Based in vibrant West London, Teach West London offers high-quality fully immersive school-centred initial teacher training programmes for both Primary and Secondary phases.

Our initial teacher training courses provide an intellectually stimulating evidence-based programme in the context of classroom excellence. Teach West London is committed to developing professional expertise that makes a difference to the lives of children.

We asked teachers in our West London schools why they would recommend initial teacher training with Teach West London. This is what they said…

If you are interested in primary teacher training, this video has further information:

 

Register your interest

Train at the top performing Multi Academy Trust (MAT) in the country

1 day a week you’ll train at our training centre within Ada Lovelace CofE High School, part of the top-performing multi academy trust (MAT) in the country - Twyford CofE Academies Trust.

Choose where you teach

4 days a week you’ll be school-based where you’ll put your training into practice in your chosen placement school. See where you could train to teach.

Make a difference in your chosen community

Whether you’re already local or have recently moved to West London, you’ll be making a real difference to the lives of children from day 1 at your placement school.

Learn from the experts

Our supportive team are passionate about training the next generation of teachers and our programmes are designed by highly experienced and expert practitioners, who are still teaching in schools.

Career progression

Our network of partner schools in West London provides excellent opportunities for career progression, so you can continue to learn and step up into a wide variety of roles.

At Teach West London we have a dedicated team and subject experts to support you through your training.

ITT Team

Dharmini Shah

Dharmini Shah

Director of ITT
Dharmini previously established and led Hillingdon SCITT (2015-2023) for Veritas Educational Trust. Prior to being the Director of Hillingdon SCITT, as an Assistant Head, she supported early career teachers

Liza Hooper

Liza Hooper

ITT Phase Lead - Primary
Liza has over 25 years of teaching, learning and leadership experience in London schools, Liza is a highly experienced ITT Primary mentor and instructional coach.

Nicola Fish

Nicola Fish

ITT Phase Lead - Secondary
Nicola has worked in ITT since 2019 with schools across London. Previously, Nicola has supported early career teachers through her work in secondary schools in Hillingdon where she taught Science

Jo Fazel

Jo Fazel

ITT Administrator
Jo supports the recruitment of Initial Teacher Trainees from enquiry through to recruitment and beyond. She has extensive HR Recruitment & Training experience within sectors such as the NHS, Communications & Media Production

Emily Paines

Emily Paines

Secondary Quality Assurer & Lead Mentor

ITT Secondary Subject Team

Kat Sullivan

Kat Sullivan

Art
Head of Art at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Nick Mayne

Nick Mayne

Computing
Trust Lead Computing at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Liz Gould

Liz Gould

English
Head of English at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Jack Doyle

Jack Doyle

Geography
Head of Geography at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Russell Coombes

Russell Coombes

History
Head of History at Ealing Fields High School

Luke Moores

Luke Moores

Maths
Head of Maths at Ealing Fields High School

Florence Glanfield

Florence Glanfield

Music
Head of Music at Ealing Fields High School

Ellie Moran

Ellie Moran

PE
Head of PE at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Emily Paines

Emily Paines

Science
Science Teacher at Ada Lovelace CofE High School

Induction

In July, Teach West London will welcome all successful candidates to a 2 day induction session. During this, trainee teachers will be introduced to the basic tools for beginning to teach in the classroom from the outset of the foundation phase.

The training year is split up into 3 main training phases:

Foundation Phase

  • During this training phase (September – December), the foundations for a career in teaching will be built. Trainee teachers will have the opportunity to observe expert colleagues and learn from them whilst based in their main placement school.
  • As a fully immersive school-centred training programme, trainee teachers will be teaching from the beginning of the academic year.
  • Trainee teachers on the non-salaried route will have a small teaching timetable, which will increment throughout the year, although they are supernumerary and will have other colleagues in the classroom with them.
  • Trainee teachers on the salaried route may have a larger timetable to begin with, which may also increment throughout the year and they may be required to teach on their own.

Development Phase

  • As well as being in the main placement school, during this phase (January – March), trainee teachers will also complete a second placement for 20 days in a contrasting school.
  • This will broaden their experience and will provide the opportunity for them to develop as a resilient and reflective practitioner whilst simultaneously developing their teaching and learning skills.

