What’s involved?
Schools will work together within a teaching school alliance – a group of schools and other partners that is supported by the leadership of a teaching school. This will include all those schools that benefit by receiving support, as well as strategic partners that will lead on certain aspects of delivery.
Teaching schools are centers of excellence and have an important role to play in a school-led system and school improvement, they will play a fundamental role in developing a self-sustaining system where:
- trainee teachers learn from the best teachers, supported by a culture of coaching and mentoring
- professional development is school-based and classroom focused – teachers, support staff and leaders improve through exposure to excellent practice within and beyond their immediate school, through observation, mentoring, coaching, practice, reflection and sharing with peers
- talent development and distributed leadership are the norm – staff demonstrating potential are encouraged to lead and are given structured and stretching opportunities to grow and develop
- leaders have local knowledge and can identify where key resources and expertise lie
What does effective delivery look like?
Each teaching school alliance is expected to deliver across three core areas of activity:
- (ITT) Co-ordinating and providing high-quality school-led initial teacher training As a teaching school alliance Kyra works collaboratively with primary schools, special schools, the Lincoln Teaching School Alliance (LTSA) and the University of Lincoln, to provide high-quality, diverse and first class school-based teacher training in over 50 schools within and around Lincolnshire. Learn more about our School Direct and School Centered Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) Prorgrammes here: Primary Teacher Training
- Providing high-quality school-to school support to spread excellent practice, particularly to schools that need it most. Our School to School Support team utilise the strength and talents of school leaders, who with credibility and a wealth of experience, can help schools in Lincolnshire improve. Learn more here: School Improvement
- Providing evidence-based professional and leadership development for teachers and leaders across their network. We offer a number of bespoke Kyra programmes and professional development sessions which have been developed in-house, harnessing the experience and expertise of our SLEs and other experts within the alliance. Learn more here: CPD Training Professional & Leadership Development
As a teaching school we are expected to adhere to the requirements set by the NCTL and report on an annual basis against KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). For a detailed description of how these areas of activity are measured by the NCTL and further information regarding the eligibility criteria for teaching school applications please visit:
www.gov.uk/guidance/teaching-schools-a-guide-for-potential-applicants#teaching-school-alliances
As a teaching school we are transparent in our activity and you can read our progress against the KPI's In 2016-2017 (as submitted to National College on Data Hub) in the document Kyra TSA Progress against NCTL KPIs 2016-17 available in the download section to the right of this page.