As a former teacher, I know teachers up and down the country will be able to point to a moment, early in their career, when they truly knew the power they had to make a difference to a child’s life.
For me it was before my career had even started – back in 2011 during my PGCE at the Institute of Education – when my superb tutors instilled in me the awesome responsibility that came with becoming a teacher.
It is why as a minister so much of my focus is going to be on making sure I champion teaching, supporting teachers to get the training and support they deserve, because to invest in them is to invest in our young people.
As the prime minister said in her acceptance speech, this government will “deliver, deliver, deliver”.
Our job as a new team in the Department for Education (DfE) is to make sure that every child gets the best possible start in life. It’s also going to be to champion that fantastic work of teachers and school staff, which so often goes unnoticed.
So just as children and young people across the country are well into the new school year, I too am keen to get cracking and push on with delivering for pupils, parents and the record number of teachers we have in the system today.
‘Excellent teachers are made, not born’
We know that excellent teachers are made, not born, and one of the schools white paper’s key promises is to give all aspiring teachers truly excellent training, so they can deliver great teaching for all of the pupils who sit in front of them.
This is so crucial, not just in giving teachers the expertise they need to start life in the classroom, but also in laying the foundation for a successful career.
We are already some way down the track in giving all teachers that world-class training, professional development and support at every stage of their career.
During the first year of the early career framework (ECF) reforms, around 25,000 teachers were able to take advantage of DfE funded training programmes.
Almost 30,000 teachers and leaders have started a new national professional qualification (NPQ) in specialist areas of teaching or school leadership which will greatly enhance their knowledge and skills.
I want to continue encouraging teachers at all stages of their career to take up these offers and even more so as our exciting National Institute of Teaching gets off the ground this year.
‘Significant variation’ in teacher training
But while we can be proud of our current initial teacher training (ITT) system, there is significant variation in the training new teachers receive.
Today, we’re taking the next step towards eradicating that variation, announcing the results of the accreditation process for providers of ITT. These reforms are driven by education professionals and designed by teachers for teachers.
In total, 179 providers have demonstrated they can meet a demanding set of requirements, ahead of delivering new, high-quality courses from 2024.
It is also fantastic to see new providers entering the market for the first time, which will give us extra capacity and inject a welcome burst of innovation.
ITT is the crucial first step in a teacher’s journey into the profession. It gives all trainees the confidence and skills to enter the classroom and be the best teacher they can be.
An important part of the ITT review’s requirements is high quality mentoring.
A trainee’s mentor is the cornerstone of their early development, and fundamental to their progression through initial training and their early years of teaching.
I learnt this first-hand through the exceptional guidance I received at Blackfen School for Girls during my own placement, which was seminal in my career.
But I have experienced the other, less valuable end of the spectrum too, which is why I am determined now to make sure each and every aspiring teacher has a mentor who can act as their guiding light through those early years.
‘We will encourage growing and new partnerships’
We will now be working with newly-accredited providers to ensure they are developing courses to be delivered from September 2024 that meet the high standards we expect for every trainee.
We will also be working with providers to encourage both the growth of existing partnerships and the development of new ones, working with teaching school hubs across the country – local centres of excellence in teacher development – to take an active part in the delivery of ITT.
Building a teacher development system of the quality and rigour to match the best in the world is one of my key priorities. High quality teacher training has a profound effect for the entire education system, because we know that excellent training makes excellent teachers.
The ability to make a difference to a pupil’s life is the reason so many teachers choose the profession, so the more we can make sure those ambitions are being realised, the more likely we are to see staff staying in the classroom for longer.
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