Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to improve skills within the teaching profession; and if she will make a statement.

The government is improving the capacity for schools to take the lead in training and developing their teachers through the national network of Teaching School Alliances. This network is leading collaboration between schools and helping to make professional development more effective, which in turn is helping teachers to improve.

The government expects teachers’ professional development to be increasingly led by schools and teachers. Schools and headteachers are best placed to determine which development activities will be most beneficial for their schools. To help them do this, the government has established an independent Teachers’ Professional Development Expert Group – chaired by David Weston, Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust – to develop a new standard for teachers’ professional development. The new standard will complement the existing ‘Teachers’ Standards’, and help teachers and schools to understand what makes professional development most effective.