Head’s delight as school chosen as hub to polish teachers’ skills
A BARTON under Needwood school is to become a local centre of excellence in the training of the country’s teachers.
John Taylor High School is one of 81 schools across England selected as teaching school hubs.
It means teachers across the country will benefit from developmental support, allowing them to improve a range of teaching skills, under plans announced by the Department for Education.
The teaching workforce will get best-practice and expert advice on how best to engage with pupils, lesson planning and classroom management, as the Teaching School Hubs programme is rolled out across the country.
Katie Cochrane, head of school, said: “We are delighted to have been selected as one of the new teaching school hubs and look forward to working collaboratively with various partners, to explore the opportunities that arise from this designation.”
Barbara Richardson, chairman of the governing body at the school, said: “John Taylor
High School, through the National Forest Teaching School and Research School, has a track record of delivering high quality professional development for teachers.
“This is an exciting opportunity for this expertise and good practice to be shared widely and support teachers and school leaders deliver the best possible education to pupils.”
The teaching school programme was announced in 2019 and was followed by a procurement to successfully appoint six test and learn hubs.
The new hubs will be rolled out in addition to those six existing test and learn hubs, meaning there will be nationwide coverage for the first time, and that every school in England will now have access to a local centre of excellence for teacher training. The hubs will be added in all corners of the country to provide highquality professional development to teachers and leaders at all stages of their career and play a key role in helping to build up trainee teachers as they enter the workforce.
The Department for Education said it believed that this will further level up the quality of teaching, allowing every child to receive a world-class start in life no matter where they are born.
Each hub, all of which will be operational from this September, will have its own defined geographical patch and will be expected to be accessible to all schools within that area, serving on average around 250 schools each.
For John Taylor, this region includes the districts of Cannock Chase, Lichfield, East Staffordshire, Tamworth, Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire.
Mike Donoghue, CEO of John Taylor Multi-academy Trust, said: “This outcome is both a validation of our track record of high-quality delivery, and a confirmation from the Department of Education that we have a key role to play in the new landscape.
“We will do all we can to support all schools within the hub area – and beyond.”
Gareth Moss, chairman of the trust, said: “John Taylor Multiacademy Trust is delighted that John Taylor High School has been successful in this competitive process.
“The multi-academy trust has always valued the links our schools have with our own teaching and research schools and to have the quality of our work recognised with this success is something we are very proud of.
“We will use the teaching school hub to further our ambition to produce the best quality teachers, providing the best quality teaching and learning to all pupils.”