Do natural teachers need qualifications? The schools" special freedoms have had implications for the staff they have recruited. One in 10 teachers at free schools do not have qualified teacher status (QTS), the accreditation, often gained through a one-year PGCE university course, which is demanded in council-run state schools but not in the private sector. The problem is that Labour and the Liberal Democrats now say every free school teacher must either have, or be obtaining, QTS, regardless of their background. Come a change of power in 2015, Howard Bowden, despite a Cambridge degree in his subject and decades of teaching experience at independent schools, would likely need to get accreditation or find a new job. The 53-year-old says, with some understatement, that he "wouldn't be too happy" about that. I would like to think so many years on the job would excuse anybody from having to go through that scenario. I am not convinced it would make me a more effective teacher in this stage of my career. It is not only those who began teaching decades ago who face such a quandary. Anita Zarska, 28, has just taken up a job at the newly created East London Science School teaching 11-year-olds chemistry. Under the proposed rules, she might have her career cut short unless she goes back to school. Some might say she has spent long enough in education already: Zarska was studying for a PhD in molecular biology at Drexel University in Philadelphia when she begun tutoring undergraduates. She then spent 18 months educating struggling teenagers in San Diego, followed by a year working as a teaching assistant in a London academy school, before she took up her current job. Her hands-on training, she believes, has made her a good teacher: "I feel that I have enough knowledge of the students" emotional and psychological development to do my job well." She fears, too, that banning unqualified teachers from free schools will drive other young hopefuls into the private sector. I see people who have done so much training in their field that the idea of doing additional training puts them off. They think, 'Look, I have trained as a scientist for eight years or 15 years, why do I need to prove that I can do science?"" One of the ironies of this debate is how prevalent unqualified teachers are in some of the country's most prestigious schools, as the politicians behind these proposals know all too well. Westminster School was packed with Oxbridge graduates lacking accreditation while Nick Clegg studied there, according to contemporaries. Tristram Hunt has admitted teaching at schools in his Stoke constituency in the past, despite lacking the credentials now deemed requisite. If private schools can hire unqualified teachers, ask some, why should free schools be constrained? The ability to attract teachers with experience that they would not gain through traditional routes enriches the education on offer, argues Dr Mark Evans, the principal at Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form, a free school in Norwich. But can unqualified teachers produce the same results as trained ones? "Undoubtedly they can, if they possess that nebulous quality that is teacher expertise," he says. I don't think there is any need to ban anybody from teaching if they are unqualified, as long as you are confident they have the skills and abilities to teach effectively. He singles out a recent hiring to make his point - a university lecturer who has agreed to teach A Level psychology alongside his main job. Dr Simon Hampton's CV is difficult to fault: a first-class degree from the London School of Economics; a PhD from Durham; a decade lecturing at the University of East Anglia and a handful of academic articles to his name. He is just the type of desirable teacher that the free school system can attract, believes Dr Evans. Despite not being officially qualified to teach, Dr Hampton thinks his years in academia have given him enough training. "I have a very good idea as to why some students who get three As at A Level struggle at university and why some with a B and two Cs don't," he notes. It is the difference between coaching pupils to pass exams and preparing them for thinking at a higher level, in his view. Would he continue to work at the school if Clegg's plans came into force? Probably not, Dr Hampton says. I am able to fit in work at Sir Isaac's but I could not fit in QTS on top of that. It would be a step too far in terms of demand on my time. The implications of the proposed plans could go beyond an exodus of talented teachers lacking the necessary certificate, however. They also threaten to undermine new schools currently in the pipeline. One such school is hoping to capitalise on the simple yet compelling idea that army veterans can be inspirational teachers. The plan from Tom Burkard, a former soldier, to staff a new secondary school in Oldham entirely with ex-servicemen has been praised by Michael Gove and was approved by the Department of Education in May. As it is, the Phoenix Free School is due to open its doors next September - but a looming ban on veterans without qualifications taking classes would reduce drastically the pool of candidates to fill its six full-time teaching roles. Burkard is scornful of the idea that a career in the army is an inadequate training for the classroom. "I have learnt more in two weeks during a methods-of-instruction course in the army than anybody would ever learn through a three-year bachelor education course," he says. This notion that the QTS is giving us any kind of quality control is just a sick joke. And yet unqualified veterans, alongside those with degrees, PhDs and fellowships in the subject they hope to teach, would find themselves out in the cold if Nick Clegg's plans come into force. For those already in teaching posts, an anxious wait has begun. Still, looking back to his Cambridge days, Howard Bowden doesn't regret going straight into the classroom. For him, it was logical. "It felt like the right decision," he says. One learnt on the job.