Hub Newsletter – Autumn ’24
Wednesday 4th December, 2024
Welcome to our regular round up of activity and operations across the Teaching School Hub’s work in North Birmingham and beyond. In this newsletter, we try to provide a brief summary of all areas of our remit with some useful links.
Actions for schools
Use the buttons below to sign up for the next NPQ cohort and to register ECTs and Mentors who need to start their training in January.
In this issue – quick links
In this issue, you will find updates from the areas below. Use these buttons to jump to relevant section of the newsletter:
The Trent and Tame Language Hub (co-led by The Arthur Terry School and Painsley Catholic College) continues to broaden its reach across Birmingham, Stoke and Staffordshire, working with both Primary and Secondary Schools to nurture a passion for language learning and to implement the findings from the 2016 MFL pedagogy review.
Please encourage your Language subject leads and teachers to sign up to our half-termly newsletter for information about our CPD offer, offers from NCLE’s cultural partners and top tips on how to motivate the young people in your classrooms.
Recent blog posts on the TTLH website include:
Our next face-to-face event will take place on Wednesday 12th February 2025 at Arthur Terry between 12.30pm and 4.00pm. This event is open to both primary and secondary practitioners and will provider participants with an opportunity to consider how they can create a consistent narrative building from year 3 – year 13 about the value of language learning and how it might enrich your life. To find out more and to register click the button below.
Read the most recent TTLH Newsletter in full.
Recruitment and Application
It has been a record-breaking year for the Arthur Terry SCITT (School-Centred Initial Teacher Training), which now has 86 associate teachers on board for its 13th Cohort in 2024/25. The Associate Teachers – the biggest cohort yet – are now well into their course and have settled into their placement schools.
With a new recruitment window now open, we have already planned in our upcoming information events.
If you know somebody who is interested in becoming a teacher, applications are now open for a September 2025 start.
Course Developments
The introduction of 20 days Intensive Training and Practice (ITAP) has been successful following a range of pilots last year and we are pleased to see the noticeable impact of ‘practicable strategies’ being consistently used in lessons delivered by our Associate Teachers.
We have focused upon developing positive classroom culture, effective explanations and modelling, checking for understanding strategies and phonics on the Primary course.
We use ‘digital approximations’ that allow opportunity for scripting and live rehearsal in low stakes scenarios before they are employed in the classroom – the online platform by Proxima Education https://proxima.education/ has shown to be very powerful, especially when training large numbers of prospective teachers. Its founder, Robbie Coleman, was the former head of policy at the Education Endowment Foundation, and we have been praised for the innovative use of the platform recently
Mentor Training
And finally, you may be aware that the new government has removed the requirement for all mentors (Learning Coaches) to receive 20 hours of training as part of the new ITT quality requirements. We have spent over 18 months leading on the implementation of this requirement through the West Midlands ITE partnership and are keen to maintain the focus on effective mentoring and coaching training. We will retain the requirement for all new mentors to undertake Tier 1 training, which has common learning outcomes across the region.
This 7 hour training day has been transformative for over 100 colleagues to date in enhancing their coaching of Associate Teachers. Termly subject pedagogy meetings will also remain, alongside asynchronous curriculum briefings, and of course our bespoke development of mentors will continue when we visit placement schools.
Read more about the government’s adjustments to mentor training requirements.
Spring 2025 Funding Information
We are still awaiting more information regarding funding for places for NPQs beginning in spring 2025 (Cohort 8), however we have had reassurances that the intentions for funding are a similar picture to autumn 2024 (Cohort 7).
We are hoping to be able to meet the demand from our exsiting waiting lists and offer additional places.
To express interest in a spring 2025 NPQ, please complete the form below . If you are filling the form in on behalf of a colleague, please add their name to the form.
As soon as we know more information in reagrds to funding and applications opening for spring, we will contact those who have expressed an interest.
