NEW College Pontefract has been selected to become a National Teaching School. It is the first and only sixth form college in the Yorkshire and Humberside region to have achieved this status.
In a double honour, NEW College Pontefract’s Principal, Pauline Hagen, has been appointed a National Leader of Education, national recognition for her impact on raising standards in education.
Becoming a Teaching School means NEW College will be able to help more local students become teachers, as well as providing local schools with a wider range of local talent to choose from when filling job vacancies. Teaching Schools take a leading role in recruiting and training new entrants to the profession, identifying leadership potential and providing support for other schools.
NEW College were able to achieve Teaching School status because of their 2014 outstanding Ofsted report. Teaching schools work with partner schools in an alliance to ensure high quality school-led initial teacher training, and NEW College’s key Strategic Partners will include Kettlethorpe High School, Selby High School, Selby College and Huddersfield University.
Principal Pauline Hagen said: “I feel not only proud but privileged to be designated as a Teaching School, because this enables us to support system-wide improvements in teaching and learning. Our success in transforming outcomes for our students here at NEW College can now be directed towards a greater number of youngsters across the local area.”
The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) has responsibility, in partnership with headteachers from the Teaching Schools Council, for the designation and quality of the teaching schools programme.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Executive of NCTL, said: “NEW College should be very proud of this achievement. The college has been recognised as a centre of excellence in its area, with an outstanding performance and a track record of raising standards through supporting other schools.
“There are now more than 650 Teaching Schools around the country. They are at the heart of an increasingly school-led system, leading the way in improving the quality of our teachers and helping the schools in their partnership to become even better. Like Teaching Hospitals, they have become centres of excellence across the country, conducting research and training teachers.”
