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<p>The department currently has the highest number of teachers on record, with over
468,000 full-time equivalent teachers in state-funded schools in England. This represents
an increase of 27,000 (6%) since the School Workforce Census began in 2010.</p><p>
</p><p>The department knows there is further to go to improve recruitment in some
subjects. That is why the department has put in place a range of measures, including
bursaries worth £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £30,000 tax-free, to encourage
talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
For language subjects, the department is offering bursaries worth £25,000 tax-free
and scholarships worth £27,000 tax-free in French, German and Spanish. The department
is also continuing to offer bursaries and scholarships to all non-UK national trainees
in physics and languages. The Initial Teacher Training (ITT) financial incentives
package for the 2024/25 recruitment cycle is worth up to £196 million, which is a
£15 million increase on the last cycle.</p><p> </p><p>For the 2024/25 and 2025/26
academic years, the department is doubling the rates of the Levelling Up Premium to
up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing teachers
in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools,
including in Education Investment Areas. As of 2023, 69% of secondary or special schools
in coastal towns are eligible for the Levelling Up Premium, compared to 59% of schools
elsewhere in the country. This will support both recruitment and retention of specialist
teachers in these subjects and in the schools and areas that need them most.</p><p>
</p><p>Coastal communities are also well served by the department’s network of Teaching
School Hubs (TSHs), which are school-led centres of excellence in professional development,
delivering training and support to teachers and school leaders at every stage of their
career. The 87 TSHs cover all of England, with 31 hubs currently serving 146 coastal
areas across England.</p><p> </p><p>Regarding recruitment targets, simply looking
at post-graduate Initial Teacher Training (PGITT) recruitment as an indicator of broader
teacher recruitment is misleading as it is not the only route into teaching, nor does
it represent the available number of teachers in the workforce. The PGITT target is
calculated using the Teacher Workforce Model, which considers a broad range of factors
including, but not limited to, projected pupil numbers, historical recruitment performance,
teacher retention forecasts, economic factors, and recruitment from other non-ITT
related routes such as returners and those teachers that are new to the state-funded
schools sector.</p><p> </p><p>Therefore, the PGITT target is not based on the total
number of entrants schools’ need, but rather on the forecast residual need after accounting
for other non-PGITT inflows, such as undergraduate ITT and returners. The department
calculates targets on an annual basis, and if retention and entrants from other routes
are higher than expected during the time that trainees are applying for and completing
their course, this can offset the need to meet the PGITT targets in full.</p><p> </p><p>The
department will continue to monitor PGITT and other routes into teaching and have
provided targeted support to ensure it recruits and retains sufficient numbers of
teachers in all key subjects, including physics and languages.</p>
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