Upcoming Assessment Windows
| NPQ Cohort | Engagement figure deadline date | Assessment Window |
| Cohort 6 Spring 2024 Specialist (LTD, LT, LBC, LL & LPM) | 27th January 2025 | 3rd to 11th February 2025 |
| Cohort 5 Autumn 2023 Leadership (H, SL) | TBC | 1st to 9th April 2025 |
| Cohort 6 Spring 2024 Leadership (H, SL, EYL) | TBC | 10th to 18th September 2025 |
| Cohort 7 Autumn 2024 Specialist (LTD, LT, LPM) | TBC | 1st to 9th October 2025 |
| Cohort 7 Autumn 2024 Leadership (H, SL, SENCO) | TBC | April 2026 |
Assessment Results Release Dates
| Cohort and courses | Planned results release date |
| NPQ Cohort 4 – Leadership (started in Spring 2023) | Friday 13th of December 2024 |
| NPQ Cohort 5 – Specialist (started in Autumn 2023) | 27th of January 2025 (this date is provisional and subject to change) |
ECF Events
All events for the Autum Term were successfully delivered with high level of attendance from ECTs and mentors.
Several new facilitators joined the team for this year, and they seamlessly fitted into the existing team to deliver high quality training across all events. The excellent quality of facilitation was the most prominent theme of the feedback we received from ECTs and mentors .
“The facilitators were brilliant. I feel as though I have been given enough information to hit the ground running and be a competent mentor!”
Other key themes suggest that both ECTs and mentors value the opportunities to network and receive peer support through the sessions, that they are equipped with new learning and ideas that they can take back into their teaching and mentoring, and that the bespoke phase and setting specific groups enable them to engage in rich discussions that are relevant to their experiences of their settings.
“Being with other teachers working in SEND. Having been to CPD before you are usually thrown in with mainstream teachers and a lot of the day isn’t relevant to SEND”
Key Reminders for ECF Induction Tutors
Registrations for new ECT starters to your school for January 2025.
You will have received information in recent weeks about registrations for any ECTs who will be joining your school in January. Please do ensure that you have completed the expression of interest form to let us know if you have any new ECTs starting at your school, so that we can ensure that they are up and running quickly with access to the ECF programme.
Engagement with the ECF Programme for current ECTs and Mentors
The DfE milestone deadline for engagement with the ECF programme is Monday 16th December, and we have asked all participants in the programme to ensure that their block content is completed by Friday 13th December.
Induction Tutor Drop In Sessions
Date and Time: Tuesday 10th December from 3:45pm – 4:15pm
This will be an online drop in session for induction tutors to speak to a member of the team about any queries that they may have. The Zoom link can be found in the Induction Tutor Update Autumn 2 that was sent out after half term.
Induction Tutor Development Forums
Last year we offered additional optional one hour sessions for Induction Tutors to focus on areas that would support your development within the role. We received very positive feedback and therefore we will be offering these again this year, starting in the spring term.
We would like to hear from you about topics that you would like covered in these sessions so that we can tailor them specifically to what you need.
Read our most recent induction tutor update in full.
Most ECTs have a Progress Review or Assessment due in December. Please reference the samples under Resources before completing these to ensure you are including evidence from the ECT’s practice.
If the circumstances of your ECT change over the term, please let us know. If an ECT leaves a school before their next formal assessment is due the school must complete an Interim Assessment to inform their next school of their status on the Teachers’ Standards.
Any queries about ECT Manager or concerns about ECTs progress, please contact Caroline Finn, caroline.finn@atlp.org.uk who will sign post appropriate support for you.
Read the most recent Appropriate Body newsletter in full.
Supporting recruitment and retention
We are currently building a suite of resources and services to support schools with recruitment from their communities and through initial teacher training. This is an exciting package that we are aiming to launch in early 2025.
This resource package will aim to support schools in four key areas:
- Activate your local community
- Capitalise on your existing assets
- Communicate and collaborate with partners and providers
- Building a welcoming and supportive school culture
We are excited by this project, and are collaborating with our partner hubs across the West Midlands to bring this work together and support schools. As part of this initiative we are determined to talk up the trade of teaching and tell good news stories about recruitment, teacher training, development and retention. If you, or colleagues have good news stories to tell, get in touch!
Supporting underserved areas and communities
We continue in our efforts to engage with and support schools, communities and areas of the city that aren’t currently getting the most out of initial teacher training. As part of these efforts, we are trying to get into more community groups and foster innovative partnerships across the city. This half term, we were part of a brilliant community roundtable event, hosted at Prince Albert High School and facilitated by Cllr Waseem Zaffar. You can see some coverage on Waseem’s X page.
We are also exploring partnerships in industry, and would like to thank our friends at Arcadis for hosting a social value masterclass at their offices on Colmore Row. At this great event, we were able to work with colleagues from the construction sector, environmental law, as well as Birmingham Children’s Trust and Blesst.
