A SCHOOL has reinforced its reputation for excellence by becoming the first national teaching school in East Staffordshire.
John Taylor High School, in Dunstall Lane, Barton under Needwood, was among 150 English schools granted the status by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) in its third wave of desginations.
Conferment of the accreditation entitles the school to work with a strong alliance of partners to lead training and professional development for teachers and leaders during all stages of their careers.
Mike Donoghue, John Taylor’s principal, said: “This is a great achievement for the school and its partners who have been working together tirelessly towards achieving this status.
“This gives us the opportunity to bring world-class trainers into the Burton area to make sure young people in East Staffordshire can have an even better learning experience.”
The NCSL has been quick to acknowledge John Taylor’s achievement.
Maggie Farrar, its executive director, said: “Teaching schools like John Taylor should be proud of their achievement as they need to be at the top of their game to take on this role – outstanding in their own performance and have a track record of raising standards through school-to-school support.
“With some 350 teaching schools around the country we are now well on our way to creating a self-improving school-led education system.
“These are the schools that are blazing the trail by harnessing the finest teaching talent in the profession to drive school improvement in innovative ways and bring real benefits to pupils and staff.
“Teachers can learn from the best teachers in action and those who want to move up the career ladder are exposed to excellent practice within and beyond their immediate school.”
As they develop, partnerships featuring training schools like John Taylor and other schools and universities will help provide the next generation of teachers and head teachers while supporting schools in challenging circumstances.
The teaching school alliance has places to offer graduates keen to complete a school-based teacher training course, details of which are on John Taylor’s website, www.jths.co.uk
In a report in January 2007, standards watchdog Ofsted judged John Taylor to be an ‘outstanding’ school.
Following an interim inspection in 2010, the inspectors said this performance had been sustained.
A total of 92.21 per cent of John Taylor’s pupils achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, while 55.4 per cent achieve grades A* to B at A-level.
