THE Quay School in Poole has been selected as one of 81 new teaching school hubs.

Rolled out by the Department for Education, these school hubs, backed by £65 million of Government funding, will join the six selected last year.

The idea is for all of the 87 hubs, each covering a geographical patch of around 250 schools, to provide professional development for teachers at any stage of their career. They will also provide expert advice on how best to engage with pupils, lesson planning and classroom management.

The Quay School, part of the Delta Education Trust, is one of two school's in Dorset – the other, as already reported in the Echo, being Bournemouth's Glenmoor Academy.

John White, chief executive officer of Delta Education Trust, said: "The teaching school hub is the culmination of many hours of work, not only by The Quay School, but by the many local partner schools and organisations who supported this project.

"We are excited to be leading this collaborative hub and look forward to the support we can bring to schools and the people who work in them."

The Quay School's hub will be working with 256 schools in Dorset, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Councillor Nicola Greene, portfolio holder for education at BCP Council, said: "We are delighted to hear that The Quay School will be at the heart of a teaching school hub awarded in the recent review and application process.

"The school is outstanding both in Ofsted terms and also in its collaboration and partnership with others.

“The teaching school hub will work collaboratively with other teaching schools, with ourselves and with schools across BCP and Dorset to improve the outcomes for pupils and students.

"We hope the hub can build on other successful networks in the BCP area as well as develop new ones.

“We are committed to ensuring that the BCP city region becomes one of the best places in which children can live, learn and grow up, and we look forward to working together on making outcomes and learning recover and thrive from 2021 onwards.”