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Nicky Morgan announces the launch of a National Teacher Service pilot in the North West

Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, has  announced the creation of a National Teaching Service that will “get our best teachers and middle leaders into underperforming schools in areas where they are needed most” such as rural and coastal towns.

The programme will launch in September 2016, to be piloted in the North West first, in areas like “Knowsley which doesn’t have a single outstanding secondary school”, said Nicky Morgan.

The service will have deployed 1500 outstanding teachers and middle leaders to schools that need them by 2020, stated the Education Secretary, where they will be employed for up to three years in a bit to raise standards and “improve the quality of teaching and leadership right throughout the school.”

Mrs Morgan added that the Government is currently looking at incentives they can use to attract said outstanding teachers and how the National Teaching Service can fast-track participants onto leadership opportunities.

“I want the National Teaching Service to be a valuable, inspiring experience for participants as well as the schools they join, and – eventually – to become a rite of passage for many more great teachers”, concluded the Education Secretary.

Reactions coming from teaching unions varied; below are four of the statements released:

Brian Lightman, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL): “Working in a school in a disadvantaged area should be seen as one of the highest aspirations for our most skilled professionals. Schools struggling to recruit need access to the very best teachers possible and we welcome the efforts of the Government in developing a high-status scheme which helps to achieve this ambition. It is essential that the Government works very closely with the profession on identifying, recruiting and supporting individual teachers for the National Teaching Service and how to deploy them into schools where staff will already be working extremely hard to raise standards. It must be an approach which wins the support of everybody involved.” Read the full statement here.

Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT):  “To attract the best teachers into the most challenging schools, Government needs to stop the punitive accountability measures imposed on schools. While poverty is no excuse for lack of achievement it is a plain fact that schools with larger proportions of children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds face different challenges than schools with middle class children. Widening life chances and opportunities for disadvantaged youngsters needs a holistic approach across Government. It requires investment in job, in working tax credits and in anti-poverty measures as much as innovative school strategies on raising aspirations and flexible curricular approaches.” Continue reading here.

Russell Hobby, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT): “Great teachers are at the heart of great schools. Some schools struggle to recruit teachers with the right specialisms and skills, and this can hold back their improvement. Anything that can help get people into these schools – and support them while they are there – should be welcomed. The scheme as outlined seems sensible, acting to support schools rather than interfere. There are significant challenges in implementation, of course, but NAHT will be keen to support and evaluate the early stages of this project.” More available here.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of NASUWT: “The Government already has one of these in the thousands of teachers who work every day in schools across the country. Yet they are unfortunately neglected by a Government which pays no regard to ensuring they are recognised and rewarded as highly skilled professionals, and have pay and conditions to enable them to focus on teaching and learning. Instead, they are overworked, underpaid and undervalued. The discreet National Teacher Service proposed today is not without merit, but is in fact nothing more than a rehash of a system which was in place under a previous government and which this Government abolished.” Read the union’s release here.

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