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
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?