Educational Excellence Everywhere: Schools White Paper reveals QTS plans

Qualified teacher status (QTS) will be replaced with a “stronger accreditation”, in new proposals from the government.

Education secretary Nicky Morgan this morning launched a White Paper – “Educational Excellence Everywhere” – outlining the government’s plans to “transform” England’s schools.

It comes a day after Chancellor George Osborne announced every school would be converted to an academy by 2022.

The White Paper outlines how QTS will awarded when a teacher demonstrates “classroom proficiency” in areas such as behaviour management and subject knowledge. Accreditation decision will be made be headteachers.

In a speech to parliament today, Ms Morgan will say: “We have not only the best qualified workforce in history, but also a workforce that is increasingly focused on constant self-improvement, that is driven by the evidence and which like other professions is breaking new boundaries, sharing what works, challenging one another and unleashing greatness.

“This White Paper recognises this, and goes further than any Government has done to recognise teachers as the professionals they are.”

The government also plans to introduce “improvement” periods for underperforming schools, during which they will not be inspected by Ofsted. Schools requiring improvement will have 30 months without inspection, and when a new sponsor is brought in, Ofsted will not re-inspect “until their third year”.

A consultation on removing judgments on teaching quality will be launched.

As part of the proposal to fully academise schools, the White Paper suggests schools should work in multi-academy trusts.

Ms Morgan also announced that the College of Teaching will receive up to £5 million as it “demonstrates its credibility, independence and support within the profession”. A crowdfunding campaign by the College failed to raise its target amount from the profession, achieving just 10 per cent of donations needed.