Teacher Support Network's chief executive, Patrick Nash, has spoken of the need to provide career-long professional and personal development for teachers in order to give them the skills and motivation to become the headteachers of tomorrow.

Mr Nash said that "the effectiveness of the professionals who educate, guide and inspire young people is absolutely critical to the quality of education. Out of effective teachers, effective leaders emerge.

“We believe that only a well-supported, committed and resilient teaching profession can boost the educational achievement of young people and we have learned from our research what creates effectiveness, what builds resilience and what motivates teachers to stay and develop within the profession.

“Teacher Support Network believes that teachers need allocated time not only for their continuing professional development, but also for their personal development, for coaching and for mentoring. Through our work with thousands of teachers every year, we have come to understand that professional development will be most successful when a teacher has considered their personal development at the same time.

“With the exception of our online and telephone-based support services, teachers often find that coaching and mentoring is hard to come by between the induction year and taking on a headship. But coaching and mentoring is far more effective if it exists consistently, throughout a career, rather than as something they dip in and out of, when problems loom.

“A teacher stepping into a leadership role with an understanding of coaching and mentoring is likely to be more effective in their relationships with other people and can themselves train to coach or mentor for others.

“In essence, what we are looking for is a change in policy which allows for career-long development of the whole person. With a growing focus on Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning for pupils it certainly seems common sense to also invest in this kind of development for the teachers of today who will become the headteachers of tomorrow.”

Published 23rd November 2006