Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that there is adequate training for physics teachers.

​​The within-school factor that makes the biggest difference to a young person’s educational outcome is high quality teaching. We want to ensure all teachers have access to and stay up-to-date with best practice in continuing professional development at every stage of their career, giving them the expertise and support needed to deliver high quality teaching.

Through the revised initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF), new teachers now benefit from at least three years of evidence-based training, across initial teacher training (ITT) and into their induction. The department has also launched a new and updated suite of national professional qualifications for teachers and school leaders at all levels, from those who want to develop expertise in high quality teaching practice to those leading multiple schools across trusts.

For the 2025 teacher trainee recruitment cycle, the department awarded the Institute of Physics (IOP) a grant agreement worth around £200,000 as part of the two-year ITT Scholarship Programme. This enables the IOP to offer 175 scholarships to talented individuals with a passion for physics and the potential to become inspirational teachers. Between 2022 and 2024, the IOP has recruited 256 scholars who received a bursary uplift, currently £2,000, on top of the standard £29,000 ITT bursary for physics.

The department also supports physics recruitment through ‘Engineers teach physics’, an established national ITT course. The department continues to work closely with sector experts, representative bodies and academic institutions, such as the IOP, Engineering UK, the University of Birmingham and the Gatsby Foundation, to ensure that this course reflects best practice and includes the most up-to-date industry knowledge.

The subject knowledge for physics teaching programme supports non-specialist teachers of physics to enhance their subject knowledge and confidence through a series of blended learning courses covering the key stage 3 and key stage 4 physics curriculum.

This government has inherited a system with critical shortages of teachers, especially in physics, with numbers not keeping pace with demographic changes. We are committed to resetting the relationship with the sector and restoring teaching’s status as a valued and respected profession, one that new graduates want to join and existing staff wish to remain in and thrive.