Need to know: Teacher pay rises, Ofsted and staff shortages

Teachers started the week sweltering in their classrooms but after the temperature dropped, it was education secretary James Cleverly feeling the heat over his announcement about teacher pay rises, which raised the prospect of industrial action this autumn by teachers and school leaders.

Elsewhere, the government announced that key stage 1 Sats will no longer be statutory from 2023-24, Tes analysis revealed what the latest teacher training figures mean for recruitment and Ofsted raised concerns about schools being overly focused on exams.

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

News

• Experienced teachers’ pay to rise by 5 per cent 
  The Department for Education announced the teacher pay rises for the 2022-23 academic year on Tuesday - but while the rise for experienced staff was an improvement on the government’s original proposal of 3 per cent, it still fell far short of the inflation-plus pay rises demanded by unions.
   
• “Unfunded” teacher pay rises “could lead to job cuts”
  The teacher pay increases announced this week - without extra funding - have left schools facing budget deficits of tens of thousands of pounds next year, school leaders have warned.
   
• Decision to scrap Sats from 2023 “welcome”
  Key stage 1 Sats will no longer be statutory from the 2023-24 academic year, the Standards and Testing Agency has said - in a move welcomed by school leaders.
   
• School holiday pay ruling could affect thousands of staff 
  Schools could have to review holiday pay and face claims from permanent part-year workers after a Supreme Court ruling in a case involving a music teacher and an academy trust.
   
• Ofsted criticises schools for over-focusing on exams
  In some schools, lessons were “overly narrowed” to focus on exams this summer, when students were taking the first set of GCSE and A-level exams in three years, according to Ofsted’s new report on education recovery.
   
• Ofsted inspections during heatwave “entirely inappropriate”
  Ofsted came under fire earlier this week for carrying on with inspections as teachers and pupils were struggling with record temperatures up to 40C.
   
• “I didn’t mark 500 papers just for fun” 
  Exam board AQA wrote to GCSE and A-level markers to apologise for “unanticipated delays” to their payments - but markers described the situation as a “shambles”.

Features

• James Cleverly: “The best and fairest deal”
  Writing for Tes, the new education secretary explains the reasoning behind the size of next year’s teacher pay rises - and why only one year of increases, rather than two, has been confirmed.
   
• Teacher pay: what the salary rises will mean for you
  After the government’s announcement on Tuesday about teachers’ pay rises for 2022-23, Grainne Hallahan looked into the detail of who will be getting what.
   
• Teacher recruitment: how bad can things get?
  The latest figures for students enrolled on initial teacher training courses suggest that schools’ recruitment difficulties are only going to get worse, finds Matilda Martin.
   
• When is it too hot to teach?
  As teachers and pupils were sweating in their lessons during this week’s heatwave, Tes republished this article setting out what the legislation says about closing classrooms because it is too hot.
   
• Job interviews: fancy a lesson observation in your current school? 
  One leader explains why her school prefers to watch job applicants teaching in their current school rather than inviting them in for a lesson observation.