This year, the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) is celebrating its 25th anniversary, a milestone that reflects a quarter of a century of dedication to championing the interests of school-based initial teacher training (ITT).
Anniversaries bring a “feel good” opportunity to celebrate past achievements and successes, and the people behind them. But looking back, it is perhaps more interesting to see how the sector has evolved and question if things have got better.
After all, ITT in England has undergone significant transformations (and turmoil) since 2000, driven by a combination of government policies, educational research and the evolving needs of the education system.
And it really is a lengthy list of developments, as : from the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) offering employment-based initial teacher training in 2000, to the Carter Review of 2014, and more recent developments such as the much-maligned ITT market review, there has been no shortage of change.
Has there been any other aspect of the education sector that has been tinkered with, and required to jump through so many different hoops, as ITT? Maybe - but ITT has got to be up there! Are we in a significantly better place as a result? Absolutely not.
Significant challenges
Today, the English state school system faces significant challenges, including teacher shortages, high attrition rates and low morale. Addressing these issues requires innovative, collaborative, and long-term solutions.
We recognise the challenging financial situation the government faces, but we also strongly believe that the previous government’s approach to the retention and recruitment crisis has exhausted the majority of ”obvious” policy levers, yet made no progress in solving the issues.
One thing is clear. We cannot go back, and so we have to look ahead.
This means creating ambitious plans to continue driving excellence in teacher training and professional development, including progressing the asks in our manifesto, . As well as working to attract more people to teaching and supporting school-based ITT providers to deliver high-quality training.
To achieve these aims, support and investment is critical in shaping the next generation of educators; and we are therefore keen to support the new government with some fresh and genuinely radical thinking in this space.
1. Fully fund teacher training
Firstly, we are very clear we must work to a position to fully fund all teacher training programmes directly through government support. If teaching is important to society (as surely it must be), then why should we ask trainees to take on debt in order to be able to do it?
Whilst we cannot perfectly model the cost, as it has never been done before, it would signal to the world that the government believes teaching to be so important they will ‘put their money where their mouth is’ and fund it.
2. Rethink teacher training
Secondly, we might rethink teacher training and Early Career Framework (ECF) models.
For example, we might consider two-year funded teacher training models that include significant subject pedagogy to address shortage subjects.
We could also develop subject- and phase-specific ECF programs that are flexible around individual needs. Or, what about training teachers of science holistically to GCSE level, while allowing specialisation at key stage 5?
3. Focus more on retention
Thirdly, away from ITT, we need to revisit the recruitment and retention Strategy and co-design with the sector a new “retention strategy” (deliberate focus on retention and not recruitment here) to provide a clear strategic direction that all future policy should then fall out of.
Everything feels so disparate at the moment that without an overarching strategic steer on the direction of travel for the sector, there is a serious danger that policy continues to focus on individual problems in isolation from one another.
What is clear is that simply repeating past actions will not lead to different outcomes. Whilst we can look at short-term, low-cost solutions, to achieve genuine change we need to look at longer-term innovation.
Radical ideas that could meaningfully move the needle, which also recognise that not everything is solved by unnecessary structural changes to the ITT system.
Emma Hollis is chief executive of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT)
