Teacher recruitment will see a huge boost this academic year with £196 million to attract more teachers across key subjects.
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Teacher recruitment will see a huge boost this academic year with £196 million to attract more teachers across key subjects.
This will fund scholarships, bursaries and salary grants to help thousands of candidates through their initial teacher training (ITT).
Scholarships for those training to teach mathmatics, physics, chemistry and computing will now be brought up to £30,000 tax free, in order to attract more talented teachers in these key subjects to support the delivery of the advanced British standard (ABS), announced by the prime minister last week.
The ABS is a new single qualification for 16 to 19 year olds that will bring together the best of A Levels and T Levels, giving students the freedom to take a mix of technical and academic subjects, boosting their skillset and giving students more flexibility over their future career options.
Students will also spend more time in the classroom, increasing taught hours to a minimum of 1,475 hours over two years.
In his speech, the prime minister committed an initial investment of £600 million over two years to lay the groundwork for delivering the advanced british standard, which would double the levelling up premium, helping retain talented teachers in priority subjects.
This means that, existing teachers, who are in the first five years of their careers teaching priority subjects in disadvantaged schools will receive £6,000 tax-free per year.
This will include for the first time further education colleges and will recognise and reward the valuable jobs that teachers play in our society.
Overall, the next recruitment cycle will see a £15 million increase on the financial support available to trainee teachers compared to the last cycle, which will encourage the brightest and the best into teaching, helping support the delivery of the ABS and beyond.
As part of the increase existing bursaries for biology and design & technology will also be brought up to £25,000 and additional bursaries for subjects that are compulsory to the curriculum have been introduced, including one in music.
This means those applying to train to teach music will receive a £10,000 bursary. This brings the total number of eligible subjects available for financial support to 12.
To further attract teachers to the profession, the international relocation payment (IRP) pilot will continue for a second year, supporting the highest quality candidates to teach priority subjects and ensuring that England remains an attractive teaching destination worldwide. ■