Burden on school leaders ‘never higher’ as new report says 700,000 could be without proper physics teacher
The burden on school and college leaders ‘has never been higher’, a union has warned as a new report claims up to 700,000 pupils are studying physics without a specialist teacher.
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Schools are being forced to run food banks and to support families with housing as public services in Britain “crumble”, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said.
The union has sounded the alarm at the start of the new school year, saying that these responsibilities cannot continue to fall upon schools.
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Julie McCulloch, director of strategy and policy at ASCL, said: "In recent years the expectations on schools and colleges have grown way beyond teaching and learning to encompass a wide range of societal responsibilities.
"Some of this can be traced back to the pandemic, but also to high child poverty rates and crumbling public services, meaning that schools and colleges are left to pick up the pieces."
The ASCL has set out what services schools should reasonably be expected to provide, and which should be the responsibility of other agencies that schools may liaise with.
Things like dental checks, health of pupils' families, and pupil behaviour on social media out of school hours should not be expected of schools, the report said.
"From running food banks and supporting families with housing, to resolving parking issues and mediating parental disputes, the burden placed on school and college teachers and leaders has never been higher," Ms McCulloch added.
"Some of these issues are obviously of great importance but they cannot continue to be shouldered by educators."
A study by the University of Bristol last year found schools had become the biggest source of charitable food and household aid, with around one in five schools running one.
The ASCL warning call comes at a troubling time, after a report also warned about a physics teacher shortage.
It comes as a new report by the Institute of Physics (IOP) says up to 700,000 pupils could be taking physics without a specialist teacher.
The alarming intervention comes after the IOP called for urgent action to tackle a major staff shortage.
In July, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) found a quarter of secondary schools from a sample of 2,296 reported having no specialist physics teachers in the School Workforce Census.
Just 16% of total teaching hours for combined science are provided by a physics teacher with a post-A-level qualification, the IOP-commissioned NFER analysis found.
For separate physics GCSEs, Government data shows 72% of teaching hours were taught by a specialist teacher.
Combining the NFER and Government data, the IOP estimated about 58% of physics lessons at GCSE are taught by a non-specialist teacher, which the institute said equates to more than 350,000 students in year 11 alone, and more than 700,000 across both GCSE years.
Tom Grinyer, chief executive of the IOP, said: "Despite the often-heroic efforts of teachers having to work in unfamiliar subjects, inevitably many of those students are missing out. Research shows that pupils without access to a specialist physics teacher are much less likely to choose to study the subject at A-level.
"If we fail to tackle this challenge, then we are failing to nurture the scientists and innovators of tomorrow - with serious consequences for our society and economy."
The institute is calling for a 10-year plan to address the lack of specialist physics teachers with an investment of £12 million a year.
The Government currently offers a £29,000 bursary for trainee physics teachers to encourage more graduates into teaching. Physics teachers in disadvantaged schools can also access up to £6,000 in retention payments while they are early in their career.
Physics has faced several years of specialist teacher shortages as one of the worst-hit subjects by a recruitment and retention crisis.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Tackling the baked-in inequalities in our education system will take time, but our plan for change will break the unfair link between background and success.
"Our Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill marks the biggest overhaul of children's social care in a generation and we're tackling child poverty by expanding free school meals eligibility, limiting the number of branded uniform items and rolling out free breakfast clubs across the country."
"We're also restoring teaching as the highly valued profession it should be including tackling the root causes that are turning people away from joining, staying on and thriving in the profession, like poor pupil behaviour, high workload and poor wellbeing."
They added: "We are already delivering on our pledge to recruit and retain 6,500 more talented teachers with 2,300 more secondary and special schoolteachers in classrooms this year, as well as 1,300 fewer teachers leaving the profession - one of the lowest leave rates since 2010.
"We've also seen a 25% increase in the number of people accepting teacher training places starting this autumn in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. Through our Plan for Change, we will go further still to ensure every pupil has access to the expert teachers they need, including continuing to offer tax-free incentives to encourage more talented people into the classroom to teach subjects including physics.
"On top of this, we have announced pay awards of almost 10% over two years and have committed to restoring teaching as the highly valued profession it should be, tackling high workload and poor wellbeing."