School bosses in Suffolk want the Secretary of State to be brave to improve the education system
It's been one hundred days since a Labour government were elected: They said in their manifesto they'd help recruit 6.5 thousand teachers
School bosses in Suffolk say they want to see the Secretary of State be brave in her decisions to improve the education system.
According to the government website, more teachers left the profession than joined it last year and previously the Labour government said in their manifesto they'd help recruit 6.5 thousand teachers
Dave Lee Allen from the Suffolk Association of Secondary Head Teachers told us recruiting and retaining staff continues to be an issue.
"Surveys have been done as to why people were not joining the profession or leaving the profession early, then workload and pay were two of the critical things.
"That those issues are definitely going to be be hard to solve."
He went on to tell us how people have become disillusioned with the profession.
""When a profession has been battered and bruised..for such a period of time.
"The undoing and rebuilding of the reputational damage or convincing people that lots of those things have forced people to leave the profession or join and then leave within three years. The percentage of that was ridiculous.
He explained that because of the issues the education system has been through many people, who initially trained as teachers are choosing an alternative career.
"If you're a graduate coming out of university... and you hear from your colleague or your friend who's got a job in the city, with flexible working and bonuses, and the potential of earning significant amounts of money. Teaching does struggle against that."
Something else Dave believes is influencing teachers leaving is Ofsted.
Back in September one-word ratings given to schools to describe their performances were scrapped following the tragedy of headteacher Ruth Perry, who took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from "outstanding" to "inadequate" after safeguarding concerns.
Although Dave told us he's glad to have seen a change be believes the framework as a whole needs to change.
"It's still four words. What still exists is that framework above, that accountability framework, that then says if a school is deemed as not doing good enough the powers that be, will lean on those CEOs who run those multi-academy trusts or the local authority - will lean on them heavily and say that's got to change so then enormous pressure is put on, with no extra resources, and so people then say I've had enough of this and they walk away."
What he wants to see change
We asked Dave what issues he would like to see addressed first.
"Take time to work with the profession, with Ofsted. To sit down and to reshape, and re-establish a a learning learning conversation about how we monitor schools.
And hold them accountable, but in a constructive and supportive environment, work with the professional, work with the unions, with head teacher associations, secondary, primary, etcetera. Trial something.
Establish that it is seen as positive, balanced, fair and supportive and even the word inspirational, would be amazing.
"And then what you would then start seeing is the teaching professionals saying this is amazing. This is positive. I'm getting better and I'm being supported to do so and it's not a fear regime, which is what we have currently.