Specialist subject teachers parachuted into primary schools

The reforms are outlined in a radical blueprint designed to overhaul the system of teacher training in England.

From 2012, funding will be reallocated to allow more state-funded training places to be made available for subject specialist primary school teachers.

They will get priority places over students taking general primary courses and schools will be offered the chance to train their own primary specialists.

Trainees teaching science, maths and foreign languages could be offered extra financial rewards because the subjects are seen as vital to pupils’ future chances of getting into top universities and securing a good job.

Ministers will also toughen up the selection process to weed out unsuitable trainees and introduce a package of generous incentives to attract the brightest graduates.

For the first time in 2013, students must pass basic tests in English and maths to start postgraduate training courses – and will only be allowed to re-sit assessments twice. Tests themselves will also be toughened up and the pass marks will be raised.

It will replace the current system in which student teachers normally take exams half-way through one-year courses and are permitted unlimited re-sits.

As reported on Tuesday, the Government will also introduce a system of tapered bursaries designed to attract graduates with first-class honours degrees.

The top students will be able to claim ￡20,000 scholarships – given out in monthly instalments throughout their course – to teach physics, maths, chemistry and modern languages. The best students will also be eligible for ￡9,000 bursaries to teach other “priority” secondary school subjects and to train as primary teachers.

Graduates with a 2:1 or 2:2 degree will handed smaller awards, while those with third-class degrees will be banned from claiming state funding.

But teachers condemned the move as elitist.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A first class degree does not necessarily a first class teacher make.

“The real incentive which Government needs to address in order to attract people into teaching is not simply bursaries.

“Teachers need to be given greater control over what goes on in the classroom, the unnecessary bureaucratic workload needs to go, pay and conditions need to remain competitive and of course Government needs to ensure a good pension.”

In further reforms, the Government will create a new training programme specifically to allow former Armed Forces personnel to gain qualified teacher status.

Alternative positions will be available in schools for ex-soldiers to act as advisors on discipline and “work with students at risk of exclusion or exhibiting anti-social behaviour”.

Specialist subject teachers parachuted into primary schools

The reforms are outlined in a radical blueprint designed to overhaul the system of teacher training in England.

From 2012, funding will be reallocated to allow more state-funded training places to be made available for subject specialist primary school teachers.

They will get priority places over students taking general primary courses and schools will be offered the chance to train their own primary specialists.

Trainees teaching science, maths and foreign languages could be offered extra financial rewards because the subjects are seen as vital to pupils’ future chances of getting into top universities and securing a good job.

Ministers will also toughen up the selection process to weed out unsuitable trainees and introduce a package of generous incentives to attract the brightest graduates.

For the first time in 2013, students must pass basic tests in English and maths to start postgraduate training courses – and will only be allowed to re-sit assessments twice. Tests themselves will also be toughened up and the pass marks will be raised.

It will replace the current system in which student teachers normally take exams half-way through one-year courses and are permitted unlimited re-sits.

As reported on Tuesday, the Government will also introduce a system of tapered bursaries designed to attract graduates with first-class honours degrees.

The top students will be able to claim ￡20,000 scholarships – given out in monthly instalments throughout their course – to teach physics, maths, chemistry and modern languages. The best students will also be eligible for ￡9,000 bursaries to teach other “priority” secondary school subjects and to train as primary teachers.

Graduates with a 2:1 or 2:2 degree will handed smaller awards, while those with third-class degrees will be banned from claiming state funding.

But teachers condemned the move as elitist.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “A first class degree does not necessarily a first class teacher make.

“The real incentive which Government needs to address in order to attract people into teaching is not simply bursaries.

“Teachers need to be given greater control over what goes on in the classroom, the unnecessary bureaucratic workload needs to go, pay and conditions need to remain competitive and of course Government needs to ensure a good pension.”

In further reforms, the Government will create a new training programme specifically to allow former Armed Forces personnel to gain qualified teacher status.

Alternative positions will be available in schools for ex-soldiers to act as advisors on discipline and “work with students at risk of exclusion or exhibiting anti-social behaviour”.

Prince Charles's elite teachers will bring back Chaucer and the Crusades

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Head teachers back national strike action over pensions

The National Association of Head Teachers could join a major public sector walk-out over pensions on November 30.?Photo: PA

Almost every state school in England and Wales faces being shut after senior staff joined classroom unions by supporting an unprecedented walk-out over pension reforms.

