About The Alliance

Teaching schools are outstanding schools that work with others to provide high-quality training and development to new and experienced school staff. They are part of the government’s plan to give schools a central role in raising standards by developing a self-improving and sustainable school-led system.

Our successful bid to become a Teaching School was a collaborative effort of 3 of our Outstanding schools, namely The Beacon in Folkestone, Goldwyn School in Ashford  and Meadowfield School in Sittingbourne.

We gained our Teaching School status by meeting the following criteria:

• having an number of outstanding ratings for our schools from Ofsted

• providing evidence of successful partnerships

• showing excellent leadership with a proven track record of school improvement

• having outstanding headteachers with at least 3 years’ experience in our schools

• having a team with the capacity to lead the 6 core areas of the teaching school role

All 24 Special Educational Needs Schools in Kent agreed to join the Collaborative Learning Alliance of Special Schools (CLASS) with a commitment to deliver the following results :

• better results for pupils

• fewer poorly performing schools

• more good and outstanding schools

• a self-improving and sustainable school system

We will be achieving this by concentrating our efforts in the following areas, known as The Big 6:

 

1. Initial Teacher Training

School-led initial teacher training by taking an active role in the recruitment, selection and training of trainee teachers through School Direct

Offering a range of professional development opportunities for teachers and school support staff at all of our 24 schools throughout Kent

3. School to School Support

Utilising our best leaders to improve the quality of teaching and leadership where it is most needed, including the use of SLE's and NLE's. 

We will be developing successful succession planning strategies to develop our staff and fill leadership postions in the future.

5. Specialist Leaders of Education

Specialist leaders of education are outstanding middle and senior leaders. They have at least 2 years’ leadership experience in a particular specialism (eg maths, school business management, initial teacher training).

Their role is to support individuals or teams in a similar position in other schools. They help others achieve outstanding leadership in their area of specialism.

We will be building on existing research and taking part in research and development activities whilst sharing our learning with the wider school system.

For further information concerning our current projects, please contact [email protected]