Now that teachers' resignation deadline for the academic year has come and gone, the sector's recruitment specialists will be weighing up what the immediate future holds for the profession. Will the summer yield the required replacements, or will schools struggle to fill vacancies with qualified staff? And will new government schemes do anything to lessen the burden?

There are a few factors to consider this year. One of these is a new drive from the Department for Education, under which PhDs in maths and physics will be offered starting salaries of £40,000 in a bid to tempt them towards teaching jobs. This compares to basic pay rates of between £21,600 and £27,000 for newly qualified teachers, and participants will also have £75,000 in training costs covered by industry sponsors.

A great way to fix skills shortages in under-staffed subject areas? Maybe to some, but other commentators have expressed concern it's a clumsy solution to a deep-rooted problem - at best a stop-gap, at worst a serious demotivator for those who attain teaching qualifications through other channels. For many trainees, becoming a teacher represents the fulfilment of a lifelong vocation. How are these individuals supposed to feel when they start work and find their closest contemporaries were simply lured away from universities with twice the standard salary?

Then there's the fact that however talented these PhDs might be in maths and physics, there's no guarantee they'll cut it in a classroom.

Another good-intentioned scheme that might end up doing more harm than good to skills shortages this summer is School Direct. The government programme was cited by the University of Bath and the Open University as a factor in the closure of their respective PGCE courses, causing concerns among industry experts that it's responsible for growing disruption in UK teacher training.

This wouldn't in itself be a bad thing, as many new starters in the profession flourish when more classroom experience is factored into their training, while schools also benefit from the greater degree of control over the development of future teachers. However, it also threatens to erode the academic rigour which has always underpinned teacher training in the past. There's a very real chance the School Direct generation won't be as grounded as its predecessors and could even lack core skills as a result of being funnelled into specific roles.

With all these factors in play, it's tough to know for sure what the summer holds. Based on evidence from schools up and down the country, though, TLTP Education (The London Teaching Pool) has warned the sector should brace itself for the worst.

Staff shortages expected 'across the board'

Last week, ahead of the busiest Friday of the year for teacher resignations, TLTP managing director Darryl Mydat predicted staff shortages "across the board" come September - mainly in core subject areas such as maths, English and the sciences, and even in light of the Department for Education's mooted golden handshakes for PhDs.

According to Mydat, this will only exacerbate conditions in schools that are already struggling with unmet staffing requirements. "We know of schools that are having to manage all cover from within the school, often using Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HTLAs). But they tell us that the moment they pull the HTLAs out of a class it’s the pupils with special educational needs who suffer and who are not getting the support that they need," he warned.

One school that worked with TLTP recorded seven absences in a single day, with five teachers calling in sick and two others on long-term sick leave. "This was not an unusual occurrence for them and they still have to provide cover," Mydat commented.

In order to try to plug the gaps, TLTP has struck up partnerships with recruitment specialists outside the UK. Many newly qualified teachers from New Zealand and Ireland are attracted to the prospect of a career in the UK, and many schools back home are interested in sourcing staff from beyond the country's borders.

However, only time will tell if there are enough talented individuals to go around. "There is a real concern about filling vacancies," Mydat concluded.