Train to teach

Teacher Training through the St Joseph’s College SCITT

St Joseph’s College SCITT is an accredited provider of Initial Teacher Training (Secondary and Primary).  School Centered Initial Teacher Training programme is now in its sixth year and has delivered excellent outcomes for its trainees, as well as demonstrating impressive rates of completion and employment for our trainees. We offer attractive incentives for maths applicants, through the Stoke Mathematics Excellence Partnership. For all other subjects there may be bursaries available from NCTL.

Our 11-16 programme offers the trainee a high degree of classroom experience, undertaken with the support of experienced mentors.  Additional support is provided to the trainee via our well- established, bespoke programme of professional and subject development sessions.  These are delivered by both outstanding classroom practitioners and Specialist Leaders of Education.  The programme is immersive and allows you to develop a full understanding of a teacher’s roles and responsibilities, thus ensuring you will be well-prepared to step into this rewarding career.

In addition to the main placement, trainees also conduct a short placement in a partner school and all trainees have the opportunity to gain experience of teaching their subject at post-16 level.

In 2019-20 we will be offering training placements in the following subject areas:

*If you are thinking of applying for these shortage subject areas, then please talk to us about our attractive incentives.

The School Direct Training Programme is open to graduates and we are offering 2 routes to QTS:

• Salaried School Direct
  Open to graduates with three or more years’ career experience post-degree and good honours degrees. Trainees will be employed as an unqualified teacher with a salary subsidised by the National College for Teaching and Leadership, and paid from the lead school you train in.
• Non-salaried School Direct and SCITT
  Open to graduates fresh from university with good honours degrees. Trainees will pay a £9,000 fee for their training year but may be eligible for attractive bursaries from the National College for Teaching and Leadership dependent on subject and degree classification.

The course structure is the same irrespective of the route and you can expect to gain placements and training in schools within our partnership that have highly successful experience of initial teacher training (ITT). St Joseph’s College, a Teaching School and judged as outstanding by Ofsted in every category, excels at training and developing their staff and is also a partnership school.

Entry criteria

In order to train to teach you must have the following:

• GCSE Mathematics and English at grade C or above
• An honours degree of 2:2 or above in a relevant subject area

Once an offer has been made you will also need to successfully complete the government’s skills tests prior to taking up any training position.

It is strongly recommended that you gain experience in a secondary school setting prior to interview in order to strengthen your application and to help you understand what a career in teaching entails.  St Joseph’s College participates in the School Experience Programme and you can book experience through the SEP website.  Please contact Angela Davies if there are no suitable dates on this website and we will do our best to match your availability.

The Assessment Only (AO) route

The Assessment Only (AO) route is a self-funded route to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) that does not require a period of training.  It is suitable for very experienced graduate practitioners from UK or overseas who have taught in at least two schools in the UK but do not have QTS. Candidates will need to demonstrate that they are able to meet all the standards for QTS without further training.

The AO is a route to QTS only.  Candidates who have withdrawn from, failed or been turned down for other QTS routes will not normally be considered for the AO route.

How long should the AO process take?

Once accepted candidates are expected to qualify in 12 weeks.

How can I find out more and register my interest in this route?

• Assessment Only route to QTS
• Expression of interest form
• Teacher subject specialism training privacy notice