Please go to http://learning.gov.wales/docs/learningwales/publications/170901-professional-standards-for-teaching-and-leadership-en.pdf  in order to explore the standards and to read the background and public consultation documentation. The following bullet points are offered as a very brief summary.

The new standards have been produced by working groups and trialled in schools across Wales with very positive response.

There are five standards: pedagogy, collaboration, professional learning, innovation and leadership.

There is an overarching set of values and dispositions that apply to all professionals.

These five standards apply to all teachers and to those in a formal leadership role (e.g. head teacher, deputy, assistant, head of department/ phase).

The standards for leadership are at two levels: new to the role and sustained effective practice.

The majority of professionals in schools are teachers, and it is crucial that we define their roles in ways that can help lead to the successful reform of education in Wales.

For teachers, the standards are described at two levels: sustained effective practice and career entry.

There are several descriptors for each standard (32 in total across the 5 standards) that exemplify the standard.

At career entry level, the detailed descriptors serve as a basis for consideration of effectiveness, the award of Qualified Teacher Status and to help ensure sufficient development through a teacher’s induction period. Teacher must satisfy the five standards, and demonstrate their effectiveness in all descriptors to be allowed to enter the profession.

Beyond career entry level, it assumes that the teacher is effective and the ambition is to use the standards to enable professional growth.

The descriptors serve as the basis for professional discussion with supervisors and peers about progress as a professional.

Where there are concerns about the performance of a teacher or leader, the descriptors could serve to help pinpoint possible shortcomings where the expected standard is not being met and can help provide the building blocks needed to help to remedy such shortcomings.

The descriptors link with each other across the five standards to address the complexity of teaching and leadership. They are not meant to be visited ‘in order’.

Teachers and leaders are urged to use the Professional Learning Passport (developed by the Education Workforce Council) as a vehicle for recording their professional growth.

The standards are provided on a web platform to encourage professional conversations.  These conversations can be assisted by ensuring that the teacher has the knowledge of what sustained effective practice looks like. 

Examples of good practice will gradually be included upon the web platform to exemplify aspects of descriptors – it has been a clear ambition from the outset that the standards should encourage growth and development.

A range of examples of professional standards from other countries and jurisdictions were considered as background to the development in Wales.

The OECD has recognised the standards as a positive development in their report of published in the spring of 2017.

The response of professional associations to the new standards is mixed though individual meetings with secretaries following the formal consultation have been productive in the main.

The standards are one aspect of the wider efforts being made by the Government to improve outcomes in schools, alongside reforms in curriculum and qualifications, Initial Teacher Education, professional learning and the development of the National Academy for Educational Leadership, the development of a self-improving education system and changes to the way pupils with additional learning needs are supported.   As such the standards are integral to the reform agenda.

The standards are an important part of the drive to build a self-improving school system with collaboration across the profession as a central tenet.   They are not expected to increase workload but are intended to raise the curiosity, insight and endeavour of professionals, and the expectation that professionals collaborate for the benefit of the learner, and hopefully the teacher.

The standards are intended to promote a culture of challenge, support and growth with an emphasis upon high level performance to the benefit of each pupil and to Wales.