Trainees on the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) must be employed as unqualified teachers by their training schools. During the course of the year, they must work towards meeting all the Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), as detailed in Training and Development Agency (TDA) Guidance. The training programme begins with an induction phase of 4-6 weeks, during which time specific tasks are undertaken, subject knowledge is audited and an Individual Training Plan (ITP) is established.

Throughout the Programme, trainees meet with their Employment Based Trainer (EBT) on a weekly basis to plan and review the ITP, and they are observed teaching in a range of contexts. Trainees work alongside experienced colleagues, observing good practice, engaging in professional dialogue, meeting with subject leaders and senior managers, attending training sessions, planning, delivering and evaluating lessons and participating in the full life of the school. By the end of the Programme, trainees should have an 80% whole class teaching responsibility.

Primary trainees are required to gain successful teaching experience across the Primary curriculum and to develop one area of the curriculum as a specialist subject. They must be trained to teach in two consecutive age ranges, spending a minimum of 10 days in their second age range.

Primary Age Ranges

Secondary trainees are required to develop their subject knowledge to a high level in order to teach their subject competently and confidently in two consecutive Key Stages. Those in post-16 must be trained in KS4.

Secondary Key Stages

All trainees are required to spend a minimum of 15 days in a contrasting school negotiated as part of the Individual Training Plan with the EBT.

Throughout the Programme, trainees collate the outcomes of their training experiences as evidence of meeting the Professional Standards for QTS. They present a portfolio of evidence for final assessment, which includes the ITP, evidence of meeting the Standards and of subject knowledge development, and a range of detailed lesson plans.

Trainees' progress and schools' training provision are monitored by regular visits from University staff. Canterbury Christ Church University enriches the school training provision by providing some additional taught days.

At the end of the training period, a Final Assessment is undertaken to scrutinise the documentary evidence that all the Professional Standards have been met, in order to recommend the trainee to the General Teaching Council for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS).