19 April 2007

Eight partnerships across Wales have been appointed as the Chartered Teacher pilot programme providers, the General Teaching Council for Wales announced today.

The pilot, which has already received enormous support from teachers, will test different approaches to the Chartered Teacher programme. As part of the wider professional development framework, the Chartered Teacher milestone aims to give teachers a more structured and coherent route to professional development throughout their careers. The programme is particularly aimed at providing professional development for highly skilled classroom teachers and middle leaders leading to their professional recognition through ‘Chartered’ status.

The programme will pilot two main routes to becoming a Chartered Teacher – a ‘taught’ route and an accreditation route through which teachers can receive credit for their professional development and practice.

All of the ‘taught’ pilots involve partnerships between higher education institutions and LEAs or other bodies. Cardiff University, University of Wales Newport, Swansea Institute of Higher Education and ESIS, the South West and Mid Wales Consortium (SWAMWAC), University of Wales Bangor, Swansea Institute and North East Wales Institute (NEWI), UWIC and collaborating partners and the University of Glamorgan and CELT, have all been chosen to provide the nine modules of the taught route.

Swansea Institute and NEWI will provide advisers and assessors for the accreditation route.

The taught route will offer four core modules entitled Self Evaluation and Reflection (Cardiff University); Learning, Teaching and Assessment (Cardiff University; Swansea Institute and ESIS); Education for All (University of Wales, Newport) and Self Evaluation and Reflection & Professional Development Planning (SWAMWAC).

The four optional models offered by the pilot include Language and Methodology, Welsh as a Second Language ( University of Wales, Bangor and partners); Talk for Thought (Swansea Institute and NEWI); Improving practice through Action Research (UWIC and partners) and the Pedagogical application of ICT in learning and teaching (University of Glamorgan and CELT).

Hayden Llewellyn, deputy chief executive of GTCW, commented: “We have been delighted with the organisations which came forward to tender for the pilot – particularly the collaborations which have been forged between partners - and we are extremely pleased with the range of coverage of the modules. This is a crucial and exciting stage. Feedback from the evaluation of the pilot will determine how we should implement the full Chartered Teacher programme from 2009.”

The pilot will be launched in September, with approximately ten teachers taking part in the first module. The second module will start in January 2008. The pilot will be spread out over a period of two years, with each module completed within a term. About 100 teachers across Wales will be involved in the pilot overall.Following support from the Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills, the GTCW will be approaching the Privy Council to become a Chartered body so that it can officially award ‘chartered’ status to teachers.