teacher training | Schools Week

Respecting teachers’ professionalism

Winning friends and influencing people are important, especially when new ministers are appointed and new policies are introduced. Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers was published in 1905 by officials very aware of the strained relationship with the teaching profession as a result of payment by results, which had recently ended. This was their attempt […]

Developmentalism vs mastery: should teachers be ‘flinging mud at the wall’?

Should teachers ‘fling mud at the wall’ or should they follow a mastery approach, asks Heather Fearn There are two teaching mindsets. First, there are those teachers that expose children to the curriculum and assume they will learn it when they are capable. They might suggest a child is not developmentally ready to learn letter sounds; […]

Greening wants trainee teachers to experience more school placements

School Direct teacher training “needs to be longer” if trainees are to get the experience across different schools that Justine Greening has said she wants to see. The education secretary told delegates at the SCHOOLS NorthEast summit in Newcastle last week that she wanted trainees to “work in a number of different settings” so they […]

Don’t think before you speak, all-male panel told at WomenEd

Male education leaders have been encouraged to stop worrying about “saying the wrong thing” and to join a growing number of men promoting gender equality in the sector. WomenEd, a campaign group set up to tackle the disproportionate number of women headteachers, hosted its first all-male panel at its second annual conference on Saturday. The […]

Reputation matters: How to do PR as a school

Issues management should be as much a part of forward planning in schools and trusts as the annual prospectus, says Elin de Zoete. Many moons ago business magnate Warren Buffett said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it”… and that was before the days of lightning-quick social media. […]

£70m government-funded careers company insists it has ‘achieved a lot’

The Careers and Enterprise Company will do more to support and train teachers, its chief executive has said after criticism of the organisation’s use of public money. Claudia Harris has denied that the CEC, which now has 25 full-time staff and 13 contractors, is turning into a quango, and insists it has “achieved a lot” […]

Teacher transfer window: Why can’t we fill our vacancies 365-days-a-year?

The idiosyncratic “teacher transfer windows” model is failing schools and teachers. Notice periods for teachers should come into line with those of the private sector, says Frank Norris. The football transfer window, an agreed period of time when players can transfer from one club to another, has closed for another four months. These two artificial […]

10 ways to make workload less of a challenge

Russell Hobby and Professor Toby Salt explore what more the government can do about teacher workload and what practical steps teachers and senior leaders can take to lessen the load. Despite good intentions and warm words, teacher workload is not under control. Agencies such as Ofsted do their best to tackle myths about expectations, like […]

First step of teaching apprenticeships signed off

A group of schools hoping to create a fully vocational pathway to qualified teacher status (QTS) has passed its first hurdle after the government approved its plans for a new apprenticeship for teaching assistants. The framework, drawn up by 11 schools in Buckinghamshire and the West Midlands and first revealed by Schools Week in January, […]