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The leaky pipeline of teacher training

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We don't have enough teachers. There are very few people who would deny this statement. It is an impending pressure on the education system which could - if unaddressed - significantly impact on the quality of education young people receive in this country.  Generally the problem can be broken down into two areas: recruitment and retention. Not enough teachers are taking up teacher training places (and particularly in STEM subjects), and of those who do train not enough stick around in the classroom.  I wanted to understand in a bit more detail just what is happening here with the view to working out some policy solutions. If there was one significant pinch point where teachers flood out the door, that might be the most efficient place to focus policy initiatives. So I created this chart to map the flow of teachers from training course to classroom 5 years' later.  *Including university-based training, School Direct, SCITT and Teach First pathways which comprise ...
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LEssOns from LEO

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For anyone working in Higher Education, this week was all about LEO. The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes data is a dataset published by the Government which shows graduate earnings 5-years post-graduation by university and subject. This is done by linking data from DfE, DWP and HMRC, so we can piece together a student’s university degree and institution with their future employment and tax return data. While there are some gaps in this analysis, overall it’s not too shabby. Some have posited that this data will transform higher education, allowing prospective students to make more informed decisions about where to study based by identifying the course that will return most for their investments. Others think it should be largely disregarded – the data is historical rather than predictive of future earnings, and other things matter beyond money.  Either way, now that the data is out, it will be hard for prospective students – and their parents - to ignore it. And some of the f...
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Why student mental health is not (just) universities’ problem

Mental health is becoming more visible. It seems that finally mental health is a degree less stigmatised in society, allowing the previously taboo to be discussed. In the education world, this discussion has been particularly prominent within the higher education sector.  We are often painted the picture of university students carefree and having the time of their lives: socialising, drinking, dancing, playing sport and attending the odd lecture as long as it’s not at 9am. In reality, there is a significant proportion of the student body for whom – even if they portray this image – it is not the case. HESA figures released last week revealed that 1,180 students left their courses early in 2014-2015 due to mental ill-health. This is reported as a 210 percent increase since 2009-10. Part of this increase could be due to better data collection or a greater tendency for students to report mental health problems now than before, but it remains a shocking figure.  Cont...
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The education funding debate - not just about education

Being quick off the mark might be a successful strategy of election campaigning, but Labour rather jumped the gun with the leak of their manifesto on Wednesday. It makes for an interesting read. Skipping over the “cradle-to-grave learning” phrase – which sounds overwhelmingly sinister – there is a roughly 50:50 split between specific policy recommendations with a degree of sense, and major issues being swept under the carpet. Throughout the education section however, there is one theme which repeats itself – more money for the education system. £8.4 billion a year for basic school funding, £700-900 million a year for free school meals, and £1.7 billion a year for Higher Education maintenance grants to name but a few. These funding boosts could be highly welcome. The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently highlighted the cost pressures facing schools, with real terms cuts of 6.5% to their budgets between 2015-16 and 2019-20. The education press is awash with stories of how the...
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