ABSTRACT
For those who do quit the classroom, coming back still remains a problem. Too many schools do not reward experience gained outside the school gate, and some heads allegedly even feel threatened by those who have a wide range of experience. The Training and Development Agency (the former Teacher Training Agency) has been running courses for would-be ‘returners’ to teaching for some years, and these can provide a valuable form of re-entry. With the demand for some teachers likely to fall over the coming decade, not all who want to return will find it easy to do so. There will always be popular parts of the country where teaching posts are more in demand than in some other areas. However, all areas will still have some posts on offer. For instance, between September 2005 and the end of July 2006, just over 30,000 jobs were advertised nationally for secondary teachers. These included more than a thousand for English teachers and over 1,200 for science teachers. The full list is contained in Appendix A.
