Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to meet its target of recruiting 2,820 specialist physics teachers in 2023.

Recent data shows record numbers of teachers in England’s state funded schools with over 468,000 full time equivalent now in our schools. This is an increase of 2,800 since last year, and an increase of 27,000 since 2010.

The Department recognises the strong competition for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates. Our offer of a £27,000 tax free bursary or a £29,000 tax free scholarship in physics, chemistry, computing, and mathematics, reflects the priority the Department places on training teachers to teach STEM subjects. For the first time, this offer is also available to international trainees choosing to undertake physics teacher training.

The Department is offering a Levelling Up Premium worth up to £3,000 tax free annually for physics, maths, chemistry and computing teachers in the first five years of their careers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools. This will support recruitment and retention of specialist teachers in these subjects in the schools and areas that need them most.

The Department also remains committed to delivering the manifesto commitment of a £30,000 starting salary. The School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a significant 8.9% pay uplift to teacher starting salaries outside London in 2022/23 has been implemented, bringing starting salaries up to £28,000.

The Department has expanded its ITT pilot course ‘Engineers teach physics’, nationally, with 18 providers now offering it. This expansion of providers will ensure that this programme is available to more trainees across the country, further improving the shortfall in physics teachers. The Department continues to work closely with sector experts, such as the Institute of Physics, engineering representative bodies and academic institutions during this project to encourage more graduates and career changers with an engineering or material science background to consider teaching physics as a career.

To make teaching here even more attractive to the best teachers from around the world, the Department is piloting a new relocation payment for overseas nationals coming here to train or teach physics or languages. This single payment of £10,000 will help towards the costs of visas and other expenses.