A new breed of superteachers on higher salaries will be created if Labour wins the next election. Announcing the plan last Saturday, David Blunkett, the shadow education secretary, said that it was designed to halt the drift of the best and most highly qualified teachers out of the classroom into management roles.
“Advanced skills teachers” would share their exceptional skills with more junior colleagues in other local schools as well as their own. They would be expected to update their knowledge regularly and could become associate fellows of local higher education institutions. The idea, which borrows from schemes already operating in the US and Australia, will form a principal part of Labour’s policy document on standards, to be published next month. Other plans include the creation of a General Teaching Council.
