- £30,000 tax-free scholarships for mathematics, physics,
chemistry and computing trainees
- Builds on additional funding announced by the Prime Minister
to lay the groundwork for the Advanced British Standard
- Over 27,000 more teachers in England’s schools since
2010
Teacher recruitment will see a huge boost this academic year with
£196 million to attract more teachers across key
subjects. This will fund scholarships, bursaries and salary
grants to help thousands of candidates through their Initial
Teacher Training (ITT).
Scholarships for those training to teach mathematics, physics,
chemistry and computing will now be brought up to £30,000
tax-free, in order to attract more talented teachers in these key
subjects to support the delivery of the Advanced British Standard
(ABS), announced by the Prime Minister last week.
The ABS is a new single qualification for 16- to 19-year-olds
that will bring together the best of A Levels and T Levels,
giving students the freedom to take a mix of technical and
academic subjects, boosting their skillset and giving students
more flexibility over their future career options. Students will
also spend more time in the classroom, increasing taught hours to
a minimum of 1,475 hours over two years.
In his speech, the Prime Minister committed an initial investment
of £600 million over two years to lay the groundwork for
delivering the Advanced British Standard, which would double the
Levelling Up Premium, helping retain talented teachers in
priority subjects.
This means that, existing teachers, who are in the first five
years of their careers teaching priority subjects in
disadvantaged schools will receive £6,000 tax-free per year. This
will include for the first time further education colleges and
will recognise and reward the valuable jobs that teachers play in
our society.
Overall, the next recruitment cycle will see a £15 million
increase on the financial support available to trainee teachers
compared to the last cycle, which will encourage the brightest
and the best into teaching, helping support the delivery of the
ABS and beyond.
As part of the increase existing bursaries for biology and design
& technology will also be brought up to £25,000 and
additional bursaries for subjects that are compulsory to the
curriculum have been introduced, including one in music. This
means those applying to train to teach music will receive a
£10,000 bursary. This brings the total number of eligible
subjects available for financial support to 12.
Education Secretary, said:
“Last week the Prime Minister set out a new vision for our
education system. The new Advanced British Standard will expand
the range of what our 16 to 19 year olds learn and finally end
the artificial divide between academic and technical education.
“We know teachers will be key to its success – just as they have
been to raising standards since 2010. That’s why we need the best
and the brightest teaching throughout our schools. These
bursaries give trainee teachers even more choice and support to
help them start their journey into the classroom.”
Since its launch the Department has made considerable progress
delivering its Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy to
attract, retain and develop the highly skilled teachers needed to
inspire the next generation.
Recent data has shown that schools in England now have more
teachers than ever before nearly 470,000 teachers in the
workforce, a 27,000 increase on 2010.
To help tackle teacher and school leader workload, the Workload
Reduction Taskforce has been established, which will help support
the Government’s ambition to reduce working hours for teachers
and leaders by five hours per week. In addition, we have created
12 Flexible Working Ambassador Multi-Academy Trusts and Schools
(FWAMS) this year to support schools with flexible working and
have published our Flexible Working Toolkit, which provides
resources to help implement practices like job shares, part-time
working and ad-hoc flexibility, such as the occasional personal
day.
To further attract teachers to the profession, the International
Relocation Payment (IRP) pilot will continue for a second year,
supporting the highest-quality candidates to teach priority
subjects and ensuring that England remains an attractive teaching
destination worldwide.
More great teachers in classrooms helps build a world class
education system for children and builds on the Government’s work
to drive up standards. This follows on from England’s recent
success in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
(PIRLS), which saw it placed 4th in the world for
reading among primary school children.
This winter, the Department will publish a strategy update that
builds upon its commitment to give every child a world class
education delivered by great teachers.
