The purpose of this guidance is to assist providers as they exercise their judgement against a minimum expectation benchmark, and to help them maximise the opportunities for the development of their training programmes that the Teachers' Standards offer. It is designed to help everyone involved in initial teacher training (ITT), including teachers and trainees, to understand the scope and expectations of the Teachers’ Standards. The guidance is non-statutory and will be kept under review.
This guidance includes:
- a set of the minimum expectation benchmarks for each of the Teachers' Standards;
- useful questions to ask when looking at the Teachers' Standards;
- where and how the evidence may be demonstrated.
The guidance enables trainees and ITT Mentors to consider ongoing formative progress as well as summative assessment at each Phase Review point. The Teachers' Standards are minimum expectation benchmarks that indicate what trainee teachers must know, understand and be able to do in order to achieve QTS.
The benchmark descriptors offer all partners involved in assessment — ITT Mentors, class teachers, Liaison Tutors and the trainees themselves — a common understanding of what is involved in meeting the minimum expectation of the Teachers' Standards.
Assessment against the Teachers' Standards is a matter of skilled professional judgement made at different times in different contexts, and often draws on evidence from a range of sources collected over time, including the reflective statement at each phase from the trainee.
The guidance draws attention to the kinds of evidence that could be relevant when making judgements about whether a trainee is meeting al of the Teachers' Standards in full.
DfE Teachers’ Standards
Many of the standards are inter-related, and single assessment opportunities will produce evidence for several different standards. The standards in PART TWO relating to personal and professional conduct underpin all the standards in PART ONE. Trainees should be able to show that they meet these standards in everything they do.
The Teachers' Standards are related to professional knowledge and are closely linked to those relating to professional skills, and successful trainees will demonstrate these standards in teaching as well as through their academic attainments.
See also the Department for Education's Teachers’ Standards page.