ITT Research

NFER: Exploring the special schools workforce

Here is the  first in a two-part blog series from the National Foundation for Educational Research looking at the workforce in special schools. The second blog has now been published and looks at retention, movement across school types, and where new teachers are recruited from. The research finds:

• Special schools do not recruit their teaching staff directly from ITT routes as much as primary and secondary schools;
• The Department for Education does not have a target for ITT recruitment for special schools;
• The current system seems to rely on teachers developing experience with SEND pupils in the mainstream sector before moving to special schools;
• Special schools have lower teacher turnover rates than other schools – but AP settings have much higher rates than other schools; and
• When teachers leave special schools, they are more likely to leave the state system than teachers who leave primary or secondary schools.