When I was studying at Stanford University in America I came across a leading professor of education called Erik Hanushek. Professor Hanushek has done work for the OECD illustrating that the single most important factor in determining a child’s success at school is having a good teacher. Good teaching is more important than things like smaller class sizes, advanced curriculum, or who runs the school.
His research has been backed up by work done by McKinsey and the Gates Foundation which spends millions investigating how best to improve educational outcomes. In fact Professor Hanushek has been able to estimate that the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher is almost a year’s worth of extra learning.
With that in mind I was delighted to attend a teaching staff conference of three local schools that are in a federation together: Northallerton College Risedale Sports & Community College, and Allertonshire School. Over 150 teachers were present and I managed to speak to dozens over their lunch.
The government has been focused on doing everything it can to reduce the overall burden on teachers and to ensure they can spend more time in the classroom teaching. It has also given autonomy to schools and head teachers so they can decide how best to recruit, train and pay the best teachers.