The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)
Sally Coates is today submitting to me the second and final report of her independent review of teachers’ standards.
I established the review in March this year. Chaired by Mrs Coates, principal of Burlington Danes Academy, it brought together leading head teachers, teachers and other educational experts. The review was tasked with establishing new standards that are clear, unequivocal and easy to use, and which can support teachers’ professional development and performance management.
The review’s first report, submitted to me on 14 July 20111, recommended that a single new set of teachers’ standards should be established to replace the existing standards for qualified teacher status and the core professional standards. I accepted those recommendations, and the new teachers’ standards will come into effect in September 20122.
The Government welcomed Mrs Coates’s recommendations to establish streamlined new teachers’ standards that set out very clearly and concisely the elements of high-quality teaching that should be expected of every teacher. The new standards place a welcome emphasis on the importance of good subject knowledge, behaviour management, and meeting the needs of pupils of all abilities and aptitudes. We are committed to raising the quality of teaching in all our schools, so that pupils and their parents can be confident that they are receiving the highest quality education. Clear and rigorous standards play an important role in ensuring that high quality of teaching that all should expect.
The review’s second report is now recommending that the existing post-threshold, excellent teacher and advanced skills teacher standards should be discontinued as standards. Further, the review recommends that a new master teacher standard should be introduced to define the characteristics of the most effective classroom teachers.
We welcome the proposal to establish a new standard that identifies and recognises those teachers who are demonstrating excellent practice in the classroom, and who are making the most significant positive impact on their pupils. The proposal of a single master teacher standard has the potential to bring much greater simplicity and clarity to what is at present a complex and highly bureaucratic system of standards.
My Department will now take forward further work to explore the implications of discontinuing the current post-threshold, excellent teacher and advanced skills teacher standards. This will include asking the school teachers’ review body to consider the implications for teachers’ pay.
The first and final reports of the review are published on the Department for Education’s website:
http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/reviewofstandards
Copies of both reports, and of my correspondence with Mrs Coates, have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
1http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/r/first%20report%20-%2012%20july%202011.pdf
2http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/l/letter%20from%20michael%20gove%20to%20sally%20coates.pdf