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Keele University has a long established reputation in Initial Teacher Education. The Keele Partnership Secondary School Direct Programme is an innovative one year (36 weeks) course which offers opportunities for trainees to develop skills in the use of digital technologies in the classroom and to undertake a multi-agency placement as part of the course.
You will spend a significant amount of time (minimum of 120 days) in school. The University modules are designed to give you experience of the type of innovative teaching required in the contemporary school.
The course is underpinned by a genuine partnership between the University, partner schools and the students (referred to as Associate Teachers (ATs)). The University sessions will draw heavily on the ATs’ school experiences and aid them in interpreting those experiences in the light of current theory and practice in secondary history education.
'The aim of the programme at Keele is to develop outstanding, critical and creative teachers for the 21st century classroom'
The School Direct Programme at Keele has been designed to be both academic and vocational and is predicated on the requirement to provide challenging expectations of you as Associate Teachers to create a teaching and learning environment which will engage your interest and motivation. The broad aim of the main curriculum component of the School Direct programme is to:
• develop your subject knowledge and teach you how to put that knowledge into practice (pedagogy) in order to thrive in the culture of our schools;
• enable you to become a highly motivated, outstanding effective, creative and reflective practitioner;
• prepare you for a career in teaching that will prove to be successful and rewarding;
• develop in you a commitment to and enthusiasm for continuing professional and personal development;
• provide you with sufficient information, experience and opportunity in order that you might achieve the QTS Standards.
Entry to the programme is conditional on:
- Achievement of at least a 2:2 and preferably a 2:1 honours degree (or recognised equivalent);*
- Passes at GCSE in English Language and Mathematics at grade C or above (or equivalent);
- Selection based on the information provided on the GTTR application;
- Selection based on a successful interview (part of the interview is conducted within a partner school);
- A medical report which is deemed satisfactory;
- A completed DBS enhanced disclosure which is deemed satisfactory by the University;
- Successful completion of the Teaching Agency’s Professional Skills Tests in Literacy and Numeracy (these are a pre-entry requirement).
- Successful completion of a minimum of 10 days History teaching experience in a secondary school/college during the last two years , either before or after selection (before strengthens your application);
- For the SD (Salaried) route, you must have three years of work experience (not necessarily in an educational setting) to be eligible to apply.
Undertaking the Keele School Direct History course will be one of the most complex, demanding and hopefully, enjoyable experiences of your professional life. As a graduate historian (or with a degree with a substantial element of History - minimum 40% of your degree) you will be encouraged to question what you know, why you know it and how you know it as a precursor to entering classrooms to work with young people. In the seminars and workshops that you will engage in at Keele, a significant contribution will be required from you as we work together to consider:
- How do I plan a lesson?
- Can 12 year olds understand the causes of the English Civil War?
- What does GCSE demand of pupils?
- How can ICT help develop pupils' historical understanding?
- How do I get 'A' Level students engaged in discussion?
- How will I control year 9?
- Whose history and what history should school children learn?
- What does the National Curriculum say that I have to teach?
These are just a few of the sort of questions about history teaching we try to address through the history programme. The work is organised around five broad themes:
- exploring preconceptions about History teaching and History learning;
- the context of History teaching, GCSE/A2 Levels and National Curriculum;
- managing the History classroom;
- lesson planning, including decisions about appropriate activities;
- carrying out the plan.
In all our work, we offer a wide range of suggestions for practice and the means to evaluate critically those suggestions. Whether you are a recent graduate or have worked in a range of occupations prior to commencing the course, you will have a love of and an enthusiasm for your subject, and for conveying this to pupils and students. The school-based and Keele elements of the course are planned to be complementary so you will have the opportunity to make full use of the wide range of expertise available to you. Ideas generated in school are further explored in the University and concerns raised here are investigated in the school context. The school-based work requires involvement in all aspects of the teacher's role - talking with teachers, watching them work, designing resources, using information and communications technology, working with individuals and small groups of pupils, team teaching with other Associates and staff, and teaching whole classes.
The course is designed so that not only will you be equipped to teach pupils and students in the 11-16 age range but you will also have opportunities to gain experience of teaching at the 16-19 level.
The History course aims to ensure that you not only develop sufficient classroom teaching skills and knowledge to cope at the beginning of your career but also to develop critical understanding of teaching through which you can extend your later professional development. Leadership of learning is at the heart of all the work that we undertake.
A distinctive feature of the School Direct History course at Keele is the focus on Creativity and the use of fieldwork to support this. Recent projects have involved visits to the First World War Battlefields, Florence, Arran to study the impact of the Highland Clearances and Northern Cyprus to investigate the Crusades. We always begin the course with a residential closer to home which frames the course and gives course participants to form a close and supportive working relationship with their peers. Further details about the proposed fieldwork for 2013/14 will be provided prior to the commencement of the course.
Course participants are assessed through written academic assignments and portfolios of evidence. Throughout your placements you will be assessed against the Teachers’ Standards (May 2012).
The Keele Partnership recognises that our ATs come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and have already completed degree level study or higher, and are in a position to learn from each other. Thus the programme makes use of lead lectures, seminars, group activities, individual and group tutorials, practical workshops, field visits, directed activities in professional contexts, school based placements, supported self-study and the use of IT to support learning via the website.
