As the shortage of maths teachers continues in England, secondary schools are increasingly relying on physical education (PE) teachers to step in and teach maths. According to a report published on Wednesday by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), 10 of the 17 secondary school subjects in the country will not be able to recruit enough trainee teachers in the next academic year. Schools are struggling to recruit teachers to work in maths, physics, computing, and languages subjects.
PE teachers are taking on the challenge of teaching maths, both to help out and as a means of career development. The experienced Jo Gritt, for instance, will be teaching maths at The Gryphon School, a large secondary situated in the Dorset town of Sherborne. This is in addition to the other subjects she usually teaches as a PE teacher. Mrs Gritt has retrained this year alongside her job after the school gained funding as part of a national programme aimed at boosting maths teaching in the country’s education system.
Mrs Gritt has found that PE teachers can build “a different rapport” with students and can encourage those who are not confident in maths. Being honest about the fact that she too is learning has helped her to build trust with students, some of whom can find maths difficult, according to Mrs Gritt. She also said she is quite open with her maths students about having to Google the occasional problem just to triple-check things.
The Gryphon School aims for these two experienced teachers to become maths specialists, while also giving them an additional skill set that will translate into more job opportunities. The school is one of many that offer cash lump sums as a “golden hello” to recruit math teachers. Schools are increasingly stepping away from the traditional requirement that all teachers must have a degree in the discipline they teach, which means that the specialist subject teachers are being replaced by generalist teachers across all subject areas
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