The first round of successful bids to the Government’s £2 million scholarship fund for teachers announced on 13 December 2011 included funding for a Masters in Applied Linguistics.
The national scholarship fund for teachers was set up to help existing teachers in England to develop their skills and help them deepen their subject knowledge. The awards were directed towards further learning in 4 areas - the priority subjects of English, maths, science and the priority area of SEN. A total of 280 scholarships were awarded to staff working in priority subjects, including one award to support an MA in Applied Linguistics.
Almost 2,000 teachers applied for the scheme, offering scholarships worth up to £3,500 each and 671 were successful, including 391 scholarships for special educational needs (SEN) teachers. The scheme is open to both school and LA employed teachers and the first round of the scholarships were awarded based on the following criteria:
- priority subjects/specialism – to include English, maths, science and SEN
- support from school – teachers will be required to demonstrate support from their school in terms of accessing resources and being able to carry out activities within and outside the school, and
- level and type of scholarship activity – encourages serving teachers to pursue knowledge independently to masters level and beyond.
As one in seven pupils in England are now learning English as an Additional Language, we look forward to EAL-related study featuring strongly within the next round of scholarships awarded. A listing of Masters level courses currently being offered by institutions can be found at /eal-professional-development/course-listings/
The national scholarship fund for teachers is administered by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). The next round of applications for the scholarship funding is due to open in spring 2012 but as yet no dates or details are available. Further information can be found at http://www.tda.gov.uk/teacher/developing-career/national-scholarship-fund-for-teachers.aspx
