Seventy-seven schools have been selected to run 81 new teaching school hubs across England, with £65 million in funding made available by government. It takes the total number of hubs to 87. Six initial hubs were announced in January last year with £1.1 million in initial funding, though this represented a scaling-back of the original plan for nine hubs with £2 million. Teaching school hubs are the government’s latest school improvement initiative. They will provide “high-quality professional development” to teachers and leaders, and play a “key role in helping to build up trainee teachers as they enter the workforce”, the government said. They will help deliver the government’s new early career framework of support for new teachers, and will provide national professional qualifications and initial teacher training. Each of the 81 new hubs will have its own defined geographical patch and should be “accessible to all schools within that area, serving on average around 250 schools each”. They will begin operating in September. Four schools have been given funding to run two patches each, with the remaining 73 running one. Schools running the hubs will split £65 million, which is to cover an initial period of three years. The government said the appointment of the 81 hubs meant there would now be “nationwide coverage”, with every school in England due to have access to a “local centre of excellence for teacher training”. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said the hubs would “further support the profession by providing the best possible training and development opportunities”. “It is important that teachers and school leaders feel supported in their career. The hubs will make this substantially easier, with expert practitioners able to give experienced advice to those schools able to benefit from it.” The south of England and London have the most teaching school hubs, with 44, whereas there are 23 in the midlands and Humber and just 20 in the north. The 77 schools running the 81 new hubs East of England and north east London Colchester County High School for Girls Histon and Impington Junior School Mulberry School for Girls Notre Dame High School Shaftesbury Primary School Churchill Special Free School Walthamstow School for Girls Hethersett Academy East Midlands and the Humber Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy The Carlton Junior Academy Morley Primary School Archbishop Holgate’s School Humberston Academy St Mary’s College, Voluntary Aided Catholic Academy Witham St Hughs Academy Chetwynd Primary Academy The Flying High Academy, Ladybrook Grange Lane Infant Academy (running two hubs – one in Barnsley and Doncaster and another in Selby and Wakefield) Rushey Mead Academy Lancashire and West Yorkshire St John Plessington Catholic College Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School The Morley Academy Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School Tor View School Altrincham Grammar School for Girls (running two hubs) St Silas Church of England Primary School Blue Coat C of E School Evelyn Street Primary School Shelley College Eden Boys’ School Bolton Grange Lane Infant Academy (running two hubs – one in Barnsley and Doncaster and another in Selby and Wakefield) North West Lakes Academy King Edward VI High School St. John Vianney School Benedict Biscop CE Academy Teesdale School and Sixth Form North west London and south central England Wembley High Technology College Twyford CE High School Paddington Academy Sandringham School Denbigh High School (running two hubs) Brooke Weston Academy The Cherwell School Langley Grammar School Dr Challoner’s Grammar School South east and south London Angel Oak Academy Bennett Memorial Diocesan School (running two hubs) Thornden School Rosebery School St John the Baptist School Charles Dickens Primary Portswood Primary School Pickhurst Infant Academy Chesterton Primary School South Farnham School Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School Harris City Academy Crystal Palace South west The Quay School Pate’s Grammar School Colyton Grammar School Montpelier High School Mangotsfield Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School Glenmoor Academy Trenance Learning Academy Colston’s Girls’ School Balcarras School The Roseland Academy West midlands Prince Henry’s High School The Priory School John Taylor High School Tudor Grange Academy Painsley Catholic College Lawrence Sheriff School Haybridge High School and Sixth Form Manor Primary School The Arthur Terry School St Joseph’s College Ark St Alban’s Academy Schools running existing ‘test and learn hubs’ Copthorne Primary School Harris Academy Chafford Hundred Harrogate Grammar School Kingsbridge Academy Saffron Walden County High School Silverdale School
Peter Read 12 February 2021 Ten of these 77 schools are grammar schools. The comprehensive Bennett Memorial, with its tight Christian admission criteria has a lower percentage of pupil premium children than any other non-selective school in the county, and lower than more than half of Kent grammar schools, although with two teaching hubs has clearly been especially chosen for the purpose. Will trainee teachers get the rounded training sought at these hubs?