Teach Lambeth is a new website set up by Lambeth Schools Partnership and Lambeth Council on behalf of all the schools in the borough of Lambeth.
Teach Lambeth has been created to help all the schools in Lambeth deal with two ongoing problems that they have with staff recruitment.
Firstly, recruiting the best candidate to every available Lambeth education job is expensive, time consuming and often ineffective when using existing methods such as recruitment agencies, advertising in the TES and similar publications or using a variety of job boards.
Secondly, Lambeth schools wanted to create a way they could attract newly qualified teachers and have a pool of NQTs that every school in Lambeth could access so that there was a ready supply of NQTs looking to work in the borough.
Part of the process of solving both problems is making people who could work in Lambeth realise what a great part of London and the UK it really is in which to live and work.
So, you'll find a lot of information about living in Lambeth, teaching in Lambeth and a brilliant resource about all the incredible cultural highlights of Lambeth on this site. Obviously the team at Teach Lambeth either live or work in the borough (or both) and therefore we’re biased, but there really isn't anywhere else quite like it. That’s why we came up with the strapline, “Lambeth, the world in one borough”, which will give you some idea of what makes it so varied, stimulating and great!
Better Lambeth school staff recruitment
But what about the first problem that the Teach Lambeth website needs to fix?
Well, it had become clear to the people behind this project that collectively Lambeth schools were spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds every year advertising job vacancies in Lambeth schools.
Whether that was in recruitment agency fees or the default recurring deal with the TES to use its job listings or any number of other paid services, it was clear that this was a huge strain on school budgets that were already under pressure. As so many head teachers and business managers have discovered, paying many thousands of pounds to list your job vacancy on the TES can often lead to no applications causing your recruitment process to be further delayed.
The aim of the Teach Lambeth website is to provide a comprehensive job board listing every available education vacancy in Lambeth. Every school in Lambeth has a listing detailing information about their school and an account through which they can list their own job vacancies as required.
There is no charge for schools to use the job board or the NQT pool since Teach Lambeth is a not-for-profit undertaking and is supported by funding from Lambeth Council. It is hoped that this will bring about incremental financial savings in recruitment costs as well as time saved in finding the right staff for Lambeth schools.
The effectiveness of Teach Lambeth will increase over time as it becomes better known through word of mouth, by appearing in search engine results and as it becomes the de-facto primary choice for both schools listing their jobs and education staff searching for jobs in the area.
At the outset, some of Teach Lambeth funding will be used to run additional demographic targeted advertising to help vacancies be seen by the right potential candidates. As the site matures this will increasingly happen organically.
The Lambeth NQT Pool
Lambeth has not had an official searchable NQT pool which is accessible to all schools for some time.
The other major feature of the Teach Lambeth website and project is the creation of a pool of newly qualified teachers who have submitted a full application and all relevant details through an automated part of the website and who have then been approved and added to the NQT pool.
Teach Lambeth is funded so that there is an ongoing marketing budget to attract those about to qualify as NQTs and encourage them to apply to the Lambeth NQT pool.
Once an NQT has joined the NQT pool, their details are searchable by every school in the borough through their Teach Lambeth account. The schools can then approach NQT candidates directly for interview and potential employment.
Just as this is a fantastic resource for all the schools in Lambeth, which will streamline their search for NQTs, it is equally appealing to NQTs looking to come and live and work in London. They need only apply one time through the NQT pool process in order to be available for possible NQT roles in more than 80 schools across the borough.
The site has only been active for the last few months but we have already seen more than 200 NQTs register their interest and more than 30 have already been approved for the NQT pool.
Lambeth Qualified Teacher Pool
During the creation of the teacher Lambeth website it became clear that the system for creating a pool that was going to be used for NQTs could equally be applied to qualified teachers.
So, unique amongst Local Authority education projects looking to tackle this issue, Teach Lambeth has also created a qualified teacher pool. This works in much the same way as the NQT pool but, in this case, a qualified teacher submits all their details and makes themselves available for all possible qualified teacher roles in the borough.
Obviously these can be qualified teachers from anywhere in the country or from those already working in the borough. It is early days for such a new concept in teacher recruitment, but over time we expect the qualified teacher pool to offer many schools a pool of talent that they can search in the first instance when they have a new education vacancy in their school .
How does Teach Lambeth Work?
Teach Lambeth therefore works both as a jobs board and as an administration centre for schools for their recruitment process.
Every job seeker who uses the Teach Lambeth website can create a profile and can then manage their job search and create alerts for the kind of job that they are looking for. They will then receive emails when relevant vacancies are listed and will be able to apply instantly using their existing profile.
From the school’s perspective, they are able to list their vacancies, manage applications received and contact all applicants direct through their account on the website. Additionally, through their account, schools are able to access and search both the NQT pool and the QT pool where they can contact the people in the pool direct.
Each school is also in charge of their school listing in the Lambeth schools directory on the Teach Lambeth website.
If you’re in a leadership role in a Lambeth school and don’t have your Teach Lambeth account, start here.
If you’re looking for an education role in the best borough in London, start here.