It's teachers that make the difference; not schools

We know that it is the individual teachers who teach our children who will have the big impact on their learning much more than the school as a whole.  So why is all our data focused on school performance rather than teacher performance?  Ideally I want my child to be taught only by teachers graded outstanding; maybe good; but certainly not 'requiring improvement'. 

Two recent meetings have made me think about this one: 

One was with the CEO of a teacher recruitment and talent management business called Synarbor.  They have a scheme where they place teachers in schools and charge differently according to whether the teacher you want has been graded outstanding or good etc.   They make sure that their teachers have had an appropriate number of professional observations over the past six months. 

The second was at the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on school governance at the Houses of Parliament yesterday evening.  I got there five minutes late, and don't know whether the meeting was following Chatham House rules, so I won't mention the person's name.  But the head of a leading executive agency of a major government department said s/he thought we should be focusing much more attention on individual teachers than on schools when we look at how a student's attainment has been impacted by the time they get to 16. 

The APPG meeting was about how we might provide helpful school data to governors, with the Fischer Family Trust presenting. 

So - here's another prediction.  Within a year, people will be developing increasingly sophisticated ways of tracking the impact of individual teachers. 

Just remember you heard it here.....