Primary Programme.
Get in touch if you need more information about how to become a primary school teacher.
How to Become a Primary School Teacher.
At the John Taylor SCITT, we believe it is a privilege to train the next generation of Primary teachers. Choosing to train as a Primary teacher is a truly inspirational and important career choice. Primary teachers work with children at the very start of their learning journey; they give children the basic building blocks of knowledge, skills and personal understanding that stay with them throughout their lives. At the John Taylor SCITT, we are dedicated to providing the expert knowledge, skills and real, hands-on classroom experience to ensure that, when our trainee teachers qualify, they are prepared and inspired for their career ahead.
Our Primary trainee teachers gain QTS with PGCE by the end of our programme (Qualified Teacher Status with a Post-Graduate Certificate of Education). The Primary training programme consists of 4 key elements:
Classroom Practice
Subject Pedagogy
Expert Mentoring
PGCE Modules
Classroom Practice.
Pedagogy and Curriculum Training.
Louise Houlders – Primary Programme Leader.

Louise has worked with the Primary SCITT since 2018 and has been the Programme Leader since 2020. Louise is passionately committed to training the next generation of Primary teachers; she plans to equip trainees with the teaching skills to empower children as lifelong learners, and the resilience to excel in such a rewarding profession.
Louise qualified as a teacher in 2012 and has progressed onto Primary school senior leadership roles, specialising in teaching pedagogy and curriculum design. She is professionally curious with an insatiable interest and love for Primary education which means she stays up to date with the latest educational thinking and research to continually develop the SCITT programme.
Whilst teaching, Louise gained an MA in Educational Leadership with a main research focus on building supportive systems within schools to continually develop teachers’ professional practice. As a SCITT Programme Leader, Louise works tirelessly to ensure that trainees have an exceptional training experience and qualify fully ready for an inspirational career!
Post-Graduate Certificate of Education.
Expert Mentoring.
The quality of our mentoring is consistently a real strength of the John Taylor SCITT programme. During both placements, trainees have a School-Based Mentor who helps them develop their teaching through regular observations, meetings and target setting. The SCITT provides all mentors with regular training to ensure they that are able to support trainees extremely well; we are proud and in awe of the dedication and expertise of all the School-Based Mentors we work with.
Trainees also have a Professional Mentor who will support their development throughout the year and regularly visit them on placement. All our Professional Mentors are highly experienced in mentoring trainee teachers through their training year, as well as being expert, current primary teachers themselves.