Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support best practice from successful academy chains being passed on to other academy chains.

Edward Timpson

We are building a school-led system which is focused on building on the expertise and knowledge of our best school leaders and most successful Multi Academy Trusts. There is a range of routes through which academy chains can and do learn from each other.

The Department has a number of system leadership routes, including Teaching Schools and their alliances, and National Leaders of Education, which enable school leaders and our most successful schools to be at the forefront of sharing best practice.

Around half of nearly 700 teaching schools are academies. A similar proportion of over 1000 National Leaders in Education are also drawn from academies.

Regional Schools Commissioners also facilitate sharing of best practice, including through regional events, informal networking opportunities and targeted development activity.