find their next career move, we’ve launched Teaching Vacancies, our free and easy-to-use job listing service.

Teaching Vacancies is an official government service and trusted source so users can feel confident that their personal data will not be shared or sold to third parties. We have over 7,000 schools already signed up, so the service benefits from national exposure.

Please promote the site to new teachers to provide them with access to teaching opportunities in publicly funded schools throughout England.

To view this service, please visit Teaching Vacancies.

If you have not yet received your invite to sign up, please email teaching.vacancies@education.gov.uk.

4. Scholarships programme - recruitment to computer science

If you are recruiting computer science trainees, please promote the £28,000, tax free computing teacher training scholarship to your candidates.

The scheme is aimed at high quality computer scientists, passionate about teaching computer science. Successful candidates must secure a training place by September 2019, that leads to QTS status, at an ITT provider or lead school with permission to recruit by DfE. Scholars are expected to have a subject relevant 2:1 (or predicted) degree. Candidates with a 2:2 (or predicted) degree may be considered if they can demonstrate significant subject knowledge and have a relevant postgraduate degree.

Successful applicants will receive additional support to enhance their subject knowledge and gain access to high quality professional development resources.

Applications are now open. Candidates can apply at BCS teaching scholarships.

For further details, including eligibility, please visit Get Into Teaching.

5. Recruitment to ITT 2019 - monitoring of rejection rates

We are continuing to monitor ITT application rejection rates in priority subjects so we can gain insight into candidate selection practices and understand why an ITT candidate may not be accepted onto a course. We will be contacting providers where rejection rates appear to be higher than sector norms.

We are asking ITT providers to improve the accuracy of submitted UCAS rejections and withdrawals data on UCAS by choosing one of the following options:

• rejected – where a candidate is not suitable
• withdrawn – where an applicant withdraws their application
• not considered – training programme full

You can view more guidance about the different types of decisions in the UCAS Teacher training admissions guide.

6. ITT funding - April update data collection period

We adjusted training bursary funding levels in March 2019, based on current withdrawal information.

Adjustments to School Direct (salaried) and Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship funding will commence in April 2019. During the April update, all ITT providers are required to update their withdrawal and trainee information to allow us to reconcile funding and adjustment rates to reflect your recruitment and retention.

For providers that use HESA to submit data, if the data team has amended any data within the database of trainee teachers and providers, please ensure that your HESA data reflect these changes.

For funding and adjustment rate queries, please email itt.funding@education.gov.uk.

For data queries, please email itt.datamanagement@education.gov.uk.

7. Implementation of the Early career framework - prior information notice

A prior information notice (PIN) which notifies the market of the DfE’s intention to commence procurement for implementation of the Early career framework has been launched. It provides additional information of what is being procured, the key dates and where you can register to bid.

Read the information notice on Contracts Finder.

8. Potential new provider (PNP) - briefing events

We will shortly be organising briefing events for organisations interested in becoming accredited ITT providers. Events will focus on how potential new providers (PNPs) can become accredited ITT providers.

To register interest in becoming an accredited ITT provider, please email itt.accreditation@education.gov.uk.

9. Immigration rules changes

The Tier 2 (General) category is the main immigration route for UK employers seeking to recruit non-EEA skilled workers where suitably skilled or appropriate workers cannot be found from within the resident labour market. Following a review published by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) in 2016 on the Tier 2 route, the Government increased the minimum salary threshold for experienced workers to Tier 2 to £30,000. In the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules dated 3 November 2016, an exemption from this increase was introduced for secondary school teachers in mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, and Mandarin alongside some medical occupations. The exemption was due to end on 1 July 2019 but is being extended and will be reviewed as part of the introduction of the future border and immigration system.

Details of this can be found in section 7.36 of the explanatory memorandum together with further changes to immigration rules.

10. Teacher subject specialism training - latest blog

Teacher subject specialism training (TSST) is a free programme available to non-specialist teachers in secondary mathematics, core maths, physics and modern foreign languages to help increase subject knowledge and confidence.

The purpose of TSST is to support schools to increase the number of hours taught in these subjects, helping build capacity for schools to manage workforce challenges. Courses run throughout the year, are flexible and many run at weekends and during twilight hours.

We’d like to share the experience of Tom, a PE teacher who trained to teach maths. You can read his blog on taking on a new challenge – making the move from PE to maths.