Letter - Minister for Education re Teacher Recruitment and Retention data - 15 January 2020

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 4RR

Deputy Rob Ward

Chairman, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Scrutiny Office

States Greffe

Morier House

St Helier

JE1 1DD

15 January 2020 Dear Deputy Ward ,

Teacher recruitment and retention review

Please see the below responses requested by the Panel for the recruitment and retention review.

"We know that the 56 vacancies as at 31.5.19 have all been filled. Since then 7 vacancies have arisen, 6 in secondary schools and half of those in "hard to recruit subjects". A press release stated that this represents 0.9% of the 764 workforce:"

1. Is the 764 the number of teachers or the number of school staff? If the latter what is the number of qualified Teachers?

The 764 figure is just Teachers (excluding Highlands College Lecturers and Heads & Deputies).

2. How does that number of qualified Teachers compare over the past 5 years?

The below data is based on the Teacher headcount, at the end of September each year.

3. How many Teaching Assistants are currently employed across our Schools?

As at the end of December 2019, there are a total of 536 Teaching Assistants on permanent or fixed term contracts.

4. Which subjects are being defined as "hard to recruit subjects"?

Recruitment to hard to recruit subjects' generally refers to the secondary school sector, as our primary school teachers, whilst having specialisms, teach all subjects of the Jersey Curriculum for 5-11 year olds. The pattern of need is not consistent across school-type. Schools offering A levels in subjects report finding it less difficult to recruit to certain subjects than other schools. This noted, securing specialist teachers in mathematics has proved a challenge across all Jersey schools, in both the primary and secondary sectors. Individual schools are also reporting difficulty in recruiting to the Sciences (in particular Physics and Chemistry) and most recently in geography and business studies.

5. The Minister for Education has advised there are 35 fixed term contracts of which 13 have been extended. Please provide a breakdown of the Teachers on fixed term contracts, the schools they are teaching at and what specific areas they are teaching.

6. Are any of the fixed term contract positions being actively recruited as permanent posts and, if so, how many and in what subjects?

The fixed term contracts in the above table were primarily to cover internal secondments, career breaks, sickness absence, maternity leave. Others were funded through Jersey Premium and in some cases the fixed term contracts allow for unqualified Teachers to gain their NQT status.

The role at La Moye teaching Music will be advertised and the Teacher at le Rocquier who teaches PE, Dance and Humanities will be made permanent.

7. Of the 56 vacancies filled since 31 May 2019, how many were for specific areas e.g. Science, Dance, Maths etc, and what are the numbers for each such specific area?

8. How many of the 56 vacancies filled were exact matches for specific areas – e.g. Science, Dance, Maths etc

28

9. Of those 56 vacancies, what was the average size of the field of recruitment – i.e. how many applicants were there per post?
10. Of those applicants how many were short-listed and interviewed for each of the 56 vacancies?

The information required to answer questions 9 and 10 comes from 3 separate systems and without a consistent unique identifier it has not been possible to accurately identify the 56 vacancies alongside the recruitment information specific to them.

11. How does the average size of the field of recruitment compare with that for vacancies over the past 5 years. Please provide any available data.

In the last 5 years, the average number of applicants is 730 a year for Teaching roles.

12. Of the 56 vacancies, how many Teachers participated in exit interviews? 10

13. Can we see redacted records of those interviews or a breakdown of any themes arising from the interviews?

It is not possible to share redacted records of exit interviews as these are personal data of the leaving employee, strictly confidential and even redacted records could risk identification of individuals.

The reasons for exit are listed below and a manual review has been carried out and no themes are apparent.

14. How many Teachers have left the profession in the last 5 years across all of the Islands Schools and Colleges?

The below information only confirms the number of Teacher's who have left Government of Jersey Schools, it does not identify whether they have left the profession or not. Some Teachers may have continued their careers in non-Government of Jersey schools or overseas.

15. How many of those participated in exit interviews?

It is not been possible to provide data for 5 years as this information is not held centrally.

16. Are records of those exit interviews available?

It is not possible to share redacted records of exit interviews as these are personal data of the leaving employee, strictly confidential and even redacted records could risk identification of individuals.

17. How many Teachers are due to retire in the next 5 years?

Using the HR data at the end of December 2019, and using the ages based on the J.T.S.F (Jersey Teachers Superannuation Fund (Joined Before 01/01/2007, normal retirement age 60, otherwise normal retirement age is 65) there are 52 Teachers who are due to retire in the next 5 years (2020 – 2024).

18. What recruitment initiatives are being undertaken?

We are exploring new ways of recruitment other than the TES – through social media and / or a dedicated website etc. This work is in its infancy.

19. How many teachers have been recruited through the Jersey Teacher Training Programme and which subjects are they teaching in if secondary teachers?

The Jersey Graduate Teacher Training Programme (JGTTP) has been running since 2005. It was designed to train local people with relevant degrees in shortage/high demand subjects in our secondary schools and since its inception more than 100 teachers have completed the course.

Records from 2011 onward show that out of the 57 who completed the programme, 50 (88 per cent) are still teaching in Jersey; this is a very high retention rate. Until the current academic year, 2019-2020, all bar one JGTTP trainee has worked in our local secondary schools. The one exception is a cross-phase teacher of SEN at Mont à l'Abbé School.

Responding to growing requests to train primary teachers, the current cohort is a mixed group across all school types.

The current JGTTP graduates working in our schools qualified with the following subject specialist areas between 2010 and 2018:

Art, Business, Chemistry, Computing, Dance and Drama, Design Technology, English, Geography, Health and Social Care, History, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Physics, Psychology, Religious Education, Science and Special Needs.

20. What are the numbers of Teachers currently in post in each of the following age brackets:

21. Of the 56 Teachers who resigned, how many were in each of these age brackets? Below is based on their age as at 31/05/2019

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely,

Senator Tracey Vallois Minister for Education

D +44 (0)1534 448394 E [email protected]