Dame Yasmin was invited to speak about Teaching Schools at our Special Educational Needs and Disability Committee Meeting on 16 May 2011.
In her presentation, Dame Yasmin stressed that it is important for heads to make sure that their schools had the capacity to take on this role. She said that a key challenge was to make it manageable, especially for smaller schools. There has been a good response from schools, including Nursery, Primary, Secondary and Special Schools, whose applications had to include a Higher Education partner and a track record of working with a number of local schools. Initially, 100 schools will be given the opportunity to be in the first tranche and can indicate whether they would prefer to start this September or in April 2012.
The National College has noted points which emerged in the discussions that followed the talk. These related to capacity, representation and the challenge of providing evidence of engagement with Higher Education for the sector. The building capacity grant, which will shortly be announced, will help address some of these concerns.
In response to a query about this, there are no restrictions on an independent special school applying for teaching school status although, as the prospectus makes clear, they will need to show appropriate impact in the maintained sector.
If you require any further information on this subject please contact Dame Yasmin on denbigh.high.head@luton.gov.uk.
Biography:
Dame Yasmin Bevan has been headteacher of Denbigh High School, Luton since 1991. In 2005 Dame Yasmin, who is a National Leader of Education, won the RAF sponsored Teaching Awards Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School in the East of England. She received a DBE for services to education in 2007 and became Executive Principal of both Denbigh High School and Challney High School for Boys and Community College, also a Luton school, in September 2008.
Both schools have been judged as “outstanding” overall by Ofsted. In addition Denbigh received an outstanding judgement for its provision in Citizenship and Challney High School for Boys for its provision in English. Challney Boys also featured in Ofsted’s 2009 publication “Twelve Outstanding Secondary Schools” for its sustained improvement against the odds over many years. In 2009, both schools received Times Educational Supplement awards with Denbigh becoming the ‘Secondary School of the Year’ and Challney High School for Boys winning the ‘Outstanding Staff-training Development Initiative.’
Dame Yasmin gave a talk on Teaching Schools and picks up on points discussed following the talk.
