Watching brief to lift standard of school lessons

Michael Gove said it should be "routine" for teachers to watch and learn from each other.

An education White Paper, to be published next week, is due to include plans to scrap a current rule which says teachers can only be observed for three hours a year.

Mr Gove insisted the move was not about monitoring, but collaboration.

"One of the problems has been the three-hour rule which has limited classroom observation," he said.

"I would like to change the culture so that it is more routine and normal for teachers to be observing and learning from each other."

The classroom should be an "open space" for teachers to work together, Mr Gove said.

He added: "Teachers should be observed in the classroom so their performance can be appraised and improved, and so that teachers can work together to shape lesson plans, share ideas and feel responsible together for the performance of their school overall."

But the move may be seen by some as a means to weed out poorly performing teachers.

At a conference in January, Mr Gove, then Shadow Schools Secretary, said there should be "no restriction" on heads and heads of department to observe what goes on in class, particularly because heads are responsible for what goes on in their school and "live or die" as a result of that.

Under current rules, to formally observe a teacher, the member of staff must be given notice and informed what areas of teaching will be observed. Heads can observe lessons informally.

Mr Gove also said that good lessons should be put online to be shared, citing the schools system in Singapore where lessons are filmed and posted on the internet to form part of teachers' professional development.

"We will all be better off if we can watch a fantastic physics lesson online and other physics teachers can see how they can work more effectively," he said.

Ministers are also drawing up plans to move teacher training away from universities and into the classroom.

It is likely to mean a shake-up of university-based qualifications, such as the BEd degree and the PGCE, a post-graduate qualification.

Mr Gove told the Times Educational Supplement that training should be focused on teaching being a "craft", similar to surgery.

He added: "If you look at a surgeon, the craft of surgery is allied to a real intellectual knowledge of how the body works.

"Teaching should be up there with surgery, where you combine the intellectual skills and the talent to produce amazing results."

At present, more than 33,000 would-be teachers are trained at university and only 5,000 are taught in schools.

Meanwhile a headteachers' leader backed calls for the Government to scrap a law requiring children to take part in daily "acts of worship".

A letter, sent to Education Secretary Michael Gove, organised by the British Humanist Association (BHA), argues that a rule stating schools must provide "daily collective worship" infringes children's right to "freedom of belief" and prevents schools from providing inclusive assemblies.

The call was backed by Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), which represents headteachers.

Mr Lightman told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's been an area of anomalous legislation for some time: the way it is worded is restrictive in the way schools can approach school assemblies and in many respects it is unworkable."