Your Training Year
Your training year is a carefully structured and highly supportive journey designed to help you develop into a confident, reflective, and effective teacher.
From your initial induction through to the end of the academic year, you will gain hands-on classroom experience alongside high-quality professional and subject-specific training. You will be immersed in school life, gradually building your teaching responsibilities while receiving regular guidance from experienced mentors and tutors.
Throughout the year, you will combine practical teaching experience with academic study, allowing you to connect educational theory with real classroom practice. With ongoing feedback, structured support, and clear progression, you will be encouraged to refine your skills, deepen your subject knowledge, and develop your own teaching style.
By the end of the programme, you will be well-prepared to begin your career in teaching, equipped with the confidence, experience, and professional understanding needed to make a positive impact in the classroom.
FAQs
When does the course start and how long is it?
The programme will begin with an induction in the summer (often the first two full weeks in July) before your training year.
The course then begins in September, when you will return to your school and move into a teaching timetable, which will also include an afternoon of subject and / or professional studies training.
The course is full-time, and will conclude at the end of the academic year.
What will a typical week of training look like?
You will be based in your placement school for four days a week and attend your subject and / or professional studies every Tuesday which will be delivered using a hybrid model of online (remote) and onsite (face-to-face) training sessions. This will consist of both theory and practical training sessions that will enable you to develop your teaching skills, subject knowledge and practice away from the classroom.
Your subject mentor will meet you once a week to set and review targets, and will also observe you teach once a week to give you written feedback. In addition to this, you will be given formal written feedback at two key assessment points during the training year.
You will be entitled to calendared school holidays throughout the year and will need to manage your workload carefully to meet all your SCITT and university deadlines.
How are trainees’ placement schools decided?
We place each trainee very carefully on an individual basis, taking into consideration a number of factors which may include:
- the trainee's starting point to include any relevant prior experience
- the requirements and wishes of the schools
- the applicant's prior connection with a school e.g. as a teaching assistant
- the applicant's ongoing connection with a school e.g. as a parent or governor
- experience and personalities of the mentors available
- any specific training development needs
How is the course assessed?
Trainee teachers are assessed throughout the year through assignments, evidence collection, teaching observations and school placements.
Two reports are generated to measure overall progress and set challenging targets for next steps.
What will my teaching timetable look like?
You will be based in your placement school for four days a week and attend your subject and / or professional studies every Tuesday which will be delivered using a hybrid model of online (remote) and onsite (face-to-face) training sessions.
Your holidays will follow the term dates of your placement school.
Your weekly timetable will be decided at the discretion of your school, in line with our indicative guidance.
Unsalaried route
All trainees on this route will start on a lower teaching load between six and eight periods per week until the end of the autumn term, after which this usually increases to between twelve and fourteen lessons per week.
Timetable teaching hours are monitored by the SCITT team to ensure that you are fully supported and that current Department for Education requirements are met.
Salaried route
As an employee of the school, salaried trainees will invariably be teaching more lessons from the start of term one in September. You should expect to take on additional duties, such as parents' evenings, or break duty.
For this reason, we expect applicants to be applying for this route to have experience of working in schools. However, to reflect your status as a new professional who is just starting out in your teaching career and embarking on a training route, you will start with a reduced timetable and build up during the course of the year.
The timetable will always allow for regular mentor meetings, collaborative working and observations of others.
How many hours of study will the training involve?
The training programme will require the commitment equivalent to that of a serving full-time teacher in terms of the length of school day, plus additional preparatory and academic work. The programme cannot be contained within a particular number of hours per week.
You are usually expected to be at school by 8am, and remain on site until 16:00, sometimes later. Training sessions on a Tuesday afternoon run until 17:00, which is a mandatory aspect of the course for all trainees to attend.