Bursar’s Review

7 @the_isba Summer 2022 News Stress Awareness Month prompts employers in the education sector to review their existing polices Statistics published during Stress Awareness Month last April once again demonstrated how important it is for employers to familiarise themselves with the signs and symptoms of stress, especially as an increase in the cost of living threatens to compound the issues faced by many. With 79 percent of employed British adults commonly experiencing workplace stress (20 percent higher than last year), it is an issue that impacts workers across all sectors and occupations, as the latest data shows. According to a recent study, 83 percent of those working in education confirmed they had experienced feelings of work- related stress at some point in their career. Despite many people hoping that a return to normality in the post-pandemic era would bring about a period of financial stability, the reality of hiked energy prices will undoubtedly exacerbate feelings of stress, which could impact work performance and productivity. Teacher recruitment targets likely to be missed in English, maths and science, recent report reveals A new report warns that there is a substantial risk that teacher recruitment targets will not be met this year across a large range of secondary subjects, including English, a subject that usually meets its target. It also worryingly shows that there are recruitment challenges in other subjects that tend to recruit well, including geography, biology, art and religious education. The Teacher Labour Market in England Annual Report 2022, published by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, also projects that there will be a recruitment shortfall in persistent shortage subjects, such as physics, which is estimated to be recruiting at less than 20 percent of the level required to meet its target. It also reveals that subjects including maths, chemistry, computing, design and technology and modern foreign languages, will continue to have recruitment challenges this year. The latest cohort of initial teacher training applicants will not start teaching in schools until September 2023, giving the Government and schools a window of time to plan and take action. Without action to address teacher recruitment and retention, shortages may increasingly come to negatively impact on pupils’ education and learning. Inspirational work in Moldova In January this year, Abingdon School announced it had raised more than £100,000 since 2000 for Agape, a charity which works to improve the lives of young people in Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe. The teacher in charge of the Moldova Project, Adam Jenkins, recently visited the country to see the important work being done by Agape in the schools there and said: “Using some of the money raised by the Abingdon sponsored walk last September, Agape organised four activity camps for young Moldovan children based at Grigore Vieru, Andrei Vartic and Petre Stefanuca Schools in Laloveni and Mihai Iminescu School in the nearby village of Ulmu. I visited all four camps to see the children enjoying arts and craft, sport, and English lessons, it was particularly gratifying that many of the volunteers running the activities were older Moldovan students who had themselves attended summer camps run in previous years by Abingdon pupils. “I am looking forward to 2023 when I hope that Abingdon sixth formers will once again be able to return to Moldova and celebrate the 20th anniversary of our first trip there".