Vocation to teach
Speak to any headteacher and the phrase “recruitment crisis” is never far from their lips (Lauren Nicholson-Ward, 14 January). If you want a PE teacher there are plenty to go around. A physics, maths or RE teacher? Well good luck. The pupil population will swell by more than 700,000 in the next decade. I am unaware of any credible plan to find the teachers for these youngsters.

My wife and I are teachers. When I suggest to my own children that they might like to inherit the school they reply, “No way: you work all day, most of the evening and at weekends”. If the next potential generation of teachers already have an opinion on conditions of service, on top of issues around pay, and top-down interference, then a storm of biblical proportion is brewing.

I cannot remember the last occasion when I saw teaching being promoted as a vocation. Advertising campaigns promote it as a job, an occupation or a career path.