Primary Programme.

Get in touch if you need more information about how to become a primary school teacher.

Get in touch

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

These 4 elements are carefully integrated together to ensure that trainees are able to apply learning from their training sessions and PGCE modules directly in the classroom, under the expert care and guidance of their highly trained mentors. Our two-week induction period at the SCITT training centre is designed to give trainees a concrete foundation in these 4 key elements. The induction period also introduces trainees to the course expectations and dedicates time to help trainees start to form strong bonds with the rest of the primary cohort.

Classroom Practice.

After the Induction period, trainees will be in their Classroom Practice placements 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday). Trainees have a long Home-School placement in the Autumn and Summer terms; trainees are with the same class and school-based mentor throughout this placement. During the Spring term, trainees experience a shorter Second-School placement; this will be a contrasting placement in terms of school size or demographic, and trainees will teach children in a different Key Stage. All trainees are placed within our family of Alliance schools with whom we have strong relationships.

Pedagogy and Curriculum Training.

Every Friday, trainees come together at the SCITT training centre and complete the following 5 modules over the year: Professional Studies, English Curriculum, Mastery Maths, Barriers to Learning and Wider Curriculum. All sessions are led by experienced facilitators who are both outstanding primary classroom practitioners and expert in the particular area of study. Trainees are fully involved and actively engaged throughout all sessions; we consistently receive fantastic feedback from trainees and mentors about how learning from Friday training has made a positive impact on trainees’ teaching the following weeks.

Louise Houlders – Primary Programme Leader.

How to Become a Primary School Teacher

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!

Meet Our Primary Module Leaders

Post-Graduate Certificate of Education.

All our trainees will be awarded a PGCE upon successful completion of 3 modules of study which are undertaken at Masters Level. Our colleagues from the University of Derby lead on this aspect of the programme. The 3 modules are designed to complement both classroom practice and the SCITT training programme by deepening trainees’ understanding of the learning theories and research which underpin best-practice primary teaching. The PGCE award will give trainees 60 Master credits, which can contribute towards a full Masters should trainees choose to continue their studies in the future.

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.

Meet Our Primary Professional Mentors