Teachers and teaching assistants from Eastern Europe may be interested in news that a total of 29,085 initial applicants were made to the Worker Registration Scheme from ten European countries.

Some of those applying for the scheme in order to gain access to the UK labour market may be staff looking for teaching jobs in London and across the UK.

Countries from which migrants have applied include Cyprus, Malta, Czech Republic and Lithuania.

According to the UK Border Agency, the number of applicants from Poland fell during this period to 13,700 in comparison to 25,145 in the third-quarter of 2008 and 41,195 during the same time period in 2007.

The statistics also showed that a total of 112,000 work permits holders and dependents were admitted to the UK in 2008, a 12 per cent decrease on 2007.

Some of these could be European staff looking for teaching roles in the UK.