Today I propose a new targeted fund to improve the working environment for all staff and give teachers access to the equipment they need. The teacher of the future will also make better use of the talent of support staff in schools. Many schools already use classroom assistants to help literacy and numeracy, or to support children with special needs. Over the next three years we will fund at least 20,000 more qualified teaching assistants with improved training, qualifications and opportunity, enabling those with the ambition and potential to join the teaching profession. We are also keen to see the use of undergraduate and post-graduate students earning whilst learning, together with others from the wider community.
Small schools can benefit particularly from sharing facilities, technicians or bursary support.
A new small school support fund will provide pilot funding to help small schools invest in new ways of working together. I expect this to benefit many rural schools as well as those in the inner city. This Green Paper contains radical and modernising proposals which will help to transform the standards and status of teaching in this country. This is about something for something. For the first time in years, a commitment to invest and reward teachers in return for a new professionalism is on offer.