Teacher recruitment and retention remains a stubborn problem.
The latest Initial Teacher Training Census (2023-24) revealed that only half the secondary postgraduate teachers needed were recruited into teacher education in the last year, with just 17% of the target number of physics teachers. Physics and maths teachers leave the profession in greater numbers than other teachers which can only mean one thing: too many pupils are not taught by appropriately qualified teachers who have with good subject knowledge.
Continuing professional development (CPD) can play a critical role in the retention of teachers, and it is crucial that teachers’ early experiences of CPD are the best they can be. This is why Gatsby, building on existing good practice and the changes and improvements to the Early Career Framework (ECF) recently made by government, is committed to finding out what else can be done to support early career teachers. We also set out to explore if, with a greater emphasis on flexibility and subject-specific support, the Early Career Framework has the potential to both boost retention and ensure more young people benefit from being taught by specialist teachers.
We supported the Teacher Development Trust to work with a panel of experts, led by Professor Sam Twiselton to review literature and gather stakeholder perspectives on how the Early Career Framework could be developed.
