From Ofsted to the Spending Review – former schools minister David Laws gives SecEd the inside track on the six challenges facing the education secretary in the year ahead...

The secretary of state for education, Damian Hinds, must have breathed a sigh of relief at the beginning of Parliamentary recess. Just before the August holidays, he managed to deliver the biggest pay rise for teachers for almost a decade and get approval from the Treasury.

Now his department faces the tricky challenge of finding all the money that will be needed to cover the extra costs in schools – no easy task.

But a bigger pay rise for teachers can only help Mr Hinds with his first challenge of the year ahead: recruitment. With pay rises increasing in the private sector, teacher workload high, and secondary school pupil numbers due to climb over the years ahead, attracting enough teachers is becoming a real headache for the education system.
The teacher shortages are particularly acute in subjects where graduates can earn more outside teaching – in maths and science.

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