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St Saviour’s School Ikoyi in Nigeria is among the COBIS schools featured in the survey
Teachers give verdict on international sector Fiona Rogers examines the results of a major survey conducted by COBIS and ISC Research Why do teachers choose to work in the international sector? How long do they stay? Why do they leave? Is teacher recruitment a challenge for international schools? What could be done to improve the supply of teachers going forward, to ensure the continued success of the British international schools sector? These are some of the questions addressed by a recent research study, published by the Council of British International Schools (COBIS) – Teacher Supply in British International Schools. The research, produced in partnership with ISC Research, is based on responses from a total of more than 1,600 senior leaders, incoming teachers (those who had started a new job in a British international school since August 2016) and outgoing teachers (those who were planning to leave the international sector at the end of the 2017/18 or 2018/19 academic year). Spring
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| 2018
94% of British international school leaders now find recruiting quality teachers ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ challenging. The ongoing, rapid growth of the international schools sector, coupled with an increasing teacher supply challenge in the UK domestic market (teachers leaving the profession; growth in secondary school pupil numbers; failure to meet Initial Teacher Training targets) means that attracting and retaining sufficient high-quality teachers is going to be one of the biggest challenges facing the international schools sector in the coming years. Many such schools are being proactive in improving recruitment and retention, through enhanced professional development (57%) and improved marketing of the school (51%). And while 93% of school leaders indicate that recruiting internationally trained teachers is important, more than
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