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Good teachers are to be offered £10,000 in loyalty payments to attract them to England's toughest schools, under government plans.

Ministers hope the move, part of plans to improve social mobility, will boost achievement among disadvantaged pupils.

From September, 500 of the most challenging secondaries will be able to offer the "golden handcuffs".

Schools in challenging circumstances can struggle to attract and keep talented teachers in shortage subjects.

The new recruitment and retention package is one of the proposals in the government's New Opportunities White Paper aimed at boosting social mobility.

Currently maths and science teachers are offered "golden hellos" worth £5,000 because of a national shortage.

Schools and local authorities have also been given greater flexibility to offer financial incentives to recruit and retain head teachers.

But several think-tanks and research projects have revealed problems with attracting the best teachers where they are needed most - in the schools with the most challenging pupils.

Children's secretary Ed Balls said standards had risen and that the gap in achievement had narrowed between those children entitled to free school meals - the government's measure of deprivation - and those who are not.

"Academies and now the National Challenge programme are making a big difference where standards were too low," he said.

"But no child should be held back by their background, so we will now do more to break the link between disadvantage and achievement.

"Great teachers are key to this, so I want to go further now to help heads recruit and retain the very best teachers in the most challenging schools."

'Head's discretion'

The new package will be targeted at 6,000 new teachers in the 500 or so most challenging schools in England - those with more than 30% of pupils on free school meals or in the government's National Challenge programme.

It is hoped the new package will allow head teachers to recruit from a wider pool of applicants but it will be left to their discretion which teachers are the best for the post.

As well as the £10,000 payment for three years' service, head teachers will be able to offer access to extra professional development, a support network and access to the new Masters in Teaching and Learning.

And eligible schools will be able to offer two new Excellent Teacher or Advanced Skills Teacher posts to help retain and develop existing staff.

A similar scheme was mooted by former education secretary Alan Johnson in 2007 in a letter to the head of England's teacher training agency.

He said: "Ensuring that schools serving areas of high disadvantage have good quality teachers will be critical if we are to make progress on narrowing the social class achievement gap."

Head of education at the National Union of Teachers John Bangs said additional financial incentives were transitional and minor.

"What teachers in challenging schools really want to know is that their careers will be enhanced by working in these schools."

The message of the National Challenge programme, where schools that were once praised were suddenly singled out for criticism, he added, was very undermining for teachers who were trying to make a difference.

Association of School and College Leaders head John Dunford said it would be good for National Challenge schools to have the stability of being able to get new staff for a three-year period.

Source:BBC News/Education 

 

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Last Edited Date : January 13 2009 9:53 am