[3] A provisional committee was set up in early 1846 under the chairmanship of Henry Stein Turrell (1815–1863), principal of the Montpelier House School in Brighton.
Some 300 schoolmasters attended, some 60 members enrolled and founding resolutions were passed, including: The college created a system for the formal examination and qualification of secondary school teachers.
It was also one of the first bodies to examine and provide certificates for secondary school pupils of both sexes, from all over England and Wales, in a wide variety of subjects.
During the 1950s the college pioneered management training schemes for teachers (at the time these were known as school administration courses).
[9] Under the 1849 Charter the objects of the college were: 'promoting sound learning and of advancing the interests of education more especially among the middle Classes by affording facilities to the Teacher for the acquiring of a sound knowledge of his Profession and by providing for the Periodical Session of a competent Board of Examiners to ascertain and give Certificates of the acquirements and fitness for their office of persons engaged or desiring to be engaged in the Education of Youth particularly in the Private Schools of England and Wales' The current objects of the college, since 2017, are: 'the promotion of sound learning and the improvement and recognition of the art, science and practice of teaching for the public benefit'[2] The Chartered College of Teaching has the following membership designations or post-nominals.