It offers personal and professional development opportunities for teachers.

·         Mentoring a trainee increases expertise amongst staff.

·         It provides an additional adult in the classroom

·         Employing a trainee enables teachers to have more non-contact time once the trainee is competent to take responsibility for whole classes

·         Many of our Partners use the GTP as part of a long-term strategy for succession planning, with many trainees gaining employment in their training school, once qualified.

Applying to the Programme - Trainees

Applying to the Programme – New Schools

What are the practical implications for schools of committing to train a Graduate Trainee?

The Graduate Teacher Programme is an employment-based route into teaching and the school undertakes to offer a minimum of 150 hours of training. The school employs the trainee for a year as an unqualified teacher.  A GTP trainee must be paid on the unqualified teacher’s salary scale.  The minimum salary from September 2010 is £15,817. Those who are given a salary funded place on the programme must be supernumerary.  This means that the salary-funded GTP trainee must not be filling a teaching vacancy at a school.

For those on training grant only places the school and/or local authority is expected to meet all of the trainee’s employment costs. Trainees pursuing this option must be paid in accordance with either the qualified or unqualified teacher scales. Training grant only funded places can be given to those who are filling a teaching vacancy but this is not an assessment only route to QTS. Teaching commitment must be reduced to allow the trainee to meet their own development needs and complete a minimum of 60 days of training.

 A School ITT Co-ordinator and/or GTP Manager must be nominated (ideally not the same person who will be the trainee’s day-to-day School-based trainer).  The Co-ordinator needs to be a senior member of staff who will take overall responsibility for the quality of the training and support the trainee receives at the school and also to ‘line manage’ the work of the School-based Trainer in that aspect of their work. Therefore the ITT Co-ordinator and/or GTP Manager has responsibilities for:

Ø    Trainee recruitment and selection

Ø    The school –based training programme

Ø    SbT development

Ø    Quality assuring the school-based programme. This includes:

           moderating assessment of trainee progress; monitoring trainee

           entitlement to training in school; ensuring the timely return of all 

           monitoring documentation to STTP and recommending the

           trainee for STTP final assessment.

·          The ITT Co-ordinator will be required to attend meetings at STTP.

 ·         A GTP trainee requires regular support from their School based Trainer and other school staff.  This includes a formal timetabled SbT meetings at least weekly and written observation of the trainee at least weekly once they start teaching (observations may be shared with other qualified colleagues who are familiar with the Q Standards and Subject Knowledge for Teaching framework) and one visit to the trainee in their second school.

·         The School-based Trainer will be expected to attend STTP development sessions.

·         The School-based Trainer will be expected to be available at some point each time the STTP Tutor Assessor visits the trainee and be willing to undertake joint observations of the trainee, for training and moderation purposes.

·         A trainee will need the school to provide the learning opportunities set out in their Individual Training Plan, so that they can meet the Standards for the award of QTS.

·         All trainees are required to train across two consecutive key stages.  Secondary Trainees must have the opportunity to teach their subject specialism at both KS3 and KS4 (age ranges 11-14 and 14-16).  Primary trainees must have the opportunity to teach the full curriculum in two consecutive age ranges from the following: 3-5 year, 5-7 years, 7-9 years, 9-11 years.

In addition, training programmes should engage trainees with the expectations, curricula, strategies and teaching arrangements in the age ranges immediately before and after the ones they are trained to teach. STTP requires 3 days cross phase visits during induction and additional visits to schools and other settings with a focus on progression in the subject (secondary) and in core subjects (primary) throughout the programme.

What are the financial implications for state-maintained schools?

·         Each accepted salary funded trainee placed in a state-maintained school comes with a £13,500 grant (or £14,400 if in Thurrock and eligible for fringe payment (September 2010), as a contribution towards salary costs. This would be paid direct to school by STTP in termly instalments in arrears (December, March, July).

·         A GTP trainee must be paid on the unqualified teacher’s salary scale.  The minimum salary from September 2010 is £15,817 for Southend schools and £16,856 for schools in London fringe areas.  The school bears all on-costs.

·         In addition, the school will receive £500 per term from the Training Grant received by STTP as a contribution towards training costs.

·         The school will need to cover the costs of releasing the School-based Trainer for meetings with the Trainee (at least weekly, one hour) and for releasing Mentors and the ITT Co-ordinator and/or GTP Manager  to attend training and development sessions at STTP, as specified above.

What are the financial implications for Independent schools?

·         There is no Salary Grant for trainees in Independent schools.

·         A GTP trainee must be paid on the unqualified teacher’s salary scale.

·         The school must pay STTP for the costs of training. This will be £3,000 for 2010/11

·         The school will need to cover the costs of releasing the School-based Trainer for tutorials with the Trainee (at least weekly, one hour) and for releasing Mentors and the ITT Co-ordinator / GTP Manager to attend training and development sessions at STTP, as specified above.

What does STTP Provide?

·         Documentation including Initial Needs Analysis and Programme Handbook

·         Access to resources on our Virtual Learning Environment

·         Access to literature relevant to the programme

·         Tutor Assessor visits (5 per year)

·         SbT and ITT Co-ordinator training and support

·         Central training in both professional and subject studies. The core central training is around 150 hours a year.

·         Tutorials for trainees

·         Directed activities

·         Co-ordinated trainee visits to Partner Schools for diversity, curriculum development and subject studies

·          Arranges practice interviews with Partner Schools

·         Additional trainee support as required

How often will the trainee be away from school for training events?

The trainee will be away from their main school regularly to attend courses or to fulfil other training requirements.  This will include:

·         Central training days

·         Second school teaching experience -  minimum 20 days (preferrably during term 2)

·         Cross -phase school visits (3 days) + other visits to schools and other settings  

·         Release time to take Skills Tests

·         Communities of Practice – subject study tutorials (secondary only)

·         Trainees should be given adequate time to complete directed activities, work on their individual training plan or build their portfolios. The timings of this should be agreed between the trainee and School-based Trainer to meet academic deadlines.

It is possible for a trainee to be placed in a Special School?

All the above requirements still apply but, in addition, a trainee is required to undertake 50 days' training in a mainstream school, covering the two key stages for which they are training.  Trainees wishing to train in a Special School are expected to have had prior experience of Special Educational Needs, for example, by having worked as an LSA. The trainee should have a mentor in each school and roles and responsibilities of each mentor and the training programme should be clarified before the start of the programme. Any salary grant will be paid to the employing school. Similarly the training grant will be paid to the employing school and both schools should agree any training grant that will be payable to the mainstream school. If the trainee is receiving a salary-funded place, they are required to be supernumerary in both schools. Trainees undertaking the programme in a special school and a mainstream school will also be required to complete a second mainstream school placement unless it can be clearly demonstrated that the two schools can ensure coverage of the full breadth of the Standards in terms of development of Subject Knowledge for Teaching. Exemption from a second main school placement is at the discretion of STTP and will be decided on the basis of evidence supplied in the completed Request for Exemption from Second School Placement pro-forma.