The Grand Union Training Partnership
The Grand Union Training Partnership is a school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) consortium centred on four 11-18 comprehensive schools situated in villages and small towns West of Northampton. As well as these four partnership schools the scheme has close ties with a further four Associate Schools, two of which are in Milton Keynes. Most of our recruits come from the Northampton and the Milton Keynes area and the scheme is very conscious of its role in training local people for employment in their home area.
We provide Secondary PGCE courses, validated by The University of Leicester, in Business Studies, English, History, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages and Science. We aim to give trainees, whom we refer to as Associate Teachers, as much practical experience of working in the partnership schools as possible. Each Associate Teacher's work and programme of study is supervised by a Mentor who will take a close interest in your development as a subject teacher and colleague. This part of the course is complemented by a general professional studies programme provided in co-operation with The University of Leicester.
Our overall aim is to produce reflective professionals confident in applying for and starting their first jobs as secondary school teachers. Over half of our Associate Teachers take up their first teaching posts in the schemes partnership schools.
Our Trainees
Associate Teachers are selected from a wide age range with a good balance of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Some will be straight from university; others may have had considerable experience of another career. A majority of our Associate Teachers come from within a 25 mile radius of the partnership schools.
We value the experiences that our Associate Teachers bring with them and we try to be flexible in meeting their particular needs when placing them in their host schools.
Some special features of this course
- As a school centred scheme we are able to ensure that Associate Teachers are involved in the classroom right from the start of the course, observing experienced teachers teach and then gradually developing their confidence and ability to take an increasing responsibility for the planning and delivery of lessons.
- Associate Teachers form close working relationships with their mentors and with other colleagues in the departments in which they are placed.
- The views of the Associate Teachers are valued: they attend regular 'consultative committee' meetings so that concerns and suggestions can be responded to and acted upon.
How this course is organised
- A typical week would involve: general professional studies sessions provided by staff from The University of Leicester and further sessions of an even more practical nature provided by teachers in the partnership schools; a regular meeting with your mentor and a subject-specific training session provided by one of the team of subject mentors; and regular time spent in the classroom observing colleagues or being observed yourself at work in the classroom.
- There are two block teaching practices during the course. The shorter one in the second half term which takes place in your host school and a 10 week practice which begins in February and which takes place in one of the other partnership schools. During these teaching practices the pattern of training sessions is suspended but you do continue the pattern of weekly sessions with a mentor throughout the course.
Arrangements for teaching placements
- Associate teachers spend the first week of the course observing in a primary school.
- From the second week of the course Associate Teachers are based in one of the partnership schools except for the ten weeks of their main block practice when they will be placed in one of the other schools in the partnership.
What is taught on this course
- Subject knowledge
- Teaching methodology
- ICT skills
- General professional studies topics such as how children learn, education in a multi-ethnic society etc.
- What it is to be fully involved in all aspects of the life of the host school.
Assessment
Assessment is by a variety of methods:
- A portfolio of evidence built up over the full course
- A standards log to measure your progress against the TTA standards as in Qualifying to Teach
- A number of short written tasks and three longer assignments which aim to develop powers of observation and reflection, the ability to relate published data to your own classroom research and, finally, the ability to experiment with different teaching styles and methodologies.
Career opportunities
Our graduates say that the course is the best type of preparation for working in a school. All those who have successfully completed the course in the last three years have taken up careers in teaching, many of them in the area and, indeed, 80% of those who completed the course in 2005 took up positions in local schools.