Schools have begun to advertise for teaching jobs 10 months in advance as the rush to get ahead in the recruitment race intensifies, TES can reveal.
There was a surge in the number of headteachers pushing out adverts for September before the Christmas break to ensure that they fill vacancies, new figures show.
As the recruitment crisis bites, headteachers are being forced to guess the number of staff they will need and advertise before they have received teacher resignation notices or even know their budgets.
The increasingly desperate behaviour is revealed in statistics from TES Global, this magazine’s parent company. They show that, since 2013, the proportion of secondary teaching posts advertised between September and December, but starting in the following academic year, has increased by two thirds.
Headteachers are willing to risk taking on more staff than they may eventually need, to ensure that they are not left struggling to find teachers, according to Sian Carr, principal at the Skinners’ Kent Academy in Tunbridge Wells.
“Some heads do over-recruit [before Christmas] as they are hoping it will work out. Heads take that gamble around now to make sure they are covered,” Ms Carr, who is also vice president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), told TES.
Professor John Howson, a leading teacher recruitment expert, has also noticed a rise in the number of adverts that are being posted before Christmas for jobs starting the following September.
“It seems to be more noticeable this year because there is more talk about the teacher supply crisis and schools are thinking more about recruitment patterns,” he said.
For more on this story, see the 8 January edition of TES, available in all good newsagents. Subscribers can view the full story here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here
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