TRAINEE teachers are being prevented from starting their careers in Cornwall unless they already live here, according to a new report launched yeterday [Thursday, November 20].

The Teach Cornwall Report, a two-year research project conducted by Plymouth Marjon University from its campus at the Old Cathedral School in Truro, explores a persistent pattern of primarily Cornwall residents training to teach here, to understand what is preventing those from out of the county from applying for positions.

The authors discovered that Cornwall’s rural and coastal geography, the impact of tourism on house prices and availability, and a lack of year-round public transport make it difficult to train as a teacher here.

The study also highlights that despite national shortages, getting a permanent job west of the Tamar is a challenge for newly qualified teachers. This is largely because experienced teachers rarely leave their jobs in Cornwall, due to rural areas having fewer schools within easy commuting distance and changing jobs meaning the upheaval of moving house.

Key findings included 78 per cent of trainees needing to own a car to get to school placements, with some commuting almost two hours each way, described as “harmful to health and wellbeing”.

Cornish salaries are 12 per cent below the national average, with housing pressures from second-home ownership forcing some trainees into unsatisfactory accommodation including caravans, and 68 per cent relying on family support to manage rent and travel costs.

Cultural isolation was also highlighted, with limited access to places like museums, cinemas and leisure centres, and also the fact that Cornwall’s population is 93.6% White British, leading one ethnically diverse trainee to comment: "If there is a reason for me to leave Cornwall, it will be because I want to work where I'm not the only different person."

The research also found Cornwall has a “shocking absence” of centrally-held data about its teaching workforce, without which it is difficult to plan how many teachers are needed and where.

The reasons for attracting trainees from outside Cornwall include shortages of candidates in in particular subjects (such as physics), in order to teach a full curriculum; the need to fill vacancies at any given time, and a desire for broader viewpoints and diversity among staff.

Report recommendations include flexible online and in-person learning options to overcome geography access issues, financial support for housing and transport in rural and coastal areas to recognise the additional costs involved in training there, and for data systems to be held at a government and local level by county to support proactive workforce planning

Cornwall has 295 schools serving 75,718 pupils, with 80 per cent of state-funded schools being part of Academy Trusts. Last year, Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers trained an estimated 140 school and FE teachers.

There are multiple routes into teaching, from post-graduate training to a career change in later life, but ITT involves a period learning how to teach and putting that into practice through a school placement. There are 12 ITT providers in Cornwall, including two universities, two FE colleges, one School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), an independent provider and Multi Academy Trusts (MATs).

Emma Adams from Newquay is currently training as a secondary history school teacher with the Roseland Trust and Cornwall SCITT. She is on placement at Falmouth School, travelling an hour each way, five days a week.

“My family is supporting me with rent as I'm a single parent to a toddler, so this is a lot to manage at times,” she said. “My two-year-old son should qualify for 30 hours’ nursery funding, but because I am 'not working' he doesn't receive this.

“But with the commute, being in school five days a week and my parental responsibilities, it isn't feasible for me to work. I do think the government's policy on this needs to be amended for parents who are training.”

Lead author Professor Tanya Ovenden-Hope – who completed her own teacher training in Penzance - said the report’s findings could easily translate to any rural and coastal location in the UK, from Cumbria and County Durham to Kent, and beyond. “I was in Tromso, Norway in March, and teachers did not want to work in places where social life and housing were non-existent,” she said.

But she added that the picture was “not entirely bleak” and that Cornwall also offered advantages to those in teacher training. “Trainees told us about how much they liked working in countryside and by the coast and felt that it supported their wellbeing,” she said.

“They also told us that learning to teach in school and college placements in strong Cornish communities made them feel connected to their students. Primary school trainee teachers also liked being in small rural schools, expressing how their professional development was accelerated through the range of tasks they learned.”

Truro and Falmouth MP Jayne Kirkham wrote the foreword to the report, and has invited the authors to present it at Westminster in January. “This research helps explain why urban-centric teacher recruitment strategies don’t fit in rural and coastal areas like Cornwall,” she said. “As the MP for Truro and Falmouth, and a former teaching assistant, I know how opportunities and barriers — especially in education — are shaped by our specific geography. The challenges we face differ fundamentally from those in urban areas, and as this study shows clearly, they are deeply rooted in place.

“Teaching is an essential profession, and amid a national shortage, we must create pathways that work. Here in Cornwall, trainees contend with long commutes, a housing crisis, and limited job opportunities — particularly in the primary sector. The voices in this report remind us that solutions must be shaped by those on the frontline.”

The report was funded by OneCornwall, which works with all the ITT Providers in Cornwall to co-ordinate training opportunities across the county. Greg Pankhurst said: "Our schools and pupils deserve highly qualified, excellent teachers. By identifying and understanding the specific barriers to teacher training in Cornwall, we can take meaningful steps to address them and ensure a sustainable pipeline of talent into the profession."