Minimum degree required: Lower Second Degree

Prior to admission to the programme, all applicants are required by the NCTL to have: – normally a degree (with a 2:2 or above) or an equivalent qualification in a subject relevant to the proposed main teaching subject.

Candidates should ensure that they clearly indicate their achieved or predicted degree grade and, if graduated within the past 5 years, at least one academic reference should be supplied.

GCSE Maths, English and Science
GCSE Mathematics, English and Science at Grade C or above

Further information on EU accepted equivalences can also be found here.

General guidance
We are looking for ambitious trainee teachers who are passionate and enthusiastic about working with primary aged children.

Your commitment should be demonstrated by meaningful experience of working with children of this age. For example, you may have been involved with some work with children in previous jobs or on a voluntary basis. You may have direct experience in schools through visits which you have organised or through some other scheme. You may have done some tutoring of other learners, again this might be in a variety of contexts, perhaps in your own school days, as a friend or neighbour or in a more formal setting. We will also expect you to be able to write in your application about what interests you in teaching, what you think you have to offer and what you think you have to learn.

We will expect you to have some basic ICT skills to build on but will not necessarily expect these to be directly linked to how ICT is used in teaching that will be part of your work on the programme.

We expect applicants to come from a wide range of backgrounds and, therefore, with a wide range of skills. This is a strength of the programme as it allows us to use your differences so that you can learn from one another. Some student teachers will come straight from a first degree, some will be making a fairly early career change, some will be returning to study and work after spending time bringing up children and some will be changing career later in life. All are very welcome and we believe our School Direct Programme is enriched by this variety.

The Interview
Bussage Primary School will be coordinating the recruitment process and will be hosting interviews on behalf of CETA. Senior members of staff from our primary schools and a representative from Bath Spa University will be fully involved in the formal interviews.

If you are invited for interview, you will receive full details of what will be expected of you in a letter of invitation. You will be expected to be familiar with key issues and developments in primary schools. It will help you to read the educational press and to talk to teachers and those currently undertaking teacher training.

Our interview procedure is a rigorous and thorough process, designed to get the best match of applicant to the School Direct places available.

The School Visit
The best preparation, (and a requirement), for interview is a visit to a school. If you are considering a career in teaching this is one of the first steps you should take. When you visit a school be sure to talk to teachers and children and participate if you are encouraged to do so. Try to evaluate what is being learned and the way in which the teacher encourages this learning. You will be expected to discuss your observation visit at interview and to be able to go beyond a mere description of what you have seen by analysing the experience and showing an understanding of the deeper processes. It may well help to take notes and to refer to these at the interview.

Course structure
The training provider is the Cotswold Edge Teaching Alliance, with Marling School as the lead School. Our accrediting partner is Bath Spa University. There are eleven primary schools in the partnership.

For further information on all the partners check out their websites:
Bath Spa University
Bussage Primary School
Rodborough Primary School
Uplands Primary School
Powell’s Primary School
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School
St Matthew’s C of E Primary School
Avening Primary School
Amberley Parochial School
Randwick C of E Primary School
Berkeley Primary School
Minchinhampton C of E Primary Academy

You will be trained in a highly supportive and aspirational environment and will develop the rigour, professional knowledge, understanding and skills necessary for the delivery of creative, purposeful and challenging teaching and learning.
Much of the training will be delivered by expert teachers in the partnership schools. This will be enhanced by attendance at Bath Spa University. You will be assigned to one of the schools in the partnership in which you will do a teaching placement in the autumn and summer terms. Part of your spring term will be a teaching placement in a contrasting school.

You will have full access to Bath Spa University’s dynamic facilitators of both innovative and traditional approaches to teacher training.

You will be assigned a mentor from the staff of your placement school.   From the beginning you will be treated like a member of staff and will attend staff meetings and development days. You will be in school from the first day of the school year so you will feel part of the team from day one.

Our mentors are outstanding teachers but they are required to undertake a rigorous training programme to develop their mentoring skills. This includes coaching, effective classroom observation and feedback skills. Therefore, although teacher training is demanding, you are assured of a high level of personal and professional support in a programme which is well managed at all levels.

Assessment
Formal assessment for the School Direct programme takes place throughout the year. There is no final written examination.

Assessment takes the form of assessed practical teaching against the Teachers’ Standards and course work assignments set by your HEI link partner (PGCE)

Successful completion of the programme requires passes in practical teaching and in all assignments; the marking criteria for both scales are against a comprehensive range of criteria explicitly linked to the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).

Accommodation
We are unable to provide accommodation for students.

Child Care Facilities
Unfortunately we are unable to provide any child care facilities however there are many local providers within close proximity to our main placement schools.

Disability Access
We welcome applications from students with disabilities. We would however recommend that you contact us at to us at Marling Amanda emaildiscuss your needs prior to making an application.

Public Transport
All of our main placement schools are well served by public transport and also easily accessible from the M5.