Members of the National Association of Head Teachers voted in favour of industrial action on Wednesday amid claims that the Government’s plans would leave them working longer, paying more and receiving less when they retire.

More than three-quarters of those who took part in the ballot supported the strike – the first walk-out in its 114-year history.

Head teachers are now likely to take part in the TUC’s national day of action on November 30.

They would join a wave of other public sector unions by taking part in the action. This includes three representing teachers – the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the University and College Union.

A fifth classroom union – the NASUWT – is expected to vote in favour of the strike next week.

The move would almost certainly result in the biggest co-ordinated teachers’ strike in history and lead to the possible closure of every state school and college.

It could also lead to hundreds of private schools, which are well staffed by union members, shutting their doors.

The action is likely to cause chaos for parents who will be forced to pay for childminders or take the day off work to look after sons and daughters.

Speaking today, Russell Hobby, the NAHT general secretary, said the ballot represented an "unhappy milestone".

"I have spoken at length to many school leaders and not one has been anything other than upset and sometimes downright angry that they have been forced into this situation as the only way to stand up for the profession and standards,” he said.

The NAHT's 28,000 members have not been officially been called out yet and the union’s national executive will now consider its next move, although it is likely that they will back co-ordinated public sector action on November 30.

Mr Hobby said the union would “like to avoid action if at all possible and will be negotiating intensely and in good faith in the run up to the 30th".

But he added: "The proposed cuts are unfair, ill thought-through and purely being used to pay for the mistakes of the financial sector."

The ATL, NUT and UCU backed a series of rolling strikes in the summer and took part in an earlier walk-out in June.

But any proposed action in November would be more widespread.

Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, said: “We are continuing to hold serious discussions about the reforms with the teaching profession. It is right that the unions look very carefully at what is on the table before taking industrial action.

“Strikes benefit no one - they damage pupils’ education; disrupt and inconvenience parents’ lives; and risk the professional reputation of teachers in the eyes of the public.”

Heads 'shun female teachers after childbirth'

Government figures show that 20 years ago 15,000 teachers returned to work every year, half of them full-time, compared with just 9,000 today?Photo: Getty Images

Taxpayers are spending more than necessary on training new teachers because "out-of-date" heads avoid hiring mothers who want to return to work while still having time to care for their families, it was claimed.

Stephen Hillier, chief executive of the Training and Development Agency, said some school leaders had told him that part-time and job-share arrangements posed a timetabling problem and that hiring fresh graduates was cheaper.

There are also fears among heads that women in flexible roles could not be trusted to "maintain the necessary focus and intensity on driving up pupil standards" and that they lacked the "energy and up-to-dateness" of newly qualified teachers, Mr Hillier said.

Speaking at a conference last month, he added: "In my view, some of these attitudes are 20 years out of date. Bluntly, some of our schools are a lot more willing than others to embrace the modern work patterns that are now common in other professions."

Government figures show that 20 years ago 15,000 teachers returned to work every year, half of them full-time, compared with just 9,000 today.

Mr Hillier, who is in charge of ensuring enough well-qualified teachers enter the profession, said heads "can't afford not to" start rehiring women, especially in subjects like physics and chemistry where there is a shortage of staff.

He said: "This now means that each year we are training, and schools are recruiting, 6,000 more newly qualified teachers than was previously necessary.

"Schools are the employers of teachers and only they can judge who it is best to employ ... on the other hand, taxpayers are entitled to wonder why we are spending 25 per cent more than we need to on newly qualified teachers."

David Trace, head of Ramsey Grammar School on the Isle of Man, disputed Mr Hillier's comments and branded him "out of touch".

He told the Times Educational Supplement: "My school, which is fairly typical, has seven part-time female teachers and four teaching assistants who have come back from maternity leave from full-time previously.

"In order to accommodate the needs of my seven we bend over backwards with the timetable at the expense of other important parameters."

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Union of Head Teachers, said schools should not be blamed for "conservative" employment practices and that they "won't be against flexible working for flippant reasons."

But Chris Keates, head of the NASUWT union, said: "These are not working practices of the 21st century; this is taking us back to the Victorian attitude towards employment ... Stephen has exposed something which is scandalous."