The clear and obvious solution to relieving pressure on teachers is an ongoing investment in additional staff: learning support experts, sports and arts co-curricular supervisors, and professional pastoral staff. Recognising teachers’ professional expertise as educators and giving them the time to do their core business well is the real answer to the teaching crisis, not handing out another worksheet.
Jo Lambert raises similar concerns responding to pressures around recruiting when there are still structural issues at play:
We have a teacher workforce issue without a doubt. We need more teachers urgently. But some of us are nervous about recruiting new teachers at the same time as we are sorting out their workplace conditions.
Gill Light also shares a teacher’s perspective on how to fix the teacher shortage, including career structure, raise the profile, change the model, and letting teachers’ teach.