Lynne McKenna, Dean of Education and Society at the University of Sunderland, has a formidable work ethic. She 鈥渆asily鈥 puts in 70 hours a week (she鈥檚 been up for four hours already by the time I鈥檝e crawled out of bed for our breakfast meeting). It shows, too. She鈥檚 been instrumental in helping to steer government policies aimed at boosting teacher numbers. She received an MBE last year for services to education, which she said came as a 鈥渟urprise鈥 given she鈥檚 also never held back from criticising the Department for Education over policies she disagrees with (but more of that later). Blocked from teaching When McKenna told her vice chancellor she planned to retire this August, she said: 鈥淚 was very pleased to see him looking decidedly disappointed, but we both know that I am not irreplaceable.鈥 Much of her drive is attributed to a love of the profession and removing the kinds of barriers to becoming a teacher that she once faced. As a little girl she would force her friends to play 鈥榮chools鈥 and was 鈥渁lways the teacher鈥. But at 15, her hopes of becoming one were crushed when her school careers advisor pointed out she lacked the required maths GCE to do so. She 鈥渨asn鈥檛 even put in for鈥 maths at her secondary modern school in Jarrow, South Tyneside, because 鈥渋t was felt I wouldn鈥檛 pass鈥. The advisor suggested to McKenna鈥檚 receptionist mum and engineer dad that their daughter train to be a nursery and primary classroom assistant instead. 鈥淭he next thing I knew I was sitting an entrance exam to become a nursery nurse 鈥 without even knowing what one was.鈥 But McKenna鈥檚 teaching skills didn鈥檛 go unnoticed at the schools she worked for. 鈥淓very headteacher would ask, why aren鈥檛 you a teacher?鈥 After four years, she began studying three evenings a week at South Tyneside College for her GCE maths and a higher education access course while working full-time. But she said: 鈥淚f someone had helped me at 15, I could鈥檝e done it then. To have been limited by one tiny qualification was such a shame.鈥 Lynne McKennas graduation Going global She became 鈥渢he archetypal swot鈥. After qualifying as a teacher from the University of Sunderland, on her first day primary teaching in South Shields she applied for a Master鈥檚 degree in education at Newcastle University. Years later, on her first day as senior lecturer at Northumbria University, she started a part-time doctorate at Durham University. During the same period, she worked as an advisory teacher, a family numeracy co-ordinator, and then as a curriculum development officer for South Tyneside Council. McKenna joined Sunderland in 2015 as head of the school of education, and was made dean in 2018. She鈥檚 used her communication line to the DfE to help remove unnecessary barriers to teaching for others ever since. 鈥淢y whole life has been dedicated to that cause,鈥 she says. Trainees previously had to pass skills tests to prove maths and English competency for qualified teacher status (QTS), which 鈥渟eemed nonsensical鈥 to McKenna at a time of rising teacher shortages. She pushed DfE on the issue, and shared with officials the work her university had done showing how even some trainees with maths degrees were 鈥渇inding it difficult鈥 to pass the tests, partly 鈥渂ecause of the time factor involved鈥. They were scrapped shortly after in 2019. McKenna also set her sights on facilitating wannabe teachers living overseas to train, too, through what became known as the International Qualified Teacher Status programme (IQTS). On a 2016 visit to PGCE programmes her university was running in partnership with international schools in Dubai and Hong Kong, she noted how most trainees were the educated wives of expat bankers and oil company managers. These ladies were helpers in their children鈥檚 schools who in many cases were 鈥渄oing the job of teacher鈥, but without being able to get QTS. Last year, Sunderland became one of the first five providers piloting IQTS, to 鈥渆xport [England鈥檚] excellence in initial teacher training鈥 across the globe. The university trained over half (41) the 80 teachers enrolled on the course. Sunderland鈥檚 programme follows its campus-based PGCE, the difference being that learning happens online. The students, from Asia, the Middle East and increasingly Europe, get support from a Sunderland academic and a school-based mentor. And in-country tutors are employed to oversee these mentors. Another 19 providers have signed up to the scheme since the pilot, and McKenna believes there could be more than 25 in the market by the end of this year. 