- One in five teachers spend their own money on school supplies
- Recruiter pledges to fund three creative teaching areas
- One teacher confessed to spending £700 on materials out of her own pocket
Recruiter Randstad has created a new campaign to raise awareness of an issue impacting thousands of teachers across the UK. #BestInClass is targeted at cash-strapped teachers who are passionate about ensuring their pupils have the resources they need to learn effectively, and are paying for classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
The inspiration for the campaign was fueled by recent findings from teachers’ union NASUWT, which found that among the 4,386 members who responded to the survey, 20% said they paid for classroom resources at least once a week, with half of those saying they did so “several times a week”.
The new #BestInClass campaign launched by the recruiter specifically targets early years, primary, secondary and special needs education teachers. Three lucky teachers will benefit from taking home £500 worth of vouchers for classroom supplies, to revamp their current teaching area or to create a new space that promotes creative learning.
Managing Director of Public Services at Randstad UK, Victoria Short said: “We ultimately want to make the lives of teachers easier, and that’s part of the motivation behind launching our #BestInClass campaign. We’ll see three classroom or teaching areas benefit from a well-deserved makeover, on us. While ministers are saying that school finances are a priority for the next spending review, we need to raise awareness of this together to ensure teachers are receiving the funding they need to educate our nation. We’ve been helping teachers find happiness in new roles for over 25 years and we don’t want this issue becoming something that distracts them from applying, especially during such a huge skills shortage.”
Earlier this year at the annual NEU conference, teacher Jenny Jones showed a shopping list to delegates containing classroom supply items totalling over £700, all of which were personally funded. According to TES, Jenny bought 120 glue sticks, 100 coloured erasers and a heater to keep her warm when she was doing her marking after school, for when the heating gets switched off. Another teacher told NASUWT that they had spent at least £5,000 over the last few years and will no doubt will continue to do so - voluntarily but not always happily.
Victoria adds: “Most of us have a friend or family member that’s a teacher and know that they dip into their own pockets for classroom supplies, but it’s upsetting to hear about the extent of this following the publication of recent findings by NASUWT.
Becoming a teacher is a hugely rewarding career, with the ability to really make a difference and inspire the future generation, but unfortunately we’re still facing a lack of applicants. Among the long list of positives, it’s no secret that teachers work hard, sometimes do long hours and take work home with them. They don’t need the added pressure of having to budget for supplies out of their own salary for the classroom.”
ENDS
https://www.randstad.co.uk/best-in-class-competition/
Three prizes are available. Each prize consists of one £500 voucher from Hobbycraft for each of the three Winners [or another suitable alternative to be decided by Randstad depending on the Winner’s entry].
Of the three prizes available, one prize will be awarded within each of the following categories; a) primary school and early years teachers, b) SEN teachers and c) secondary school teachers.
The £500 vouchers must be used to make-over the space in line with the submission and cannot be used for any other purpose.
Terms and conditions apply:https://www.randstad.co.uk/terms-and-conditions-for-best-in-class-competition/
About Randstad: Randstad is an HR services business active in 38 countries around the world. In 2018, Randstad trained over 300,000 people and helped more than 2.5 million candidates find a job with one of 250,000 clients. In 2018, Randstad had approximately 39,000 corporate employees and generated revenue of € 23.8 billion. Randstad was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Diemen, the Netherlands. Randstad N.V. is listed on the NYSE Euronext. Randstad is a global leader in the HR services industry, supporting people and organisations in realising their true potential by combining the power of today’s technology with a passion for people. For more information, see www.randstad.co.uk.