Last updated 12:09, Monday, 08 December 2008

John Pugh - Programme director for Cumbria Primary Teacher Training

FOURTEEN years ago our teacher training course was launched to meet a need in West Cumbria. At the time we were a long distance away from teacher training colleges or universities and there was a dearth of trainees in our schools.

School governors and heads involved in the scheme believed that training fresh new teachers would maintain the vitality of their schools and ensure they kept in the fore-front of educational practice.

The proposal for School Centred Initial Teacher Training had only just been introduced and each institution had to design their own course to match the training needs. This was the perfect opportunity to bring trainees to us, rather than rely on training institutions providing us with trainees.

There was no blueprint for the design of a course so we felt we could plan ours to draw on the strengths of the different educationalists, such as teachers and lecturers, in order to provide high-quality training. The course has been designed by teachers for teachers and attracts trainees who believe that the opportunity to develop their skills in the classroom should play a major part in their training.

Twenty-four West Cumbrian schools, each with a member on the Board of Directors, are all equal partners in the course. This means they have a strong voice in programme development.

One innovative practice was placing two trainees together in one class for their first teaching practice and repeating this model with different pairings for their second practice. This has proved very effective as trainees act as ‘critical friends’ to each other, helping them improve their teaching skills. A number of universities are looking at deploying this model of training.

We recognise the contribution a range of professionals can make to our trainees’ progress and have strong links with the Education Development Unit of the University of Cumbria, who provide high-quality tuition at our centre in Workington, to support the school-based training.

Our course has grown from strength to strength through the hard work and dedication of the training staff, both in schools and at the centre, and it is a credit to their efforts that we turn aspiring trainees into inspirational teachers.