Recruitment and Retention in Schools and Colleges

Teach Portsmouth

The shortage of education practitioners in schools has been a significant cause for concern in recent years. This continues due to national challenges around pay and workload alongside rising pupil numbers and fewer graduates entering the profession.

This impacts the number of teachers, senior leaders and support staff joining schools in the city.

The Portsmouth Education Partnership (PEP) made this one of its early priorities and established the Teach Portsmouth Board (formerly the ITT and Teacher and Retention Group) to lead on this work and drive forward Teach Portsmouth.

Screenshot showing the Teach Portsmouth website

Recruiting the best practitioners

Teach Portsmouth aims to recruit the best teachers, support staff and leaders, for schools and academies.

Termly information events and job fairs promote the breadth of opportunities in the city, showcasing vacancies across early years, primary, secondary and specialist settings. The introduction of taster sessions supports people before they apply for specific vacancies.

Marketing campaigns also position Portsmouth as a place of choice for education practitioners.

For more information about training, teaching and supporting pupils, visit the Teach Portsmouth website.

Working in a Portsmouth school or college

Vacancies for schools can be found on the Portsmouth City Council website.

Retaining school staff and celebrating success

Supporting the retention of teaching assistants

The retention of staff is also a priority with work underway to support schools and academies with teaching assistant retention. A recent survey completed by teaching assistants showed that pay, feeling value, career progression and training to be a priority for this group.

Teaching Assistant Charter

Following a review of the survey findings, we have co-produced a Teaching Assistant Charter.

Teaching assistant training directory

Teaching assistants told us how much they valued continuing professional development and being able to access training.

To support this aim, we have created the teaching assistant training directory.