Early Career Teachers

At Percy Hedley School we have partnered with Best Practice Network as our delivery partner to provide our training and development for both our ECT’s and our specialist mentors.

ECT’s and mentors are completing their program of study working on modules both virtual and in person training events to support networking and allow for development of support networks within their groups.

The feedback we have had so far has been positive and all participants have begun to complete their assignments.  ECT’s are working towards their teaching standards, alongside the coaching and mentoring sessions provided by our expert mentor team and our expert colleague bank of support.

Our ECT’s have a support network session within school to allow for them to come together and support each other with areas of the curriculum or assignments.  They also have access to regional and national ECT training, in both subject specific learning and overall CPD.  Our mentors have created a steering group and meet weekly to talk through any issues which have come up, or work through areas of development from their training.

All our ECT’s are trained through North Tyneside council and will receive their final qualifications from them.  They offer a CPD program which sits alongside the Best Practice Network to support further training and development to our ECT’s.

Our recent compliance visit from North Tyneside in March 2023 was overwhelming positive about the work we are doing in school, the supportive nature of the school and the wealth of knowledge that our ECT’s had about their own progress towards their standards.

Further information on the North Tyneside ECT service can be found at the website below:

Introduction to ITT within Percy Hedley School 

Within Percy Hedley School we are proud to partner with several local ITT providers to support both observational placements within school and to provide Teaching Placements within all areas of our school.  We have a successful program within school, which is provided by a range of specialist teachers who have completed a range of mentoring qualifications from the local Universities as well as working on Coaching and Mentoring at Post Grad study.

We have a positive history of recruiting our students as teachers within school and have success at training them long term into management positions.

Mentors have been trained in the use of the Core Content Framework to support all ITT pupils within their classes with tasks and mentoring opportunities.  Please contact Rebecca Fletcher to arrange a chat about any placement needs you may have r.fletcher@percyhedley.org.uk

Mentors 

All of out staff in school are encouraged to work within a coaching and mentoring role for ITT.  We have a list of expert colleagues to support pupils within all areas of school life and these are used to signpost to when supporting students in school.  Our teachers who are mentors for ITT complete the mentor training for the specific provider, and all staff are encouraged to complete modules from Sunderland Universities expert mentor program.

Establishments we work with: 

Below is a list of the establishments we have current links with, however we are open to working with other establishments or specialist placements, please just get in touch at the above email.

Northumbria University 

We have a long-standing relationship with Northumbria and our staff also sit on the interview panel for the PGCE and the BA Primary Education degree.  We offer several opportunities throughout the year for observational SEN placements, and provide Primary Education teaching placements where they are appropriate within our lower school department.

Newcastle University 

We continue to develop our relationship with Newcastle University and in the past have completed peer mentoring and research projects with them around coaching and mentoring, student progress and ITT provision.  Both our Teaching staff and therapists have been involved in the delivery during their SEN Festival for their teaching students and we offer both teaching placements and observational SEN work for their students at both PGCE and BA level.

Sunderland University 

We continue to work alongside Sunderland University and have used their Post Grad Mentor program to support CPD within our teaching staff.  We are also involved in their SEN initiative program providing key note speakers and attending conferences to support and develop practice.

We offer both observational placement and specialist subjects teaching placement to Sunderland Students and last year employed three of our students within the school as ECT’s.

Gateshead SCITT 

We work with Gateshead SCITT to support their students with their SEN week, working closely with them to support their program of teaching around SEN and then supporting the teaching students into school.  Our staff then attend their presentations based around their learning within the SEN week and have always been impressed with their knowledge and reflections on their time with us.

Newcastle College 

We have worked with Newcastle College for several years now and have had a number of our teachers trained through their Mentor project.  We offer placements for their PGCSE program where appropriate to support the development of teaching and learning across the year.

Durham SCITT 

We offer a two-day placement to the SCITT students from Durham who come in and meet with our leadership staff and complete sessions within school to support understanding of the work that we do.  Student then spend time in the classroom and complete question and answer sessions with management and staff on the second day.  This has been very successful in the past and we always receive excellent feedback from the students.

Durham University 

We work with Durham to complete both observational placements and teaching placements, supporting their Primary department and as well as their specialist secondary PGCE’s.  Two of our teaching staff have worked closely with Durham to ensure that their SEN lectures provide the knowledge and skills needed to complete placements in school, and have complete mentor training with them.

More information can be found on the website below: