When I first qualified as an English teacher in 2001, research carried out by the NUT warned that teaching was in danger of becoming an “unsustainable profession” with too few high-quality graduates being attracted into the job.  Think-tanks warned that the shortage of teachers was a long-term problem, as opposed to a dip, and that it would only worsen.  Alongside this, much has recently been made of  education of England lagging behind our international cousins. The most recent PISA report has been used to argue that our test results are “at best stagnant, at worst declining” compared to places such as Poland and Shanghai.