‘Year 10 was a write-off’: the pupils at the sharp end of England’s teacher recruitment crisis

A teacher marking a pupil's homework. A record 40,000 teachers quit state education in England last year. Photograph: PA

In the run-up to her GCSEs this year, Ruby*, 16, from south London, turned to YouTube for learning because of staff shortages at her school. “We spent a lot of time going [online] and trying to find the person who most knew what they were talking about,” says her mother, Helen.

The teenager was left to teach herself some of the material for a final exam after a turbulent year of teachers quitting, non-specialists covering lessons, and classes being combined in a hall with a single teacher in charge of up to 60 pupils.