This NFER report on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) placements highlights the desire across the sector for better financial support from Government to host trainees.
The report also finds that secondary schools in London offered fewer ITT placements than in other large cities, that academy schools were more likely to offer ITT placements than local-authority maintained schools, and that school leaders’ concerns over the burden on existing staff was a key consideration for offering placements.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a two-fold impact on the ITT system in England. First, part of the Government’s guidance on schools reopening safely is to keep visitors to the site to a minimum, causing a reduction in school-based teacher training places. This has combined with significantly increased demand for teacher training places due to a depressed wider labour market.
There remains a lack of high quality data on the extent to which schools offer training placements, how many, and what factors explain why schools do and do not engage with the ITT sector. This analysis provides fresh insight on the questions about placement capacity in the school system.
Key Findings:
- Secondary schools have a higher likelihood of engaging with the ITT system and have a higher average number of placements compared to primary schools. However, this is mainly a reflection of the size of secondary schools’ teaching workforces: the median number of placements per teacher is similar between primary and secondary schools.
- Local authority maintained secondary schools have a lower average number of placements compared to secondaries that are single-academy trusts or in multi-academy trusts. However, there are no significant differences in other measures, or at primary level.
- Outstanding secondary schools offer the most placements per school, compared to good and requires improvement/ inadequate schools. The same is true at primary level, although the difference is not statistically significant. Outstanding schools were the least likely to have reduced their placement capacity in 2020/21 relative to the level in 2018/19, compared to other schools.
- Secondary schools with less deprived pupil demographics tend to offer more placements, compared to schools with higher pupil deprivation levels. However, there is no significant difference in other measures, or at primary level.
- Primary schools that are closer to an ITT provider tend to offer more placements per school than
- schools that are further away from an ITT provider. However, there are no significant differences
- in other measures, or at secondary level.
- There are significant geographical differences in ITT placement capacity. Primary schools in large cities outside London and small coastal areas offer more placements per school than schools in other areas. Secondary schools in large cities outside London offer more placements per school than schools in other areas, while secondaries in London and those in small coastal and non-coastal areas offer fewer placements per school. Secondary schools in small coastal areas were the most likely to have reduced their placement capacity in 2020/21 relative to the level in 2018/19, compared to other schools.
- Urban primary schools are more likely than rural schools to offer placements and tend to offer more placements per school than rural primary schools. However, there is no significant difference on other measures, or at primary level.
- The most-cited considerations which had influenced primary school senior leaders’ plans to offer the number of placements that they offered were concerns about the burden on school staff to provide support for ITT students and concerns about having too many different people on the school site. Responses were somewhat similar for secondary senior leaders, although they were less concerned about having too many different people on site.
- The most-cited strategies that would support senior leaders’ schools to offer more placements were increased financial support from Government, incentives/recognition for providing trainee placements and increased support from ITT providers. Eighteen per cent of primary senior leaders and 27 per cent of secondary senior leaders said that no changes to existing arrangements would be required for them to offer more.