The new ITT landscape A secondary perspective

1. The new ITT landscapeA secondary perspective Paul Haigh Director of Hallam Teaching School Alliance, Notre Dame High School

2. Hallam Teaching School Alliance • Cohort 1 teaching school heavily involved in shaping the role of teaching schools • Delivered School Direct in pilot year (QTS only, small number of trainees- all passed, all employed, minimal role for HEI -but they took significant share of income) • Then expanded to a significant project- allocation of 57 in primary and secondary, 100% school based PGCE with 60 M level credits merging into NQT year- very close partnership with a new HEI • Anticipating a big expansion next year to an allocation around 80+ places with same HEI, plenty of systems to review based on this year and the new UCAS system

3. How has it gone? • Huge challenges with recruitment- will not fill allocation for Maths & RE, tough in Science Geog & MFL, anticipate 30+ places of 57 filled • Lots of ‘lone rangers’ with partner schools after one place on one subject- e.g. Art- they have chosen the person they really want but lots of turbulence with people giving back word so some easy to fill places we thought were full may end up empty in September • School Direct hasn’t been well marketed nationally by DfE or regionally by HEIs and schools struggle to make in roads on marketing- aspirant teachers haven’t known about School Direct (surge in bad publicity recently has helped?) • So many versions of School Direct it would be hard to explain it anyway! Some schools really are taking a lead, some are being led by HEIs and they may be happy to hand it over- I’m not saying that is always bad

4. Lots of tensions • Huge pressure to deliver School Direct with rapid expansion on top of running our schools and wider teaching school projects but we are up for the challenge- head teachers want to play a bigger role in selecting and training their own NQTs • HEIs are torn- they need to help us but also deliver their core PGCE in mixed economy means they have been stretched logistically and have their loyalties torn between filling their courses for survival next year and filling our courses for long term sustainability in the new landscape. It hasn’t gone well in every teaching school but it is new to us all and stressful because of the tensions so I think we are doing well considering

5. More tensions • Teaching Agency (now National College) encourages us to innovate and if not rip up the rule book try to work to the margins of the page • HEI have their own QA processes and their own Ofsted grade to protect- letting a maverick teaching school have free rein is risky but not innovating around school based training is also a risk for them under current Ofsted framework • Some HEIs feel they are being pushed out by the schools or feel their job is to moderate unrealistic ambitions of schools which make them look like the kill joy slowing down progress • Some schools feel bullied, blocked or let down by HEIs who don’t want to pass too much power to the schools

6. The future? • Bold and innovative HEIs will perhaps see their trainee facing role reduce and their share of income per trainee reduce and they might have to let this role go to serving teachers more • By offering teaching schools a professional admin back office, sensible and supportive QA/ assessment processes and input to teach PGCE and Master’s content (where is it wanted) they can carve a new role • The innovative will expand (new tech has its role) to take over patches and new roles (e.g. NQT support) where less innovative HEIs haven’t adapted. This way they can maintain their overall income and role • HEIs need to sell keenly priced services to schools and deliver to a high standard treating the school as client as they bring the allocations in that generate the work for the HEI

7. The future? • Where HEIs have not offered professional partnerships and good financial settlements they have alienated their partners. Strong TSAs will apply to be accredited as ITT providers in their own right • Doesn’t mean HEIs are out of the picture- they can still sell PGCE or M level assessment into these courses if people want it- the case for the benefit to NQTs of having qualification more than QTS needs to be made to head teachers who often cite the QTS only GTP as their preferred method of recruiting NQTs • But if other schools, who don’t feel able to take on accreditation, feel bullied and blocked by HEIs they may join the strong TSAs and ask them to be their accredited provider- big TSAs could be significant regional players in ITT without HEI partners by 2015

8. What might things look like in 5 years time? • Most teachers trained by teaching schools in school to achieve QTS only- many TSAs would be accredited to provide ITT or have innovative HEIs as partners • Changes to pay and conditions of teachers might mean the best classroom teachers also train teachers as part of their role and rewarded for it • HEIs could find bigger role to get far more of the profession engaged in R&D and M level work which will help teachers progress and improve to climb the performance related pay spine and take over from LAs in NQT assessment and support and perhaps other teacher appraisal roles linking CPD to improvement and climbing the performance related pay spine

9. Contact detailsPaul Haigh phaigh@notredame-high.co.uktwitter @paulhaighhttp://hallamtsa.org.uktwitter @hallamTSA