From 7.24 million in 2015, there is likely to be a rise to 7.85 million more students in 2020. And that means there will be an increase in the demand for more new teachers.

There have been headlines reporting ‘gazumping’ practices in schools’ recruitment of maths teachers. Recruitment is taking up more and more of leadership time and non-specialists are stepping into fill gaps in Maths and Science.

Attrition is also forecast to rise: 53% teachers are reported to be considering leaving the profession (YouGov poll).

Even with bursaries and scholarships for 2016-17 – worth up to £30,000 tax-free – in the core academic subjects, the challenges will remain in how to retain those new starters once they have entered the profession. And where are these new recruits going: the most challenging schools or are they queuing up at the gates of the highest achieving who already boast the pick of the crop?

Spring Maths is premised on capturing good lessons and providing a consistency of approach to develop good practice in teaching and learning. Our goal is to support planning for any teachers – new starters, non-specialists and existing specialists.

We provide good quality well planned lessons that are easy to adapt.
 
We try to ensure lessons include some reasoning, application of maths, problem solving, or real-life connections. There are also specific lessons to address these areas.

We are passionate about providing free quality resources to help support teachers to provide great Maths lessons for all our kids. If you would like to know more or have a chat, why not use the 'comments' below to leave a message.

The United Nations' (UN) World Teachers' Day commemorates the work of teachers and their contributions to society. It is observed on October 5 each year.
 
On this special day, Spring Maths looks at the challenges in teacher recruitment and retention we face globally.
 
The world is growing and here’s the bad news: by 2030, the world will be in need of 6.2 million teachers, of which 2.3 million will be new position yet to be created.

Secondary schooling is needed to ensure the minimum standard for teachers, as in many developing countries, this is the highest level of education teachers themselves achieve before employment.

And we can’t be complacent in developed nations. In maths education, there is a growing crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers, and challenges in developing good maths teachers from an increasing pool of non-specialists. The quality of teaching impacts directly on the quality of learning and at Spring Maths, we believe teachers need continued professional development and support through networks to continually improve and develop capabilities to deal with the increasing challenges.

Spring Maths believes that to help support teachers (and learners) technologies can help amplify and spread good practice in hard to reach areas. A fabulous example is South Africa, where colleagues like Ron Beyers strive hard to drive quality teaching and learning in rural schools through satellite technologies and dedicated learning canopies. If you don’t know about the great work Ron is involved with, take a look at this introductory video.

We champion colleagues like Ron Beyers and seek to learn from them.
 
So here’s wishing all you great people out there a happy World Teachers’ Day and recognising the work you do and the quality you strive for.