The Chartered College of Teaching’s next president hopes it can double its membership before the end of his three-year term.
Dr Steven Berryman, unveiled as president-elect of the professional body on Friday, said another “aspiration” was to secure royal status for the five-year-old organisation, and play a greater role setting standards.
He will become the college’s second president in November, replacing Stephen Munday.
Berryman started his career as a music teacher, and is currently director of arts, culture and community at the Odyssey trust in London.
He is also a composer, researcher and part of a government advisory panel on its national plan for music education.
Berryman said he wanted everyone in the sector to feel the college was “their professional body”. He hoped to keep building membership to strengthen the CCT’s role giving teachers “a voice and contribution to the direction of a profession”.
He would “love” to see numbers double during his term, and ultimately have more than 250,000 members, but added: “I might make a rod for my back saying that.”
Membership is also important for the college’s finances, as it adapts to losing its initial government funding.
Chartered College ‘distinct’ from other sector bodies
The president-elect stressed the college’s role was “distinct” from other bodies.
It was “not a union”, and its flagship chartered teacher status was “very different” from other training opportunities such as the government’s reformed national professional qualifications.
“The CTS is designed for people who want to be expert classroom practitioners, who weren’t looking to develop into management. The Chartered College is about developing reflective, critically engaged expert teachers.”
He is “keen” for the government to grant the college royal status, making it “the Royal Chartered College of Teaching”.
This “aspiration” would show “how valuable the profession is” and give it a similar status to medicine, law and accountancy.
Berryman would also like the college to expand its current work spreading best practice by “setting the standards for what great professional learning can be”.
Providing accreditation or a kitemark for professional development nationally “feels like a very good role to fill”.
“We know how tight money and teacher time is – we want to make sure they get the best quality experience.”
Berryman is also keen to ensure arts subjects are not “sidelined”. The college could use its sway with teachers to “strengthen the voice” of arts and culture organisations and “broker conversations”, he said.
Other current priorities are teacher wellbeing, and responding to the white paper – with Berryman encouraging members to respond to its own consultation. “We’re there to learn from members.”
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