Fill out the form below to send our campaign letters to Education Secretary Gavin Willamson and your MP. View the letters at the tabs above, and use the content to inform your official response to the consultation here. Please respond to the consultation before 22 August 2021 to help prevent threats to the pipeline of new teachers.
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I am concerned that the Government is planning to re-shape the teacher training market in England with potentially devastating consequences to the country’s teacher pipeline at the worst time imaginable.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, teachers up and down the country have put themselves second and their pupils first, making schools as safe as possible, designing and delivering superb remote learning, and providing face-to-face teaching where appropriate. The teaching profession’s response to the pandemic has been extraordinary.
Some 30,000 teachers begin their teaching journey through Initial Teacher Education (ITE) partnerships each year, with 80% of those via universities through undergraduate and Master’s programmes, as well as strategic partnerships and mentoring support universities have with schools, colleges, SCITTs and others. These partnerships produce first-class, committed teachers who provide our country’s children and young people with the best start in life and the greatest opportunities to succeed after school. Prior to the market review, Ofsted judged every single teacher education partnership as ‘Good’ or better. The Government has often stated how proud it is that there are now 1.9 million more children in Good or Outstanding schools compared with 2010 – our teachers and their ITE providers deserve a great deal of credit for this.
It is absolutely right that there is regular review of all publicly funded systems, and there are few systems more important than that by which we educate new teachers. I agree that ITE programmes should be informed by the most up to date and robust research; that there should as far as possible be consistency between ITE curricula and the experience of student teachers in school; and that mentors should have a key role in the delivery of ITE programmes and should be both properly trained and adequately resourced.
With this in mind, I fully support the fact that ITE programmes are properly regulated and held to account for the quality of ITE they provide. This includes, under the new Ofsted inspection framework, a requirement that the new Core Content Framework (CCF) is embedded within ITE programmes. Evidence on how well ITE providers have introduced the CCF is only just beginning to become available.
However, recommendations published on 5th July 2021 in the DfE’s market review report of ITE present huge risks. Such substantive change to the sector calls for a proper, timely call for evidence as well as thorough engagement with all stakeholders – to rush consultation through in this manner risks jeopardising the very future of the teaching profession.
I am especially concerned about the resource implications of what is being proposed; the planned timescales; the impact on teacher supply; the implications for established ITE partnerships; and the status of the teaching profession. I also fail to see why the Review Group’s suggestions on the content and structure of ITE programmes could not be achieved through changes to the existing ITE criteria, without going through the turmoil and risks that a wholesale restructuring of the ITE market would entail. Under these conditions, many ITE providers might decide the teacher training market is unviable and will withdraw. Indeed, more than 30 providers have already signalled that they may pull out, taking with them some 10,000 teacher training places a year. The new Institute of Teaching, which will provide 1,000 places, will not be able to fill this void, leading to a catastrophic shortage of teachers. Fewer placements means fewer teachers, which ultimately means fewer children will be able to receive the excellent education they deserve.
[Add your own story here if you wish.]
I hope the Government will reassess and take the decision to undertake an evidence-based review in good time that enhances and improves our teacher training system, not diminishes it; and leads to a pipeline of even more great teachers, not fewer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
I am concerned that the Government is planning to re-shape the teacher training market in England with potentially devastating consequences to the country’s teacher pipeline at the worst time imaginable.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, teachers up and down the country have put themselves second and their pupils first, making schools as safe as possible, designing and delivering superb remote learning, and providing face-to-face teaching where appropriate. The teaching profession’s response to the pandemic has been extraordinary.
Some 30,000 teachers begin their teaching journey through Initial Teacher Education (ITE) partnerships each year, with 80% of those via universities through undergraduate and Master’s programmes, as well as strategic partnerships and mentoring support universities have with schools, colleges, SCITTs and others. These partnerships produce first-class, committed teachers who provide our country’s children and young people with the best start in life and the greatest opportunities to succeed after school. Prior to the market review, Ofsted judged every single teacher education partnership as ‘Good’ or better. The Government has often stated how proud it is that there are now 1.9 million more children in Good or Outstanding schools compared with 2010 – our teachers and their ITE providers deserve a great deal of credit for this.
It is absolutely right that there is regular review of all publicly funded systems, and there are few systems more important than that by which we educate new teachers. I agree that ITE programmes should be informed by the most up to date and robust research; that there should as far as possible be consistency between ITE curricula and the experience of student teachers in school; and that mentors should have a key role in the delivery of ITE programmes and should be both properly trained and adequately resourced.
With this in mind, I fully support the fact that ITE programmes are properly regulated and held to account for the quality of ITE they provide. This includes, under the new Ofsted inspection framework, a requirement that the new Core Content Framework (CCF) is embedded within ITE programmes. Evidence on how well ITE providers have introduced the CCF is only just beginning to become available.
However, recommendations published on 5th July 2021 in the DfE’s market review report of ITE present huge risks. Such substantive change to the sector calls for a proper, timely call for evidence as well as thorough engagement with all stakeholders – to rush consultation through in this manner risks jeopardising the very future of the teaching profession.
I am especially concerned about the resource implications of what is being proposed; the planned timescales; the impact on teacher supply; the implications for established ITE partnerships; and the status of the teaching profession. I also fail to see why the Review Group’s suggestions on the content and structure of ITE programmes could not be achieved through changes to the existing ITE criteria, without going through the turmoil and risks that a wholesale restructuring of the ITE market would entail. Under these conditions, many ITE providers might decide the teacher training market is unviable and will withdraw. Indeed, more than 30 providers have already signalled that they may pull out, taking with them some 10,000 teacher training places a year. The new Institute of Teaching, which will provide 1,000 places, will not be able to fill this void, leading to a catastrophic shortage of teachers. Fewer placements means fewer teachers, which ultimately means fewer children will be able to receive the excellent education they deserve.
[Add your own story here if you wish.]
I hope the Government will reassess and take the decision to undertake an evidence-based review in good time that enhances and improves our teacher training system, not diminishes it; and leads to a pipeline of even more great teachers, not fewer.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Yours sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
