Recognising the value of great teachers

Today our blog looks at new recommendations we are setting out on teacher pay, as well as the Education Secretary’s speech at the Education World Forum, and the annual report from Ofsted.

Teacher Pay

Today, Tuesday 21 January, we will publish evidence submitted to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) to support its proposals to increase pay awards for teachers. 

The option we are recommending would see starting salaries rise nationally to £26,000. These proposals reflect the department’s ambition to both attract and retain great teachers in the years ahead.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

We want to make teaching attractive to the most talented graduates by recognising the prestige that we as a society place on the profession.

We have set out proposals to significantly raise starting salaries for new teachers to £26,000 next year, rising to £30,000 by September 2022, alongside above-inflation pay increases for senior teachers and school leaders. These mark the biggest reform to teacher pay in a generation.

Education World Forum

Yesterday, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attended the Education World Forum in London where he made a speech leading on the call that education should be a universal right. 

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

The UK has always been an outward-looking and global nation, with a proud history and record when it comes to education and innovation.

Just over a week from now, the UK will leave the EU. This is the perfect opportunity to march forward and be the global leader in educating children, young people and adults. Make no mistake, I want the UK to be the best place in the world to educate your child and make the most of people’s talents.

As we step out into the world, our doors are open and our ambitions are bold. We will continue to learn from those countries excelling in areas like maths and will share with others the lessons we have learned. We will place a bigger focus on further and technical education and will continue to welcome hundreds of thousands of the best and brightest international students to our world-class universities.

Achieving this comes by working in partnership with the rest of the world and that will not change. With world leading universities and one of the best school systems in the world, we are and will continue to be a global leader in education.

You can read the speech in full here.

Ofsted Report

Today, Ofsted is due to publish its annual report. The report shows that the great majority of schools, colleges, nurseries and child minders in England are rated Good or Outstanding, reflecting the hard work of teachers, leaders and support staff across the country.

The figures included in the report show that 86% of schools are judged to be Good or Outstanding, in addition to 96% of early years providers and 81% of further education and skills providers. There have also been notable improvements in children’s social work.

Ofsted’s new inspection framework is designed to ensure that all pupils benefit from a broad and ambitious curriculum and achieve good outcomes.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

This report shows that the majority of schools, nurseries and childminders, and colleges and other organisations delivering further education and training, are now rated as good or outstanding, and there have been improvements in children’s social work.

These improvements are only possible because of the hard work of those working in these professions striving for the best education and care for our young people.

But we are not complacent, and one of the key functions of a good regulator is that it highlights areas of concern and we will work with Ofsted, schools, local authorities and others to address the issues this report identifies.