Nicholas Pyke talks to Teacher Training Agency head Anthea Millett. The new Teacher Training Agency will target parents and governors in a drive to persuade them that schools can benefit from taking on trainees.
The agency’s new chief executive Anthea Millett arrived in the job this month amid claims that schools are pulling out of training schemes because their staff are unwilling to take on the heavy responsibility envisaged by the Government.
Persuading schools to take part will be a priority, she said this week. “We do recognise that some schools have mixed feelings about taking part.
“Heads and governors have legitimate concerns. But we will be talking with them about the benefits that can accrue from having students in school - improving the quality of classroom practice. There are more opportunities for professional development.
“We would like to see the effective involvement of schools. At present they’re involved, but are not necessarily getting the fullbenefit.”
Under a Government circular (992) drafted by former education secretary Kenneth Clarke and passed by his successor John Patten, postgraduate students training to be secondary teachers must spend at least two-thirds of their year’s course in the classroom.
This places a heavy burden on the schools taking part, although there is normally some financial compensation: Pounds 1,000 per student is common.
The universities themselves will also need a good deal of persuasion after the acrimony of last year’s legislation. This took the funding of teacher training away from the relatively popular Higher Education Funding Council and gave it to the TTA - a new and untested quango - instead. The universities are concerned that the TTA will be more susceptible to ministerial influence than the HEFC.
The agency has responded with an armful of gestures towards openness. It has issued seven consultation papers since the autumn, including documents on: the new Headlamp (headteachers training) scheme; the criteria for accrediting training institutions; continuing professional development; and licensed teachers. It will also be issuing a corporate plan.
“I can recognise that there are concerns, that people are going to want to be convinced about our good intentions. But I hope that we would be able to do that through the way in which we work,” said Ms Millett.
The detailed tasks are likely to include a review of the options for funding. Schools can also expect guidance on school-based training, on the likely problems and the best practice in overcoming them.
The agency also has in mind a review of professional development (induction and in-service training) and Ms Millett said she will address the apparent reduction in training for teachers of children with special needs.
Taking centre stage, however, are basic questions of recruitment. With the economy picking up there are already some signs that the old problems with shortage subjects are re-emerging.
“We’re watching the position, with the aim of doing something other than watching it,” said Ms Millett.
One response, she suggested, would be to re-examine current recruitment methods. How, for example, to tap a large pool of potential teachers who currently do not think of joining the profession? As the single, lifetime career becomes less common, the number of mature recruits is likely to increase. The success of the Open University’s part-time, distance-learning pack for trainees, she said, points one way forward.
“We shall have to ask what sort of mechanisms we want to introduce for training and for what sort of people?”.
