One thing you’ve got to give teachers nowadays: they’re really committed to improving their classroom practice. For every old lag lurking in the grumpy corner of the staffroom (we’ve all known a few!), there are several happy to spend their well-earned coffee or lunch time discussing how a lesson went, or seeking advice on how to tackle the next one.

Two factors have influenced this change over time. One is, sadly, the relentless pressure on teachers to improve - not from their internal professional drive but from government, the inspectorate, benchmarks and targets. The other, more positively, has been social media. The internet is awash with tweets and blogs, creating virtual communities of teachers committed to developing and sharing best practice.

To be sure, there has always been the opportunity to develop one’s skills in isolation. I recall how a part-time MEd in education policy and management at Birmingham University, started in 1988, informed and changed my practice and my career. The great step forward stems from the ease with which teachers can these days share what emerges from any training course, conference or personal reading. 

So all that’s needed now, surely, is some kind of body to pull all that personal improvement together, to lead the way and somehow to acknowledge and badge excellence.

That Holy Grail has been hovering in front, yet tantalisingly just out of reach, of the profession throughout my long career. We have never had a single national college of teachers/teaching to represent the profession and maintain standards.

Sure, we have unions, and associations of types of school: but these represent different and frequently conflicting interests. Tony Blair gave us the General Teaching Council (GTC), which swiftly became little more than a regulating and barring body and never gained the respect of the profession. (Funny that: Blair’s other brainchild, the National College for School Leadership became politicized from the start, lost its way and is now, ironically, the latest mechanism for disciplining and barring teachers).

Nonetheless, even after those bad experiences I believe most teachers would rejoice in a nationally respected institution that recognised and celebrated their work through a credible framework, maintaining standards not through disciplinary hearings but through accreditation.

Step up the recently formed Chartered College of Teaching. Directed by the impressive Dame Alison Peacock, a former head tirelessly travelling the country spreading the word, the CCT is piloting Chartered Teacher Status, gained by examination: moreover, to retain that status teachers will be required to demonstrate continuing commitment to their own development. It’s wisely started small, but early signs are encouraging: is this the single institution that will finally establish some kind of standing of the profession?

There’s always the danger of others muscling in. On Friday education secretary Justine Greening attended the official launch in Manchester of the Institute of Teaching. Founded by a group of school alliances, hosted by Ark Ventures and headed by Teach First alumnus Matthew Hood, this new “specialist graduate school for teachers” aims to address a growing need to improve the training and development of teachers - since, at present, “most of it isn’t helping teachers to get better”. It will offer a master’s and fellowships in expert teaching, and run the DfE’s Transforming Teaching programme.

I confess I was alarmed, but am delighted to report that there’s no conflict between what the Institute and the Chartered College offer. Matthew Hood assures me that the Institute sees itself as a provider, and is working with the CCT on that basis. 

This is encouraging: the CCT needs providers and other organisations prepared to work with it. Indeed, dare one hope even that Ark, currently supporting the Institute, might throw its wealth and influence behind the College?

I’m no fan of monopolies, but I reckon that, in the CCT, we finally have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop a single body - a flagship, indeed - speaking for, and setting standards, in teaching: one that will finally raise the status of teaching.

Let’s grab it while we can.
 

Dr Bernard Trafford is a writer, educationalist and musician. He is a former headteacher and past chair of HMC. He tweets @bernardtrafford 

To read more columns, view his back catalogue

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