School Centres for Excellence

The NSW Minister for Education and Training Verity Firth today announced the first round of schools to become Centres for Excellence to develop high quality teaching and improve teacher training.

"NSW is locating Centres for Excellence in 13 primary and secondary schools around the state, from next year. By 2011, 50 Centres for Excellence will be located in every region," Ms Firth said.

"Each Centre will form the 'hub' for a cluster of schools which will extend the benefits to a further 200 schools across the state through Connected Classroom technology."

Ms Firth said the Centres would be similar to teaching hospitals and would allow the next generation of teachers to observe high quality teaching firsthand.

"Established staff at the school will also have their skills refreshed through the increased university presence and focus on teacher professional development.

"The schools that have been selected are consistently achieving strong results which are an indication of high quality teaching.

"We want to ensure our teachers receive the best training possible," Ms Firth said.

Schools wills be linked to a university which will be able to send its teaching students to the school at any time during their course rather than the traditional internship.

The Centres are an initiative under the Smarter Schools National Partnerships, a Rudd Government funding package worth $720 million over five years for NSW.

Each Centre for Excellence will receive additional resources, including a Highly Accomplished Teacher and start-up funding.