How the programme works

In July, Teach West London will induct all successful candidates. In doing so, trainee teachers will be introduced to the basic tools for beginning to teach in the classroom from the outset of the foundation phase.

The training year is split up into 3 main training phases:

Foundation Phase

  • During this training phase (September – December), the foundations for a career in teaching will be built. Trainee teachers will have the opportunity to observe expert colleagues and learn from them whilst based in their main placement school.
  • As a fully immersive school-centred training programme, trainee teachers will be teaching from the beginning of the academic year.
  • Trainee teachers on the non-salaried route will have a small teaching timetable, which will increment throughout the year, although they are supernumerary and will have other colleagues in the classroom with them.
  • Trainee teachers on the salaried route may have a larger timetable to begin with, which may also increment throughout the year and they may be required to teach on their own.

Development Phase

  • As well as being in the main placement school, during this phase (January – March), trainee teachers will also complete a second placement for 20 days in a contrasting school.
  • This will broaden their experience and will provide the opportunity for them to develop as a resilient and reflective practitioner whilst simultaneously developing their teaching and learning skills.

Consolidation Phase

  • During the final phase (April – July) of the training year, trainee teachers will be based at their main placement school. This is when they will consolidate what they have learnt during their initial teacher training year through an increased teaching timetable.
  • This will enable trainee teachers to not only refine their pedagogical practice but also develop into a skilled and confident practitioner, who is ready to begin their ECT years. By the end of the teacher training year, trainee teachers will teach 80% of a qualified teacher’s timetable.

 

At Teach West London we believe that bespoke support is vital to ensuring that our trainee teachers have a successful training year. Our trainee teachers will be supported throughout every step of their journey into becoming a qualified teacher.

Whilst at school, trainee teachers will be supported by their mentor, who will work closely with them every day at every step of the way. In addition, they will also have a professional co-ordinating mentor or someone who co-ordinates all the trainee teachers, who will monitor their progress and support them throughout their learning journey.

At Teach West London, each trainee teacher will have a phase lead, who is responsible for co-ordinating and leading the weekly professional learning sessions. They too will monitor progress and provide bespoke support to ensure that each trainee teacher makes the intended progress to gain QTS. Additionally, a lead mentor from Teach West London will also be working with trainee teachers and will visit them regularly whilst on school placement.

 

During the initial teacher training year, through a partnership between Teach West London and each placement school, trainee teachers will not only learn but have opportunity to practise and apply your learning in the classroom. Teach West London’s ITT Curriculum will cover some of the following areas of learning:

  • Professional Behaviours – What it really means to be a teacher in a school and what else teachers do outside of the classroom, how to build professional relationships with all the different stakeholders and communicate with them, how to effectively deploy support staff, how to act on the advice of expert colleague, how you can look after your own wellbeing, and manage your workload.
  • Subject & Curriculum – School curriculums, the phase-specific and subject-specific knowledge that teachers need to have and how they can develop this, what specific subject pedagogy needs to be used to teach a subject effectively, how you as a teacher promote scholarship and literacy, how to teach phonics and early maths.
  • Expectations & Behaviour – How teachers create a safe learning environment, how teachers create high expectations and rules and routines from the start of the year, how to manage pupil behaviour and nurture mutual respect.
  • How Pupils Learn – How pupils learn how pupils of different age groups, ability etc are capable of building on their pre-existing knowledge, understand how to implement modelling and the use of explanations for pupil learning, how to incorporate opportunities for practice and retrieval so that pupils will retain new learning, how to avoid overloading pupils with too much information.
  • Classroom Practice – How to plan lessons effectively, how to plan for other learning activities outside of the classroom, learn how to plan for short-term, medium-term and long-term by creating schemes of learning, and how be a reflective practitioner.
  • Assessment – How to draw on different forms of assessment to check on pupils’ misconceptions and measure the depth of their knowledge and understanding, how to provide effective and meaningful feedback, how to use the data to support the needs of your pupils.
  • Adaptive Teaching – How to adapt teaching to make it inclusive for all pupils and to meet their specific needs, understand the barriers that pupils have towards learning, as well understanding how children develop.

 

Throughout the year, a trainee teacher’s progress in terms of knowledge, understanding and application, will be assessed based on our ITT curriculum, which meets and exceeds the requirements of the Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework. Ongoing formative assessment will be carried out by each mentor at the placement school.

This will be in the form of lesson observations, target setting, professional dialogue, reflections etc. Each trainee teachers’ progress will be tracked through 5 formative assessment points during the year. The final assessment will be based on the Teachers’ Standards, which will be assessed by both the school mentor and Teach West London staff.

 

Contact us about teacher training with Teach West London