teacher training | Schools Week

Teacher references: A classic moral hazard for schools

Schools and staff waste hours on references for departing teachers that at best can be described as ambiguous. Do you tell the truth (“we’ve been trying to get rid of him/her for some time”) or should you move to a standard reference form? I recommend her unreservedly; I commend him for your consideration; you would […]

The 3 ideas every teacher should bin in 2016

Most teachers will already have thought about what they’d like to achieve this new year. But what about the things they’d like to see the back of? During the festive season I thought about the teaching ideas posed by the Department for Education (DfE) that I’d like to see banished this year. Here are my […]

Leading Learning: privilege and responsibility

The opportunity to lead learning is a great privilege and responsibility. In recent years too many school and classroom leaders have got caught up in looking for quick fixes under the dual pressures of our accountability system and a genuine desire to do the best for the children in our care. A simple touch stone […]

Why pupils must feel connected to their learning

We must close the achievement gap” is a familiar phrase among today’s educators and politicians, reflecting the international focus on how students, schools, and nations perform on standardised tests. To narrow the achievement gap we must first understand the achievement gap is a symptom of a much greater challenge – the participation gap. Students can […]

Teaching is more than delivering the curriculum

Children do not become educated through the learning of facts; they need to absorb and own the value of what they are taught Sorting out my books, yet again, I came across the 2009 Nuffield report on education and training for 14 to 19-year-olds, Education for All. I had a very small hand its production, […]

Have yourself a mellow little Christmas – by not taking marking home

The Christmas break is not a time to catch up on school tasks; leave them all at the school gates and give yourself some free time to relax The one thing that all teachers would agree on is that having to take your holidays to fit with the academic year can be a curse. The […]

There will be 1 million more pupils by 2024 – but here’s why we won’t have enough teachers

As pupil numbers rise, schools say they are perilously short of teachers – Kevin Courtney explains why. Much is made, quite rightly about maintaining a world class education system in this country. Essential to achieving this is a motivated well-paid teaching profession. Yet teacher recruitment and retention are both at dangerously low levels with many […]

The overriding strength of the Cambridge history PGCE

Last week the Cambridge history PGCE almost disappeared in a puff of neo-liberal neglect. Its stay of execution is welcome: teacher training needs such a model of excellence, rigour, curriculum, mentoring and reading lists. he National College for Teaching and Leadership-imposed cap on university PGCE places kicked in before Cambridge had the chance to interview […]

Teacher recruitment could turn from a serious problem into a crisis

The government risks making a bad recruitment situation worse through its reforms to teacher education. Under its “school-led” policy, the infrastructure is becoming increasingly fragmented, undermining long established, and often genuinely schools-led, training partnerships On December 9, the education select committee will take oral evidence as part of its inquiry into teacher supply. The witnesses, […]