“These schools demonstrate excellent practice in Initial Teacher Training, whole school staff development, and collaboration. Their worth has been recognised by Ofsted and they are a significant investment for the future.”

What are Training Schools?

Extract taken from Department of Education and Skills: The Standards Site: Training School:

The expansion of the Training Schools programme is an important part of the next phase of the Government’s plans to improve standards in education, which are described in the White Paper A New Specialist System: Transforming Secondary Education.

Training Schools demonstrate excellent practice across the range of teacher training activities, especially in initial teacher training and the continuing training of the whole school workforce. They are ambitious, imaginative and influential in these areas. They work collaboratively with others for the benefit of staff and pupils beyond their own boundaries. The Government hopes that, over time, Training Schools will be accredited in all parts of England.

Background to the programme

The establishment of Training Schools was proposed in the 1998 Green Paper ‘Teachers - meeting the challenge of change’. The proposal was for a network of high quality Training Schools to develop and disseminate good practice in initial teacher training, train mentors/school-based tutors and undertake research.

The aim of Training Schools is to build up and share good and developing ITT practice with other schools and their training providers, both within their existing partnership networks and beyond. Successful schools will already have shown good practice in teacher training and, with their new status as Training Schools, they will receive extra funding, through the Standards Fund, to carry out their training activities.

Training School Programme

Sacred Heart High School works closely with ITT providers under SWELTEC (South West London Teacher Education Consortium), The Open University, Middlesex University and more recently with the Royal Academy of Dance. The School is a recognised professional development school for trainees and a programme of training workshops forms part of Trainees' placement. Since September 2002 the Heads of RE and Geography have been associate lecturers with St Mary’s University College and the Institute of Education offering new and innovative pedagogical approaches in learning and teaching including brain based learning and G&T. As part of Beacon school activities the English and MFL departments have hosted classroom observations for trainees from our partnership HEIs. SWELTEC provides ongoing training and support for our ITT mentoring programme. In addition the School works with the West London GTP Partnership and has an ongoing programme of training GTPs each year with all successfully completing their training to QTS standards.

The School has forged strong links with the LEA, local schools secondary, primary and St Charles Catholic VIth Form College to offer training and development for trainees. There are collaborative arrangements for exchange placements for GTPs and NQTs in a range of educational contexts including the London Oratory, Fulham Cross, Sacred Heart Junior and St Mary’s primary schools and the VIth Form College. The School plays a major part in the delivery of the LEA NQT programme acting as the lead school, hosting the annual welcome and one day conference and offering a planned programme of training each term. As part of its commitment to CPD and dissemination of good practice the School has undertaken to pilot work with 2&3 year teachers as part of the LEA R&R strategy. The School works collaboratively with the Diocese and has offered training to all RE departments on good practice in ICT.

The School can offer placements to trainees considering any of the following:

Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)

For entry to postgraduate Initial Teacher Training, you will need a relevant degree or equivalent qualification. For secondary teaching most providers require a degree in the subject to be taught or a closely-related one.

It usually takes a year to complete a postgraduate ITT programme and to achieve Qualified Teacher Status, although you may be able to extend or shorten the length of your training to suit your particular needs and circumstances. Generally, you'll spend at least 24 weeks of the year in school if you are pursuing secondary school teaching. You will be trained by school-based and higher education tutors.

Overseas Trained Teachers

If you qualified as a school teacher in another country you will need to gain Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) before you can work as a permanent, qualified teacher in England.

The TTA's Overseas Trained Teacher Programme gives Overseas Trained Teachers (OTTs) the opportunity to gain QTS while they work in a school.

There are special arrangements which give Overseas Trained Teachers the option of presenting themselves for QTS assessment without further training. If an OTT needs training to help them prepare for QTS assessment, the TTA will pay up to £750 training grant to the Recommending Body.

On the OTT programme the school pays the trainee's salary. Overseas Trained Teachers with at least two years' teaching experience may be eligible for assessment against the Induction Standards and QTS Standards at the same time.

Return to Teaching (RTT)

As part of the training, teachers who have been out of the profession for more than five years follow a combination of University and school-based training in order to update their competencies in line with Qualifying to Teach.

RTT teachers are required to organise a placement in a school. This placement is for a total of 10 days. RTT teachers work in the subject department, initially observing then building up to support the whole class teaching.

Programmes for Graduates

Through its status as a training school, Sacred Heart High School is committed to training and recruiting teachers through a wide variety of routes. In the past, the GTP has provided a valuable route enabling us to “home grow” our own teachers.

As many more graduates are choosing the GTP as a preferred route for training, the School has put in place a more formal structure as part of the selection process to ensure we get the right calibre of trainee.

As training and teaching is a demanding activity it is essential that the applicant has the personal qualities appropriate for teaching.

During the applicants time in the School we will be assessing their:

• potential to relate well to pupils
• breadth of interest in their subject including current educational issues
• energy and stamina for life in school
• general interpersonal skills when relating to adults
• openess to constructive criticism
• enthusiasm to their subject and the prospect of teaching

Evidence of the applicant’s suitability and personal qualities will be sought from across the School visit and in particular from the classroom observation and subsequent discussion with staff about their experience.

For example this might include:

• checking that the applicant looks at ease with pupils across the age range
• their apparent enjoyment of their chosen subject
• their ability to talk to pupils and ask them questions
• the way they talk about their classroom experience and what they observed about teaching and learning
• their natural enthusiasm and wishing to find out more.