鈥淭o have that impact globally is huge,鈥 she added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very dear to me.鈥 Lynne Mckenna Review mayhem But McKenna has rebelled, too. She was one of many to challenge the initial teacher training market review, which compelled every provider to apply for reaccreditation based on new standards. It followed a rallying against those peddling 鈥渇olk pedagogies鈥 and 鈥渘euromyths鈥, which was widely seen as another attack on 鈥榯he blob鈥 of left-leaning educationalists (including universities). She tried in vain to persuade school leaders to speak up against the proposals. They were 鈥渁bsolutely on their knees鈥 after the pandemic, and lacked the time. She believes the review was 鈥渧ery badly timed鈥 given 鈥渢he recruitment crisis was evident as soon as we emerged from the pandemic鈥, and that the policy has made the crisis worse. Entrants to initial teacher training dropped from 36,159 in 2021-22 to 26,955 in 2023-24. Around 60 of the 240 providers did not get re-accredited in 2022. Nearly four in five of those not accredited were rated 鈥榞ood鈥 or 鈥榦utstanding鈥 by Ofsted at the time. McKenna finds it 鈥渂affling鈥 that these providers were 鈥渘ot accredited because they hadn鈥檛 fulfilled criteria in a paper exercise鈥. One of those was Durham University, which had been a teacher training provider since the early nineteenth century and was rated 鈥榦utstanding鈥. While some snubbed providers formed partnerships with other universities to continue providing training (Durham for instance joined with Newcastle), McKenna claims many 鈥渏ust pulled out鈥 altogether. She also fed back to DfE the time it took her team to provide the documentation for reaccreditation, which 鈥渋nstead could鈥檝e been spent on teacher recruitment activity, going out to sixth forms and colleges 鈥 we’ve not been able to do that.鈥 Lynne McKenna Mentor woes Mentoring is now crucial to training up the next pipeline of teachers, but the exodus from the profession is making it harder to find those mentors. McKenna is seeing some schools 鈥渄oubling up鈥 classes with 鈥50 children in a hall鈥. 鈥淎 lot鈥 of secondaries have told McKenna鈥檚 team, 鈥溾檞e haven’t enough teachers to teach our children. How can we release them for your mentoring?鈥欌 The lack of specialist teachers now working in schools is also a barrier. Some are making do with non-specialists, such as PE teachers teaching maths. 鈥淲e’ve got very little chance of recruiting to business, physics, modern foreign languages, design and technology and RE, because in some cases there’s nobody in schools with that expertise to mentor those trainees.鈥 To 鈥済et trainees into schools鈥, the university has started sending its own staff in to provide mentoring. 鈥淚t’s a cost we鈥檙e having to bear.鈥 A drastic solution Lynne McKenna Sunderland has the largest cohort of teacher trainees in the North East, with 879 last year. It had 1,033 in 2021. McKenna has told the DfE in 鈥渁 million plus meetings鈥, and shadow education secretary Bridget Philipson (a Sunderland MP), to 鈥渂e brave鈥 and abolish tuition fees for teacher trainees. 鈥淎t this point, we need a drastic solution鈥. For the last two years Sunderland has also been 鈥20 or 30 below where we normally are鈥 for primary recruits, which was 鈥渦nheard of鈥 pre Covid. 鈥淭hat’s a worrying trend. If we can’t recruit primary teachers, that鈥檚 a sign the profession itself isn’t seen as attractive.鈥 It was a different story when McKenna qualified as a teacher. Her grandmother 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 believe we had a school mistress in the family. It was seen as this huge achievement.鈥 Bad news stories over strikes and teacher pay have not helped, and McKenna believes the 鈥渆steem teachers were held in during the pandemic seems to have disappeared鈥. 鈥淚t’s quite a helpless feeling when you’ve got teachers in their early 50s taking early retirement. We鈥檙e seeing a lot of that.鈥 McKenna is retiring at 60, but not because she has any less love for her job. She looks back at her 33-year education career without regrets. 鈥淚鈥檝e loved every second. It’s such a privilege to work in education.鈥