Now Teach – a charity set up to help people put skills
acquired during a successful career to use in the
classroom – has encouraged nearly 50 talented
professionals to change their lives and retrain as a
teacher in maths, science and modern foreign languages.
The £350,000 investment announced today will help the
charity to drive this work forward, focusing on
recruiting people from leading careers and sharing
their skills in key subjects – with recruits to date
including a former NASA scientist, a hostage negotiator
and the head of a hospital trust.
It is part of the government’s plan to ensure that all
schools can attract the teachers they need to give
every pupil a world-class education. It builds on
initiatives such as the Maths and Physics Chairs
Programme, which recruits post-doctoral researchers
into teaching.
School Standards Minister said:
There are now a record number of teachers in our
schools – 15,500 more than in 2010 – but we want to
continue exploring every opportunity to attract the
best and brightest into the profession.
Great teachers are at the heart of our plans to
ensure every young person reaches their potential,
and the expertise that these experienced
professionals have can be put to great use in the
classroom, teaching pupils valuable knowledge and
skills.
Many existing recruits have been inspired by its
founder, former Financial Times journalist Lucy
Kellaway, who this year re-entered the classroom at the
age of 57 to become a maths teacher at Mossbourne
Community Academy in Hackney.
Co-founder of Now Teach Lucy Kellaway said:
We are delighted that the government is contributing
to Now Teach to help us during our second year. We
look forward to working closely with the Department
for Education in years to come.
The package of funding will allow Now Teach to move
into Hastings, one of the Department for Education’s
Opportunity Areas, to attract a broader range of
successful professionals into schools and to explore
other areas of the country to extend its reach – and
Now Teach will host a launch event at Hastings Pier on
Saturday, 20 January for interested would-be teachers.
Today’s announcement builds on a number of measures to
recruit and retain high-calibre teachers, including a
£75million investment in teachers’ professional
development and a further £42million for training
announced in the Budget.
In addition, the Government has also announced:
- A student loan forgiveness pilot for teacher in
shortage subjects working in areas of the country
struggling with recruitment;
- A £30 million investment to support around 300
schools nationwide to recruit and retain talented
teachers by creating new funded initiatives, ensuring
schools have access to national teacher supply
programmes and strengthening local partnerships with
and between schools – facilitating the establishment
and strengthening of local partnerships, such as
working with Teaching Schools; and
- The introduction of the new, strengthened national
professional qualifications, as well as a £10million
fund to support teachers in the areas that need it
most.
