Training starts on the job for new recruits

The White Rose Teaching Alliance is training prospective teachers under the Schools Direct programme.

The alliance includes King James’s School in Knaresborough which leads the partnership along with Stokesley School, Thirsk School and Sixth Form College and two Leeds schools, Allerton Grange and the independent Grammar School at Leeds.

Each trainee is sent to two of the five schools in the partnership during the course of their training.

The White Rose Teaching Alliance’s co-ordinator, Margaret Newsome, said: “The first
cohort has made an excellent start because of the programme we’ve set up and the strong
bond we formed with the trainees even before term
began.

“We’ve had a lot of input into the recruitment and induction process and will have continual contact throughout the year with trainees, who benefit from the varied school contexts we can provide. We hope that at the end of the course there will be employment for them within the partner schools.”

One of the first recruits is Dan Evans who decided his future lay in teaching while he was working as an English language assistant in a school in Germany during his degree course.

Now he is training to be a French and German teacher, and said: “School Direct with White Rose Alliance means that as teaching trainees we have got stuck in right from the start. Each trainee is attached to a pastoral group and takes part in extra-curricular activities – this interaction with students outside lessons is a massive part of being a teacher.”

He added: “Each school in the alliance has something unique to offer, providing us with lots of different experience that will stand us in good stead when we apply for a first teaching post.”