QTS to be awarded after 3 years not 1, plus funded teacher sabbaticals

[noblegiraffe]

Any DfE-watchers will know that they release important documents just in time for school holidays. This time they've opened a consultation on strengthening teacher training so that QTS, which is currently awarded at the end of ITT (e.g. A PGCE) will not be awarded until the teacher has successfully completed 2 'NQT' years involving more training and assessment than currently, but spread out over two years instead of one.
Possible areas for further training and assessment are:
Subject and curriculum knowledge
Evidence-based pedagogy, including subject-specific pedagogy
Use of and engagement with evidence
Behaviour management
Use and understanding of assessment
Supporting pupils with special educational needs and disability (SEND).

NQTs would still be on the same pay scale as currently, and final assessment of QTS could be signed off by ITT providers, not the school

Also snuck into the document is the potential for a sabbatical fund. Teachers with at least 7 years experience could apply to take a year out to do something education-based, for example academic research and be paid for this by the government.

consult.education.gov.uk/teaching-profession-unit/strengthening-qts-and-improving-career-progression/supporting_documents/Strengthening%20Qualified%20Teacher%20Status%20and%20improving%20career%20progression%20for%20teachers%20consultation.pdf

My gut feeling is that this will just put more people off the idea of teacher training??

Maybe I’m wrong and people will think that they’ll have two more years of more support and development. But it sounds like two further years of work and assessments on top of working as a NQT.

How do they balance this off against teachers in Academies not needing to be qualified at all?

Is it designed to put off the bursary tourists I wonder?

I hope it would stop those schools who hire people to work as unqualified teachers on crap pay for two years with the carrot of putting them through the 'Assessment Only' process at the end and calling it teacher training.

I think it might put people off, but on the other hand, the current system p, with its focus on data, misses the mark completely in terms of training for managing behaviour and SEND effectively.

I read the comments on the TES story on this and none of them seemed positive. Suspicions are that it's simply a trap to keep new staff in the classroom for an additional year before they take their QTS and clear off somewhere less awful.

Which is shit, because I think in principle it's a good idea - NQTs need less pressure in their first year and more training in their second year. I was talking to the NQT in our department and he thinks he has had a quite good deal in terms of courses and training so far. I told him it would totally dry up next year.