One of the country's biggest providers of newly-trained teachers is branching out with its educational expertise.

The University of Cumbria has launched its own Learning Education and Development (LED) Research Centre.

The centre is led by Professor Pete Boyd and aims to publish high-quality educational research.

It also wants to support teachers and practitioners to investigate and improve their own classroom offerings through research carried out in their schools and settings.

Prof Boyd was in Carlisle earlier this week to address scores of teachers at the university's Fusehill Street campus.

It followed an event at the university's Lancaster campus where the LED Centre was launched and a range of issues impacting on the current education system were raised by delegates.

The work of the new research centre will complement the University of Cumbria’s existing partnerships it has with more than 1,000 schools.

It also continues to be a leading provider of newly-qualified teachers.

Professor Pete Boyd, director of the new centre, said his vision was for it to become the 'go-to-partner in the North West' for schools and teachers who want to improve education and raise standards.

He said: "Our vision is to build long-term partnerships and collaborate with teachers in developing research-informed practice.

"We will be publishing high-quality educational research papers and helping teachers to identify and investigate learning issues within their classroom.

"The teachers are the experts in children’s learning and our role is to help them, through research, to improve practice in the classroom."

He said that since the 1980s education had been “treated as if it were a free market” and there had been “frequent mistakes and erratic decisions by ministers that have ignored the research evidence.”

He added: "These errors have created inequalities and considerable challenges for schools, for the supply of new teachers and for parents and children trying to make their way successfully through the education system.

"By providing research mentoring and brokering of research evidence, our aim is to support head teachers and teachers to confidently and collectively lead their schools and raise the attainment and wider success of children and young people."

Emeritus Professor Barry Hymer, a former primary and secondary school teacher and educational psychologist, called the centre's potential “far-reaching”.

"There is a role for OFSTED and a degree of moderation is required in schools and every parent should know that their child has access to a good teacher. But, the system at the moment is not right," he said.

"We should be letting teachers research and critically analyse their teaching and education standards would significantly increase."

In his keynote speech to the Lancaster conference, Prof Hymer blasted a standardised system and expressed his hopes for a system where children were seen as individuals.

He added: "If we enable practitioners to make informed decisions based on knowledge of their own school, then something brilliant can happen."

Dr Alison Jackson, director of the Teacher Education Advancement Network (TEAN), an independent support service for teacher educators, also praised the initiative, saying it would “raise the status of research in education.”

Matt Savidge, head teacher at Millom School, Cumbria, has already set up research groups within his school.

He said: “The LED is a really good idea. Giving teachers the time to reflect on their practice and look at what works and what does not is important and the support we can get from the university in doing this will be very helpful.”