By David Williams
30 June 2009
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has revealed a package of education reforms, including a ‘licence to teach’ and guaranteed entitlements for parents and pupils.
In a white paper set out before Parliament today, Balls also announced details of the school report card, designed to make information about performance easily available to parents.
The proposed teachers’ licence would be modelled on systems in place for lawyers and doctors and linked to the Continuing Professional Development programme. Teachers would be assessed by head teachers every five years with the General Teaching Council overseeing accreditation.
Under Balls’ plans, all newly qualified teachers would be required to have the licence from September 2010, when assessments would also be rolled out to teachers returning to the profession.
The programme would then be extended to supply teachers. However, no target date has been set for when the licence would be mandatory for all practising teachers.
Balls said: ‘We’re very clear this is about recognising and supporting the development of teachers.’
The white paper guarantees standards of behaviour for schools, that schools will promote health and wellbeing, extra tuition for pupils falling behind in their studies, and the right to five hours of sport per week.
Balls said that although parents’ first recourse for complaints would be through schools’ internal procedures, local education authorities and the local authority ombudsman, there would also be a statutory ‘back-stop’.
The central targets for literacy and numeracy have been scrapped, although the paper says schools will still be expected to provide daily maths teaching and literacy hours.
The report card will rate schools from A to F over a range of performance areas, as well as giving schools a single overall grade – a measure intended to make comparison easier.
Balls said he had no intention of abolishing league tables and that ‘even if I wanted to, I couldn’t’.
30 June 2009
Schools Secretary Ed Balls has revealed a package of education reforms, including a ‘licence to teach’ and guaranteed entitlements for parents and pupils.
In a white paper set out before Parliament today, Balls also announced details of the school report card, designed to make information about performance easily available to parents.
The proposed teachers’ licence would be modelled on systems in place for lawyers and doctors and linked to the Continuing Professional Development programme. Teachers would be assessed by head teachers every five years with the General Teaching Council overseeing accreditation.
Under Balls’ plans, all newly qualified teachers would be required to have the licence from September 2010, when assessments would also be rolled out to teachers returning to the profession.
The programme would then be extended to supply teachers. However, no target date has been set for when the licence would be mandatory for all practising teachers.
Balls said: ‘We’re very clear this is about recognising and supporting the development of teachers.’
The white paper guarantees standards of behaviour for schools, that schools will promote health and wellbeing, extra tuition for pupils falling behind in their studies, and the right to five hours of sport per week.
Balls said that although parents’ first recourse for complaints would be through schools’ internal procedures, local education authorities and the local authority ombudsman, there would also be a statutory ‘back-stop’.
The central targets for literacy and numeracy have been scrapped, although the paper says schools will still be expected to provide daily maths teaching and literacy hours.
The report card will rate schools from A to F over a range of performance areas, as well as giving schools a single overall grade – a measure intended to make comparison easier.
Balls said he had no intention of abolishing league tables and that ‘even if I wanted to, I couldn’t’.
