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Schools White Paper

Read The Importance of Teaching. The Schools White Paper 2010 on the Department for Education website.

White Paper

The Department for Education's White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, was published on 24 November 2010.

The White Paper sets out how the Department for Education intends to bring more talented people into the profession and raise the bar in terms of standards. School leadership, particularly the importance of school-to-school support and peer-to-peer learning, is a key theme and demonstrates the coalition government’s commitment to ensuring high standards in this area.

The White Paper also confirms a continuing and important role for the National College, as an executive agency, in the delivery of key areas of new government policy.

The role of the National College

In the future the National College will be an executive agency of the Department for Education rather than a non-departmental public body.

Designation of teaching schools

A new national network of teaching schools, modelled on teaching hospitals, will give outstanding schools the role of leading the training and professional development of teachers and headteachers.

Bringing together the training school and teaching school models, these schools will take a leading responsibility for providing and quality assuring initial teacher training in their area. They will also be funded to offer professional development for teachers and leaders.

Expansion of the National Leaders of Education and Local Leaders of Education Programmes

National leaders of education (NLEs) and local leaders of education (LLEs) are successful headteachers and principals who, together with staff in their schools, use their skills and experience to support schools in challenging circumstances. The NLE and LLE models have been highly successful in increasing the leadership capacity of other schools to help raise standards.

The number of NLEs will rise from 393 up to 1,000 by 2014. The number of LLEs will rise from approximately 1,400 to around 2,000.

Designation of specialist leaders of education

A new role for middle and senior leaders whose specialist knowledge can support teachers working in challenging schools.

National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)

The continuing development of the mandatory qualification for first-time headteachers in the maintained sector.

The National College has been asked to review the content of NPQH, to make sure that it meets the highest standards for leadership development set in other countries and other sectors of the economy.

Governor training

Developing the leadership skills of chairs of governors. This is a new area of responsibility for the National College which will take shape in the coming months.

Further information