The new Teachers’ Standards published by the Secretary of State for Education introduce some significant changes in terms of structure, content and application. The new teacher standards come into effect on 1 September 2012.
These new standards replace the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and the Core professional standards previously published by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), and the General Teaching Council for England’s Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers.
The new standards aim to create a single standard system that will apply to the vast majority of teachers regardless of their career stage.
The Teachers’ Standards will apply to: trainees working towards QTS; all teachers completing their statutory induction period; and those covered by the new performance appraisal arrangements. The Teachers’ Standards relating to professional and personal conduct will be used to assess cases of serious misconduct, regardless of the sector in which the teacher works.
The standards are presented in three parts, which together constitute the Teacher’s Standrds. These parts are as follows:
- Preamble – The Preamble summarises the values and behaviour that all teachers must demonstrate throughout their careers
- Part 1 – Part 1 comprises the Standards for Teaching
- Part 2 – Part 2 comprises the standards for Professional and Personal Conduct.
What do you think of the new structure of the teacher standards? Can all teachers at different stages of their careers with different teaching leadership responsibilities and at different levels of the professional, all access one generic, one-size fits all teacher standards framework? Or is this attempt to simplify the teachers’ standards impractical in its approach?
Responses