teacher training | Schools Week

Greening: Teaching will cease to be only for university graduates

Teaching will cease to exist as a university graduate-only profession under Conservative plans for a new degree-equivalent apprenticeship route to QTS, Justine Greening has confirmed, in a major shift in ministerial thinking. The education secretary wants higher apprenticeships to be seen as equivalent to university degrees, and envisages them working as a route into teaching, […]

New academy trust pledges not to hire unqualified teachers

A new sixth form-led academy chain has announced it will only hire qualified or trainee teachers in a bid to shake off the negative history of the academies programme. The Challenge Academy Trust, which runs five schools and a sixth-form college in the north-west, has even signed an agreement with teaching unions to guarantee this […]

Learndirect debacle shines light on £2m teacher test contract

The future of online tests for trainee teachers is hanging in the balance, as the only provider which holds a contract to deliver them in England faces turmoil over its adult training. Learndirect, the country’s largest private training company, holds a £2 million contract with the Department for Education to administer the computerised professional skills […]

Headteachers struggling to find time for training

Headteachers are missing out on training opportunities because of funding shortages and heavy workloads, according to research commissioned by the Department of Education. The study by CooperGibson Research found that very few leadership development courses are actually targeted at headteachers or executive headteachers. It also found that “budgetary constraints, workload at full capacity and staffing […]

Ignore the rise in school-led teacher training routes – universities are here to stay

The Department for Education’s recent Teacher Training Performance Profiles for 2015/16 prompted inevitable cries in the media of “the end of initial teacher training in universities”. They’re wrong, argues David Spendlove. Once again the DfE’s training figures, which showed an increase in school-led training, are more down to its own creative accounting than any radical […]

More trainee teachers than ever are entering via school-led route

The proportion of trainee teachers that took the government’s favoured school-route into the profession increased again last year, new figures have revealed. The Department for Education published initial teacher training statistics for 2015-16 this morning, and figures show the overall number of trainees gaining their QTS has dropped from 92 per cent in 2014-15, to 91 […]

Government presses on with non-graduate teaching apprenticeship

Ministers are pressing ahead with proposals for an apprenticeship that would allow non-graduate teaching assistants to become qualified teachers, even though access to conventional teacher training would still be restricted to those with university degrees. Anne Milton (pictured), the minister for skills, has confirmed that the government is “developing an appropriate degree apprenticeship” that will […]

Government invites bidders for new ‘innovative’ teacher training fund

The government is inviting bidders to apply for new funding to develop “innovative approaches” to initial teacher training. Education secretary Justine Greening announced the plans in March to ensure, she said, that “high-quality new teachers reach schools and areas that need them most”. She did not say how much cash was up for grabs, but […]

Just one in 10 returner teachers under government scheme secure jobs

Just one in ten returner teachers recruited under a government scheme to boost ailing numbers of maths and physics teachers actually went on to secure jobs in schools. An evaluation report of the Return to Teaching (RTT) scheme published today found that those attempting to make a return to the classroom were halted by “negativity […]