Quarter of schools in England lack a physics teacher, analysis finds
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/02/quarter-schools-england-lack-physics-teacher?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5
Posted by BestButtons
Quarter of schools in England lack a physics teacher, analysis finds
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/02/quarter-schools-england-lack-physics-teacher?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5
Posted by BestButtons
28 Comments
> The lack of specialists means more than half (58%) of pupils studying for a science GCSE will have the physics component taught by a teacher who has not studied a physics-related subject beyond the age of 18.
> An estimated 700,000 pupils are affected, according to the Institute of Physics, which carried out the analysis and is calling for urgent action to tackle what it describes as a “chronic and critical” shortage of specialist physics teachers.
> “Data show that only 4% of students in the lowest socioeconomic status quintile take physics A-level, compared with about 11% in the highest quintile, and that 70% of A-level physics students come from just 30% of schools,” it says.
Chickens coming home to roost:
> It is not a new problem. The lack of physics teachers is down to three decades of low recruitment and high attrition rates, which have left the state system in need of an additional 3,500 specialists at a time when the country is facing a severe skills shortage.
Almost went into physics teaching.
Went to the local college to get some experience and the miserable head of physics told me, don’t do it. I only observed, so no indication on my ability to teach, just a miserable old fool telling me to basically piss off out of his area.
I thought we just had science teachers in high school? Given the level of physics we were tested on I wouldn’t think you’d need a specialist. Do the institutes of chemistry and biology not have the same complaint?
Why, if I had acquired a STEM degree, would I want the hassle of working in a school for pay way under what I would get in almost any other place? We pretty much all agree that teaching in our secondary schools is a pretty unpleasant job to have, it isn’t some mystery. The question should be how we make teaching an appealing career.
This explains why the youth are so bad at reading minds and predicting the future
A quarter of students will go to school believing the moon is made of cheese then right?
How unfortunate, our country has now fallen into the bracket of third world countries. Sound the alarm!
We’ve cut funding and increased what schools do for years, but somehow things aren’t working!?
Maybe a funding cut, free music lessons for everyone and raising the leaving age to 21 will work?
I don’t think headteachers understand the gravity of this situation.
Why would the STEM educated, individuals such as myself, work for low pay in crap conditions when we can make much more elsewhere?
If you want to compete for talent you have to be competitive.
This is only really an issue at A level. I can teach A level Chemistry and Biology, but would struggle to do physics.
Any science teacher should be able to teach physics up to GCSE though.
However, there are also not enough science teachers in general. We advertised multiple times and got no (credible) applicants. There is a massive crisis in teaching and its not just science
Physics is too hard. If physics could just be easier then more people would be able to teach it better. 💡
In the private sector, when there’s a shortage of people with a particular skillset, businesses typically raise wages to attract talent. This doesn’t happen in teaching, however, because teachers’ unions strongly resist pay differentiation by subject.
I don’t blame them,
As more people outsource parenting to the state the teachers are seen as a figure of authority. Add shite wages and long hours ontop of this what do you expect it.
My school was terrible and many of the teachers ended up spending time on the most missbehaved and the top 1%. This honestly caused me to fall through the cracks. There’s limited male role models and generally anyone who has a passion for teaching gets burnt out.
I was a physics teacher, and a few years ago, I tutored science and maths at a school in the sticks, with my little room next to the science labs. I had to go and politely speak to the teachers multiple times because they were giving completely wrong information, and even somewhat dangerous information regarding practicals…
I’ve seen so many good students over the years that have given up on physics and science in general, and often that can be attributed to the teaching.
5 years ago, if you had the skills and qualifications to teach physics you could have earned more doing other things like finance, engineering, design, etc etc.
But now with our awful job market teaching physics or maths is not that bad.
30k bursary to train.
You’ll always be in demand if you are decent, starting pay of over 30k, and I believe retention bursary of £6000 a year for first three years of teaching. And teachers pension.
It’s a no brainer in today’s job market.
Shit pay, shit conditions and you’re expected to teach biology, chemistry as well as cover lessons like Art – things that physicists generally have no knowledge or interest in.
