Teaching Leaders Office

Teaching Leaders Office
April 22, 2014
Manchester, England, UK

I got to spend my 29th birthday visiting Manchester, England, UK. We spend today at the Teaching Leaders office. We got an overview of the education system in England and the current challenges they are facing. As I was getting ready this morning, the news was sharing current information regarding teacher strikes. Those strikes are related to performance based pay for teachers, using students end of the year assessments to determine the amount.

Melanie (from TL) gave us a wonderful breakdown of the leadership positions typical to schools in England. (insert image later)

We spent a good part of the afternoon looking at Ofsted. This is the governing body that reviews schools in the UK and determines their success. When inspectors enter the schools, they use government created guidelines to review schools. Ofsted Inspection Resources

To end the day, we spent 30 minutes at both the Mustard Tree and Reach Out. The Mustard Tree is an organization that supports the homeless population in Manchester. They provide food, training classes and computer resources. They also allow people who have newly been given public housing to furnish it with a budget from their store (consignment) and food or clothes if needed. Reach Out is a mentoring program very similar to Big Brothers and Big Sisters in the US, but the programs are provided within a school setting after school or during the summer.