Teaching School Hubs

Centres of Excellence across London and Essex

Harris Federation are delighted to lead three Teaching School Hubs on behalf of the Department for Education, serving over 800 schools located in South Essex, South London and North-East London. We were designated by the DfE because of our proven track record in delivering an outstanding education for our pupils; high-quality, evidence-based programmes and qualifications for our teachers and leaders, from ITT to Executive Leadership; and for forming long-lasting collaborative partnerships with schools and settings beyond our trust to achieve the very best outcomes for pupils across some of the most deprived areas of the country. You can find local information relevant to each of our TSH regions on these webpages.

Easy and Accessible Local Support

Teaching School Hubs (TSHs) are central to the DfE’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, delivering on all four of the national priorities: 1) Creating the right climate for leaders to establish supportive school cultures 2) Transforming support for Early Career Teachers 3) Building a career offer that remains attractive to teachers as their careers and lives develop 4) Making it easier for great people to become teachers.

The training and qualifications we provide in our regions enable the DfE to deliver on a world-class teacher and leader professional development system. We were honoured to be one of only six schools chosen nationally in the initial TSH Test and Learn Phase. In 2021 the new network of 87 TSHs replaced the previous network of 750 Teaching Schools to ensure that every area in the country had a designated TSH with easy access to local support. This network is overseen by the Teaching School Hub Council and each TSH has its own governing body. We work with all our Local Authorities to ensure our TSH offer is inclusive to all school types and phases and responsive to local needs.

The Golden Thread of Professional Development

We deliver the “golden thread” of professional development based on the DfE’s rigorous evidence-based frameworks such as for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) the Core Content Framework (CCF) for trainee teachers, the Early Career Framework (ECF) for ECTs and Mentors and a wide range of specialist and leadership National Professional Qualification (NPQ) frameworks for middle and senior leaders, headteachers, and executive  leaders. We are also preparing to deliver the new ITTECF in September 2025, helping to support teachers to develop expertise across the initial three year period. We have a wealth of experience as an Appropriate Body (AB) implementing the Statutory Guidance and quality assuring teacher induction for thousands of ECTs each year. Recent AB reforms have led to Teaching School Hubs becoming the main provider of appropriate body services in the country.

Strengthening and Simplifying School Improvement 

Our vision is to strengthen school improvement through effective communication partnerships across every school in our region. We believe in system-led change, led by schools, for schools. As one of the founding partners of the National Institute of Teaching we are pleased to be able to align these school-led values in all that we do, designing curriculum, appointing and training facilitators, and continuously improving our practice through a research-informed and contextually sensitive way. We encourage all new School Trust CEOs to explore the amazing opportunities available. Our strategy is to simplify access to high-quality ITT, ECF, and NPQ programmes via the same Ofsted Outstanding lead provider. Through NIOT’s Research and Best Practice function we can also pilot and scale-up new opportunities for the whole region, whilst sustaining a local focus on our local needs. It is our ambition for all teachers and leaders in our regions to be able to receive centralized support from our Teaching School Hubs at any point in their career. 

Our Power is in Partnerships

We work closely with our headteacher networks, school alliances, and MATs to provide fair and impartial guidance on the providers and training available to them. As an ITT Provider ourselves we know the value in working collaboratively with all ITT Providers in our region to ensure there are many pathways available into profession. As a TSH we have a strategic role based on recommendation 10 from the ITT Market Review to: build school capacity for ITT; build an active mentor network, provide specific support for disadvantaged communities; and model high-quality intensive practice placements. Since 2020 we have worked with our neighbouring Teaching School Hubs to host regular strategy meetings with all ITT Providers across the East of England and London; organised network training, run joint Get into Teaching Events, an Annual Mentor Conference with Deans for Impact; and an ITT into ECT Transition Summer Event. We also collaborate with the National Association of School Based Teacher Trainer NASBTT. Our focus continues to be on building placement capacity in our hard-to-reach areas.

We also play a significant role partnering with other CPD Providers of DfE approved programmes and increasing school engagement in offers such as the Curriculum Subject Hubs organised by the national networks of: 34 English Hubs, 40 Maths Hubs, STEM Learning, 31 Computing Hubs, 15 Language Hubs; 43 Music Hubs led by Arts Council England; 45 Behaviour Hubs; 44 Careers Hubs; and 33 Research Schools led by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). For more options, especially any subjects not listed above, we would encourage schools to visit Oak National Academy or the Council for Subject Associations including NATRE. We also promote the work of the 82 Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs and Partners, and  Whole School SEND. We host termly steering committee meetings where all partners are invited to attend and share their offers and updates with our TSH schools, to sustain an open and professional dialogue across our wider community.

Our Vision and Impact

Evidence in education* tells us that that the quality of teaching is the single biggest variable in student achievement, outside the students themselves, and it is also the variable most susceptible to the impact of good or poor leadership. We will use our influence and resources to build and sustain a growth environment for the TSH regions, that provides the very best in initial teacher training, teacher induction, early career support, and specialist and leadership pathways to retain and develop the entire workforce through to whichever career pathway they choose.

Our success will be measured by our schools and pupils that succeed.

• ITT - in the last four years we have recruited and trained over 600 new teachers across 170 placement schools, 300 of whom were trained in shortage subjects
• ECF - in the last four years we have trained 3,600 early career teachers and supported them through their AB Induction  
• NPQs - in the last year alone we have trained over 1,000 school leaders to achieve their fully funded National Professional Qualifications to the value of over £1 million pounds for our schools.
• Our TSH Team have all been elected to National Advisory Boards for ITT, ECF, NPQs, and AB.

By investing in our people and making informed choices, we hope that all will thrive.

*Hattie (2003), Hanushek (2011), Cordingley et al (2015) Weston (2016), Burgess (2019), Fletcher-Wood (2020).