My partner was a physics teacher for 5 years. He was paid more for his physics teacher training scholarship than his NQT salary. He worked in a few different schools but the workload was unsustainable for him and he now works elsewhere in education. The issue isn’t recruitment, it’s retention. Teachers need to be valued way more than they currently are.
The issue is we probably need to pay some subjects more and others less due to supply and demand. But for a myriad of reasons this hasn’t come to pass and unions are highly against it.
But when you have 25 history teachers for each role and 0.6 physics teachers. Somethings gotta give
Why anyone with a respectable degree in a STEM subject would go into teaching after all the hassle of getting their degree is beyond me.
Their skill sets are in demand from far higher paying jobs that don’t come with the agro of dealing with little shits that parents won’t discipline.
I’ve got about seven years of international teaching experience, an engineering degree, and I’m currently acting head at a Thai high school where I teach science. On paper, I’m in a pretty good place — I enjoy my work, I’m trusted with responsibility, and my career has been built on both experience and results.
But every so often I think: *what if I went back to the UK and did QTS?* And when I weigh it up, the answer is always no. Here’s why:
1. **The QTS requirements are a reset button.** To work as a qualified teacher in the UK, I’d need to spend 6–12 months retraining for QTS. None of my qualifications or years of practical classroom experience would count. I’d essentially be asked to put my career on hold, go back to university, and start again — despite already being proven in the classroom.
2. **The immigration headache.** I have a foreign partner. To bring her to the UK legally would cost around £10,000 and could take years. That’s a huge financial and emotional barrier, with no guarantee that life in the UK would even be better for us.
3. **Work-life balance and pay.** From the outside, UK teaching looks like long hours, high stress, and poor work-life balance — all for a salary that doesn’t reflect the demands of the job. When I compare that to alternatives, like going into an engineering office role with less stress or better pay, the trade-off just doesn’t make sense.
The longer I spend abroad, the clearer this becomes: returning to the UK system feels less like “coming home” and more like giving up what I’ve built. I see more and more teachers leaving, not coming back.
So why should somebody do this job?
TBF you really don’t need a physics degree to teach GCSE science
I genuinely considered it. I was taken on by a high school as an apprentice physics technician because the old one retired 5 years before and they couldn’t find anyone so tried looking for an apprentice and picked me.
After a while I passed and stayed on at the physics tech because it was a good school, great teachers, great kids and pretty good money for the role. I spoke to the physics teachers a few times about becoming a teacher myself as they were technically understaffed.
The amount of hours I would spend helping the teachers: printing tests, sorting work books for the classes etc. stuff that wasn’t my job. My job was to run the prep room and give them experiments, demonstrations etc. not the paperwork.
I was really willing to do it but it dawned on me that being understaffed would be my life. I would never work in a physics teaching job where we have a full team. So I chose not to. Best decision of my life. I’ve since left physics education altogether and I don’t regret it for a second. I loved the job but god could it be stressful because you’re constantly rushed off your feet.
I’m not a very academic person as I found out at A level but I loved O level physics (showing my age now).
It was just fun to me and a lot of that was a high quality teacher. I’ve still got a good basic understanding and remember some of the lessons decades later.
It’s the same all around Europe, not just the UK.
I definitely think that educational systems are in trouble because they don’t know how to re-invent themselves, and keep up with the fast-paced technological advancements. But we need to figure out something, because everyone needs the basics in order to understand how to get the needed information from future AI & tech tools.
I have a Physics degree and I’ve taught English as a foreign language for a few years – I’d love to teach in the UK, even with all the prison guard stuff. Problem is the pay. It’s not even too bad, but in the area of the UK my family is from (Bristol), we’d simply never be able to afford a property and a reasonable lifestyle. Relative pay abroad can be a lot higher.
Interesting
When I returned from USA last year and applied to do PGCE (I’m British and have a PhD in physics) I couldn’t get the bursary and would have to pay for my own fees because of their residency rules.
So, I’m not teaching physics in the end.
Ask my wife’s cousin. A very capable, motivated Maths teacher, who after years of dealing with feral, at times violent pupils, with the School being at fault (according to the parents), he retrained as a Plumber.
Well shit. If only teachers got a decent wage, and real support.
Oh well.