State and independent schools should be able to make “joint appointments” to help give graduates a “soft landing” into teaching, according to a high-profile former private school headteacher.
Speaking at a World Education Summit event this morning, Dr Martin Stephen, a former high master of St Paul’s School, praised the Teach First scheme, which places new graduates on teaching placement in state schools.
However, he told the event that some university leavers were “scared” of taking on roles in disadvantaged state schools.
Dr Stephen, a former head at three prestigious independent schools, said that an “extension” of the Teach First scheme could allow independent and state schools to hire jointly, with the teachers working half of their hours in a state school and half in a private setting.
He said that many independent schools have had “successes” in recruiting top graduates, despite often not paying higher salaries, and the scheme he proposed could help the state sector.
Private and state schools recruiting teachers together
Explaining his proposal, Dr Stephen said: “Many of the schools, if not all the schools, that Teach First send its graduates into are very disadvantaged and very demanding, not just in academic terms but in terms of classroom management and so on. And, frankly, quite a lot of graduates are scared - reasonably scared.
“At the same time, one of the great successes of the independent school has been their ability to attract to their schools top graduates in maths, in physics in chemistry.
“Now my suggestion is, if you like, an extension to Teach First, whereby independent schools and state schools make a joint appointment. Fifty per cent of that teacher’s time is spent in the state school, 50 per cent of that teacher’s time is spent in the independent school.
“My belief is that this would provide a soft landing for many teachers who are just a little bit scared about taking that plunge completely into the state sector at the moment.”
In his session, Dr Stephen advocated for new partnership schemes between state and independent schools.
He said that if a Labour policy to introduce VAT on private schools was introduced, the schools should be allowed to “offset” the cost of these schemes against the tax.
“The advantages of this are actually potentially a major transfer of good practice from the independent sector. And let’s face it, independent schools do some things rather well,” he said.
Among other proposals, Dr Stephen also initially suggested that Ofsted should not grade state schools as “good” or “outstanding” unless they have a partnership in place with a private school.
“I’m suggesting that Ofsted make it a compulsory part of their inspection, that before they rate any UK state school as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, it has to have a partnership scheme with an independent school,” he said.
Though later in his session he said he “regretted” the use of the word “compulsory”.
He added: “What I think is that basically one of the things Ofsted should be asked to look at is ‘have you made use of the opportunities in your region for partnerships with an independent school?’...So I think it would have to be voluntary.”
The government is set to miss its teacher trainee recruitment target for the second year in a row, despite an increase in bursaries, according to an expert forecast published today.
Despite bursary rises for a number of secondary subjects, the National Foundation for Educational Research has estimated that the Department for Education’s initial teacher trainee recruitment target for secondary teachers could be missed by 42 per cent this year.
Dr Martin Stephen was speaking at the World Education Summit. Tes is the official media partner for the event. To find out more and access the rest of the week’s sessions, click here
