51����

Kelly traces her passion for teacher training back to the start of her own training journey. Initially working in a corporate job in London, she saved up to finance her undergraduate degree and Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). 

“I want to give people the opportunity to have the social mobility that I did – and teacher training can do that.”

Starting her teaching career over 20 years ago, Kelly worked in a secondary school with some of the highest special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), children with free school meals and deprivation levels in the country.

“While it could be incredibly challenging, I felt that I was making the greatest difference to those children with the most challenging starting points.”

Kelly's role progressed to include mentoring and supporting teacher training in her school, as well as subject and pastoral leadership responsibilities. She has been integral to the development of Tes Institute’s ITT programme and, this year, took over as head of programme delivery.

“As a teacher, I started off with that passion to make a difference to an individual pupil as well as a whole class and I did work at that very granular level to support children. Getting a child to hold a pen correctly or supporting a child who is a regular absentee to attend is the achievement.

“To go from teaching pupils to training the adults to teach the pupils is a massive responsibility. But I can't describe how much I love my job. Being there from the start of Tes Institute’s ITT programme, seeing the increase in trainees and in the school partners that we work with, I feel immensely proud of what we have achieved in the last few years and the impact we have on children in schools.”

Teaching ethos

“For me, it’s all about why we teach – why is education important? We talk about education being the catalyst for development: for individuals, families and communities. Being part of that development is the reason I do what I do.”

In terms of teaching in the classroom, inclusion is a key driver for Kelly and is a key thread woven throughout Tes Insititute’s ITT programme.

“As well as my experience teaching pupils with varying levels of need, my youngest son has a disability, and my inclusive practice has further developed alongside my understanding of what it's like to be a parent supporting a child with a disability.

“Often, the term ‘inclusive education’ becomes synonymous with education for children with SEND. While this may still be the primary motivation for inclusive education, successful inclusive practice will be successful for all children. One of the biggest challenges for teachers and school leaders is ensuring an inclusive environment for all children irrespective of their starting points, backgrounds or perceived barriers to learning.

“We created our vision for inclusion on our ITT programme to ensure that every trainee teacher is equipped with the knowledge and practice to break down any potential barriers to participation, belonging, opportunity and learning.”

Aims of Tes Initial Teacher Training

Currently, Tes Institute is the second largest school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) provider in the country, in terms of trainee teachers that we train and qualify each year. Our school partnerships are vital, Kelly explains. 

“We work together with lead partners that know their schools well, so they are best placed to recruit and train teachers that will support their local communities. We are the accredited provider responsible for the design and delivery of ITT in their partner schools, but we want to ensure people know who our lead partners are, how integral they are and the great work they do.”

Tes Institute’s ITT programme is a training route for teachers to gain qualified teacher status (QTS) with an optional PGCE. Kelly describes being part of trainee teachers’ journey into the profession and seeing their outcomes as confident and competent teachers making a difference with children, as “an immense privilege”.

The programme, training hundreds of teachers each year, aims to have a positive impact on teacher recruitment in the education sector.

“It’s so important to ensure that those schools that find it really difficult to recruit staff have a pipeline of teachers coming into the profession.”

Why learners love Tes Institute’s Initial Teacher Training programme

A lot of the growth of Tes Institute’s ITT programme has happened through word of mouth. Kelly often hears from learners and schools, years after they have gone through the programme, reflecting on their positive experiences – due to the quality of the professional development that it provides.

“We have a very well-planned, systematic and robust approach to quality assurance. We quality assure every aspect of the course at all levels. From our trainee feedback committees, to our pathway tutors visiting trainees in their placement schools, assuring that the mentors and schools are meeting our high expectations for high-quality teacher training.

“Quality assurance outcomes will be the focus of our next phase of improvement planning, which happens on a half-termly basis. We look at what's going well and what we could do to develop the programme further.”

The team continually engages with the latest research on effective teaching and learning using this to inform curriculum developments – which already embeds the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF).

“Our ITT curriculum is very rigorous. Many of our trainees come back when they're early career teachers or qualified teachers with praise for their training year, saying how well it has set them up for their teaching journey ahead.”

Learners also praise the flexible and engaging online sessions – which are designed by Tes’ expert content team and continually updated in line with the latest best practice in online learning.

What support is available for learners on Tes Institute’s Initial Teacher Training programme? 

All learners have weekly meetings with an experienced in-school mentor who will be on hand day to day for support throughout the course.

“As well as having an expectation from the DfE to train and develop high-quality mentors on ITT, we know that having a good mentor can make a positive difference to your experience as a trainee. So training, engaging and developing great mentors who will go on to support our trainees well is a big responsibility and a key part of what we do.”

Learners are appointed a subject- or phase-specific pathway tutor, too. They are there to coach and support, with regular feedback and school visits.

“Our lead partners also provide regular face-to-face workshops, to support you to contextualise your training, discuss your developing practice and build a local network of phase- and subject-specialist peers.”

Impact in the classroom 

Kelly explains that the Tes Institute ITT team are very conscious of context when developing a training programme to deliver in schools with varying characteristics and geographical regions.   

“We work closely with our lead partners to make sure that the school-based element on our ITT programme is consistently having the greatest possible impact for trainees and schools.” 

Kelly credits the extensive education expertise within the Tes Institute ITT programme team for its success in classrooms around the country.  

“We have quite a team of ex-teachers and school leaders who now deliver our ITT programme. We use our collective experience to make sure that every trainee receives the best provision. 

“Listening to our trainees talk about their practice...observing them applying their training in their own classroom teaching...it's truly amazing to see the impact the programme has."

Kelly’s advice for a learner on Tes Institute’s Initial Teacher Training programme 

“Teaching is one of the most important professions: you are responsible for developing young people. So you have to be sure that you want to do it – but if you are sure, you will love this programme. It will be the best course that you've engaged with. You'll feel your knowledge growing and see your practice developing.

“Headteachers talk about how our trainees stand apart...and they often attribute that to the quality of the training they received. So if you're willing to work hard on our programme and take every opportunity that's offered to you, you will be the best possible teacher you could be.”

Training to become a reflective practitioner is a key element of Tes Institute’s ITT programme.

“All good teachers need to reflect on any gaps or areas for development in their practice, and what they need to work on next. But they must also remember to make time, too, to acknowledge their strengths and the impact they are having on their schools and pupils. In education, if you're in it for the right reasons, you’re probably doing a good job.”

The future of Tes Institute’s Initial Teacher Training programme

Kelly explains that the Tes Institute ITT programme team operate in a constant cycle of evaluation and development.

“One of our mission statements at Tes is ‘we never stand still’. I think that really does epitomise what we do on the ITT programme. We're always looking for the next development or evolution of teacher training.”

This often means that trainees on the Tes Institute ITT programme bring the latest best practice on teaching and learning to their school. So, trainees and their schools can stay ahead of the curve by being part of the programme.

“We develop our ITT curriculum to ensure our trainees are ready for the next educational development.

“When we work with a school, they'll often tell us that they've also received effective, high-quality CPD through supporting a trainee on our programme, because we’ve introduced them to new research or pedagogies.

“It’s humbling to know that we’re driving change within schools, too.”
 

Loved hearing from Kelly? Find out more about the ITT course and meet the rest of our inspiring programme leaders in our Spotlight series collection.