Education partnerships

Partner schools host both undergraduate and postgraduate placements of varying durations. Placements are offered directly by the school via our school portal or we can introduce a school to a School Partnership Hub, sharing student support with a group of local partner schools.

Influence and understand how the programmes work and strengthen communication with a network of student teachers to increase opportunities for ECT recruitment.

• Work with academic teams and students sharing professional education themes in the curriculum, either at the university or at your school premises. Your school may have a particular focus or expertise that could greatly benefit programme delivery, enhancing the student experience.
• Participate on occasions in the selection process during the student application period with other school colleagues to interview prospective students to the PGCE courses.
• Join the Partnership Management Group (PMG), the steering forum for the PGCE programmes, chaired by the Director of ITE and led by senior colleagues from our partnership schools. The PMG informs the partnership, ensuring programme responsiveness to changing national policy and regional issues influencing teacher and school education. It enables rigorous quality assurance and keeps pupil progress and school improvement imperatives at the heart of our ITE provision.

Mentor Development is a key focus of the university school partnership network and benefits all parties involved. Regular free sessions are held throughout the year. Bookings for all related events can be made via the School Placement Portal. Broader details about mentoring and The National Mentor Standards can be found at the School Experience and Mentor Development tab.

Schools will be able to post vacant job information on the school portal alerting student teachers who are seeking ECT posts. These alerts will be visible to student teachers via their student portal. Non-partner schools can request a guest log-in for this purpose only. (This service will only be open to schools and educational organisations).

All our partner schools have access to the school placement portal as account holders and communications are channelled here for the convenience of schools. All of the above activities are easily accessible on the school portal. In turn, confirmed student placements with contact details of both student teachers and supporting university staff can be viewed here.

This initiative offers schools a strong partnership and a range of activities that will grow as a Hub develops. From the onset, Hubs are included at university open days to meet prospective students. A Hub of schools can offer placements for students to rotate within during their course and school inductions can also be shared along with the responsibilities of supporting student teachers. It is anticipated that strong mentor networks will develop from sharing good practice and support staff professional development in schools. In turn this offers stability and continuity to ECT recruitment as student teachers often prefer to study and work in their own locality.

The Department of Education has established rapport with a group of dedicated alternative educational settings provisions and organisations around London. Student teachers are offered the opportunity to gain experience in these settings as part of their programme, which have previously included EYFS, Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Pupil Referral Units, young offenders’ institutions, and Special Schools. We welcome organisations interested in partnering with us for these experiences.