Canterbury Christ Church University was one of just six initial teacher training providers nationally to be selected by the Department for Education to pilot the International Qualified Teacher Status (iQTS) programme from September 2022. Its aim was to support teachers and their mentors in educational settings around the world through an online course.

Recently students, tutors and educational experts bravely embarked on an innovative virtual school experience at the end of the iQTS journey.

“The concept of a Virtual School placement is not entirely new, having been an unplanned necessity for teacher trainees during the Covid-19 pandemic but setting up a virtual school placement for student teachers collaborating across the globe (including Nepal, Spain, Algiers, China, Ireland and India) was certainly a new venture for all parties involved,” commented Wendy Cobb, Senior Lecturer in the School of Teacher Education.

Wendy continued: “When we embarked on the iQTS Virtual School, we wondered whether we could truly replicate the learning that student teachers gain during a physical school placement. What we found was a remarkable space for mutual transformations and challenging expectations facilitated by contributions from experts across a range of fields and across continents, including technology, behaviour, emotional health, relationships and sex education and engaging with parents.”

The iQTS enables trainees to meet the Teachers’ Standards through an online course taught by Canterbury Christ Church University alongside students studying and being in placement schools in their home countries. It is equivalent to QTS in England.

It gives international students a chance to engage with ideas, schools and professionals in England to provide a contrasting context. Many of them teach in international schools where concepts around behaviours for learning and working with families might be perceived quite differently.

At the iQTS virtual school, student teachers attended daily and completed a schedule of daily tasks. Student teachers also toured special school settings, held in-depth discussions with special school leads and quizzed the CEO of a multi-academy trust about the trust’s ethos and mission. They also made excellent use of the safe space for critical reflection, shared understanding of underpinning concepts, development of new approaches to practice and confidence to challenge assumptions.

Lorna Hughes, School Lead for Internationalisation, added: “The overarching theme of the iQTS Virtual School was managing transitions. As iQTS students prepare to enter their early career teaching classrooms, and as we look forward to the start of a new academic year and the next cohort of iQTS teacher trainees, we are excited about how we can build on the concept of the Virtual School. We aim to embrace the opportunities afforded by new technologies, strengthen our national and international networks, and celebrate opportunities to learn and grow together with a mutual aim to improve the life chances of the children in our schools around the world.”

To find out more or apply to the iQTS visit our course pages.