Consolidation Phase

  • During the final phase (April – July) of the training year, trainee teachers will be based at their main placement school. This is when they will consolidate what they have learnt during their initial teacher training year through an increased teaching timetable.
  • This will enable trainee teachers to not only refine their pedagogical practice but also develop into a skilled and confident practitioner, who is ready to begin their ECT years. By the end of the teacher training year, trainee teachers will teach 80% of a qualified teacher’s timetable.

During the initial teacher training year, through a partnership between Teach West London and each placement school, trainee teachers will not only learn but have opportunity to practise and apply your learning in the classroom.

Teach West London’s ITT Curriculum will cover some of the following areas of learning:

  • Professional Behaviours – What it really means to be a teacher in a school and what else teachers do outside of the classroom, how to build professional relationships with all the different stakeholders and communicate with them, how to effectively deploy support staff, how to act on the advice of expert colleague, how you can look after your own wellbeing, and manage your workload.
  • Subject & Curriculum – School curriculums, the phase-specific and subject-specific knowledge that teachers need to have and how they can develop this, what specific subject pedagogy needs to be used to teach a subject effectively, how you as a teacher promote scholarship and literacy, how to teach phonics and early maths.
  • Expectations & Behaviour – How teachers create a safe learning environment, how teachers create high expectations and rules and routines from the start of the year, how to manage pupil behaviour and nurture mutual respect.
  • How Pupils Learn – How pupils learn, how pupils of different age groups, ability etc are capable of building on their pre-existing knowledge, understand how to implement modelling and the use of explanations for pupil learning, how to incorporate opportunities for practice and retrieval so that pupils will retain new learning, how to avoid overloading pupils with too much information.
  • Classroom Practice – How to plan lessons effectively, how to plan for other learning activities outside of the classroom, learn how to plan for short-term, medium-term and long-term by creating schemes of learning, and how be a reflective practitioner.
  • Assessment – How to draw on different forms of assessment to check on pupils’ misconceptions and measure the depth of their knowledge and understanding, how to provide effective and meaningful feedback, how to use the data to support the needs of your pupils.
  • Adaptive Teaching – How to adapt teaching to make it inclusive for all pupils and to meet their specific needs, understand the barriers that pupils have towards learning, as well understanding how children develop.

At Teach West London we believe that bespoke support is vital to ensuring that our trainee teachers have a successful training year. Our trainee teachers will be supported throughout every step of their journey into becoming a qualified teacher.

Whilst at school, trainee teachers will be supported by their mentor, who will work closely with them every day at every step of the way. In addition, they will also have a professional co-ordinating mentor or someone who co-ordinates all the trainee teachers, who will monitor their progress and support them throughout their learning journey.

At Teach West London, each trainee teacher will have a phase lead, who is responsible for co-ordinating and leading the weekly professional learning sessions. They too will monitor progress and provide bespoke support to ensure that each trainee teacher makes the intended progress to gain QTS.

Additionally, a lead mentor from Teach West London will also be working with trainee teachers and will visit them regularly whilst on school placement.

You can find out more about how we support you in our initial teacher training prospectus below.

Or download the prospectus here:

Updated: 23/04/2024 7.48 MB

Teach West London support doesn’t end once you’ve completed your initial teacher training.

As 1 of 87 national Teaching School Hubs accredited by the Department for Education to offer support and development to teachers at all stages of their career, training to teach with Teach West London means you can continue to benefit from our ongoing professional development for Early Careers Teachers (ECT) and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) beyond your first year. This golden thread of professional support sets us apart from many other ITT providers.

Being connected to a high concentration of partner schools in London also provides excellent opportunities for career progression, so you can continue to learn and step up into a wide variety of roles in school.

Our ITT provision is governed by the Twyford CofE Academies Trust ITT policy.

Initial Teacher Training Policy

Updated: 19/09/2023 396 KB

Find out about our courses.If you have any questions or would like to know more about our programme, please register your interest to receive more details or email [email protected] or call Teach West London on 020 3301 3180.

If you are ready to begin your ITT application process, select the How to Apply button below.

How to Apply