Need to know: Teacher shortages, GCSE results and pay rises

Catch up on your must-read Tes news and features articles from the past week right here:

News

• Teacher shortages: ‘unprecedented’ job vacancies
  School leaders have been posting “unprecedented” numbers of job adverts this summer, prompting experts to warn that positions advertised late in the year are “less likely to be filled” by September.
   
• Revealed: Councils bidding to take part in MAT trial
  A number of local education authorities have asked to take part in a government trial to develop multi-academy trusts run by councils.
   
• School funding crisis will get worse, warns IFS
  The government is no longer on track to deliver on its pledge to restore per-pupil spending to 2010 levels, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. While school funding will be stretched in 2022-23, the following year “looks much more problematic”, the organisation warns.
   
• NEU sets September date for first teacher strike ballot
  The biggest education union has set the date for a preliminary ballot of its members in September about strike action, amid concerns over teacher pay and the rising cost of living. 
   

• 2022 exams not ‘fair’, say nearly half of teachers
  Nearly half of secondary school teachers believe that measures taken to mitigate the impact of Covid on exams this year did not go far enough, according to survey findings published this week.

Features

• Why inclusive schools are worried about support-staff pay rises
  Leaders of schools with large numbers of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities know their support staff deserve a pay rise but, without extra funding, they warn that salary increases could lead to redundancies.
   
• Should pupils get a ‘daily allowance’ of the arts?
  Pupils should be given a “recommended daily allowance” of the arts, including drama, music and dance, it has been proposed, but headteachers have said they would struggle to implement the plan.
   
• GCSEs and A levels: what is grade inflation?
  After grades rose significantly in the absence of exams in 2020 and 2021, Tes looks at the measures being put in place this year to bring GCSE and A-level results back towards pre-pandemic levels.
   
• Safeguarding: what are a DSL’s duties over the holidays? 
  Designated safeguarding leads still have responsibilities when school is closed for the summer holiday - but DSL Thomas Michael has some ideas to make sure you get a proper break.
   
• Mind the word gap - it’s ‘dangerous’ 
  The idea of closing the “word gap” between poorer pupils and their wealthier peers is common in schools but it is a concept based on racist ideas about language, writes Ian Cushing.
   
• Teacher training data: Regions, race and missing teachers
  Did a surge in new teacher trainees during the pandemic lead to more teachers in the sector? Not quite, finds Dan Worth - and it also threw up some other interesting insights into the teacher training landscape.