The Government announced last week that it has established 548 teaching schools, surpassing its 2010 commitment to establish a network of 500 teaching schools by March 2015 by almost a year. In all, 95 per cent of England’s local authorities are now covered by the system.
The teaching schools scheme – whereby the best schools work with struggling schools to improve teacher training, professional development and classroom practice – is part of a shift in policy under the Coalition to devolve power to individual schools from what Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, terms “the educational establishment”. Under the £27m-a-year programme, schools rated “outstanding” by Ofsted can be awarded Teaching School status, backed with around £190,000 of public funding over four years.
