Thousands of teachers are working in Cumberland schools, new figures show.

While the school workforce across the country has increased slightly, thousands of teachers have left the state school sector.

The school leaders’ union NAHT called for the next government to commit to urgent action to address the “recruitment and retention crisis facing our schools”.

Department for Education figures show there were 2,234 teachers working at the 172 state-funded schools in Cumberland as of November.

Across England, the school workforce has increased “marginally” by around 300 teachers to 468,700. This includes some teachers without qualified teacher status.

Teacher vacancies in state schools in England have more than doubled in the past three years, reaching an all-time high of 2,800 in November.

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In Cumberland schools, four teaching roles needed to be filled. All of these were for classroom teachers.

There were also 15 positions that were temporarily filled.

Classroom teachers’ median pay in Cumberland was £42,100. This was less than the average for England, which was £43,800.