The Curriculum
The Structure:
Autumn Term 2024
Trainees will have one main placement for the whole of the autumn term. The course is fully immersive, which means that you will have opportunities to teach from the very start! You will begin by teaching small groups and build up to teaching whole classes as the term progresses. You will be in your placement school four days a week and undertake training at the KITE training centre in Newquay one day a week. This means that you will be able to learn new techniques, practise them and then apply them in school immediately.
Spring Term 2025
Trainees will spend some of this term in a contrasting school placement, in a different phase. This experience provides you with the opportunity to not only experience an alternative school, but to also learn how to plan, teach and assess pupils in a different phase. During this term trainees will also receive training on how to apply for positions, share their draft personal statements and have a mock interview.
End of Spring Term - Summer Term 2025
Towards the end of the spring term and for all of the summer term trainees will return to their main placement school. This will help you to strengthen existing relationships and to deepen your teaching knowledge, as well as providing continuity for your learners.
Summary of Programme Content:
Subject and curriculum knowledge: We will support you with the fundamentals, for example, why you are teaching an aspect of the curriculum, the best way to teach it, useful resource and how you can do it most successfully.
Planning for progress: How to plan effective, objective-driven lessons by observing expert colleagues, conceptualising and sequencing pupil progress over time, and creating opportunities for deeper learning and challenge for all pupils within your class.
Behaviour and relationships: How to nurture a culture of mutual trust and respect. How to create an inclusive and ambitious climate for learning, helping young people to achieve consistently high standards. How to provide a positive, predictable and safe environment for all pupils.
How students learn – inclusive pedagogy: How to ensure all our pupils experience success at the highest level by teaching new content, building on their re-existing knowledge, using explanations and modelling and diagnosing and implementing strategies for all. How to provide opportunities for practice and retrieval, so as to maximise the chances that pupils will retain new information. How to avoid overloading young people with information.
Assessment and responsive teaching: How to draw on the different forms of assessment, in order to check for learner misconceptions and measure the depth of their understanding. How to use data effectively to support the needs of the pupils in your class.
Professional behaviours: How to step into the role of a teacher and the teaching profession. What will your professional obligations be? How can you look after your own well-being? How to reflect on your own teaching practice and make use of the support around you. How to use wider networks and communities in order to strengthen your own knowledge.