Schools in teacher training alliance

The Grammar School at Leeds is teaming up with Allerton Grange in the city, King James’s in Knaresborough, Thirsk School and Sixth Form College and Stokesley School to create new training opportunities.

The White Rose Alliance (WRA) is the latest partnership to be formed under the Government’s School Direct programme which has been created by the Department for Education as an alternative way of getting qualified teacher status to the traditional university route. In its first year the WRA will offer on-the-job training to eight graduates. Two trainees teachers have been piloting the scheme this year.

There are plans to expand it to up to 30 places in future and to include more schools as part of the partnership.

The programme is being led by King James’s. The school’s deputy head teacher, Dr Carole Walton, said: “The School Direct programme puts schools at the heart of teacher training and enables us to have more influence and control over the way that teachers are trained.

“Student teachers who choose the White Rose Alliance will benefit from our proven track record in bringing teachers into the profession through high quality training. They will have the added advantage of experiencing classroom life in five educational establishments which reflect the rich diversity of our region.”

She said one of the main benefits of the School Direct approach is that students applying would know where they were going to be trained while the schools have a greater say in both the candidates they train and the material being delivered.

“Under the traditional route for initial teacher training people would apply to a university without knowing where it was they would be doing their training,” she added.

In September places at WRA schools will be available in English, mathematics, history, geography, biology, chemistry, French and German.

Trainees will be based at two of the five schools in the partnership during their training. They will also follow an educational and professional studies programme at King James’s School, covering general issues such as behaviour management, lesson planning and pupil assessment.

Dr Walton said: “One of the main attractions of this training for many people will be the amount of time spent in the classroom with pupils. Our trainee teachers will be working and studying in our schools, so it really is a hands-on experience.

“The schools in the partnership have a strong track record of training teachers and the alliance gives people the chance to train in a variety of different settings. People might want to train in a private school even though they will end up working in the state sector and vice versa.

“The greater the breadth of experience a trainee gets the more it will benefit them. It helps them to decide what type of school they want to work in and it helps them to develop different skills.”

The year-long course will include lectures, tutorials and seminars and is being supported by Leeds University which will accredit the programme.

Successful students will achieve a PGCE with qualified teacher status and 60 points towards a master’s degree. They could also be considered for relevant jobs which become available within the WRA partnership schools.

The application process has just been launched with candidates able to apply through the Ucas teacher training system.

Dr Walton said: “We will be holding a number of selection events from December and will be recruiting students on a rolling basis over the next few months.

“Before that though, we will be at the University of Leeds PGCE recruitment event on Friday November 29, so anyone who wants to find out more can come and have a chat with us there.”