teacher training | Schools Week

Computing teachers to get 40 hours of training to upskill

Computing teachers without qualifications in their subject will receive at least 40 hours of continuing professional development through an £84 million programme announced in the chancellor’s autumn budget. Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has shed further light on the government’s plans to “upskill” 8,000 computer science teachers. In a written answer to a question from […]

EEF seeks schools for ‘rapid-marking’ and handwriting trials

The Education Endowment Foundation is looking for around 500 schools throughout England to take part in four new trials involving teachers “rapid-marking” in maths, and using handwriting techniques that help disabled patients improve their coordination after accidents. The programmes, launched today, have spaces available for 60,000 pupils at 515 primary and secondary schools. The Realistic […]

Why we need more men to become primary teachers

On International Men’s Day, Ryan Stevens argues that we should be doing more to recruit more men into primary teaching As a 24-year-old Primary NQT, there is one thing that separates me from the vast majority of my colleagues: I’m a man. As of the last academic year, 85% of teachers working in primary and […]

Teaching assistants allowed to gain QTS through assessment-only route

The number of teachers qualifying through a 12-week “assessment-only” route is rising, fuelling fears that providers are letting applicants without proper experience qualify for a price. Two years ago 912 people were awarded QTS through assessment alone, but that figure rose by 13 per cent to 1,034 last year, new data obtained by Schools Week […]

Private teacher training providers escape Ofsted clutches

The bosses of the two biggest teacher-training organisations in the country have warned against using private providers which aren’t subject to the “acid test” of Ofsted inspections. Emma Hollis, the executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), said at a conference on Monday there was a “real danger” that companies advertising […]

How Schools Week complained about a job advert and uncovered a strange situation

A misleading job advert targeting prospective teaching assistants has been removed by the company responsible after pressure from Schools Week. The New Skills Academy, a private online training company, was using The Guardian’s popular jobs website to advertise a teaching assistant diploma. The description claimed that to secure a job as a TA, applicants must […]

Teaching apprenticeships will work if used wisely

There’s no reason why teacher apprenticeships can’t train new educators to the highest standards, says David Owen In 1947, my father, aged 17, left the Welsh market town of Carmarthen to start an engineering apprenticeship at Austin Motors in Longbridge, Birmingham. This was the start of a successful career in the car industry; he became […]

Scrapped teacher training caps a blow for rural providers

Rural teacher training providers will “suffer” when caps on teacher training places are lifted next year, experts have warned. The government has removed recruitment controls on school-based and university-based initial teacher training (ITT) providers for 2018-19. Limits on the number of trainees will remain only for secondary school PE and some primary school courses – […]

Government should write off teachers’ student loans

We need bold new ideas to complement pay rises and beat the retention crisis, claims Russell Hobby There is a truth at the heart of education success that is too often lost in the controversies that attract the headlines. We control the factor with the most impact on children’s education: the quality of teaching they […]