Train to Teach Event, Southampton, 1st November

We would to like to promote an NCTL 'Train to Teach' event in Southampton at the Grand Harbour Hotel on Tuesday 1st November, from 4:30pm until 8:00pm. For more details on the event, please head to 'Get Into Teaching' website here.

Event Information:
Our free Train to Teach Roadshows will provide you with a wealth of information on how to get into teaching and how to apply for training in your region.
Don’t miss your opportunity to find out more. Drop in at any time during the event, allowing at least two hours to:

• first attend a presentation on the different teacher training options – these will take place at 5:30pm and 6:30pm
• speak to teaching experts to receive advice on your training options – please check your eligibility for teacher training before coming along to this event
• receive personalised advice on your UCAS application – don’t forget to bring a copy of your personal statement with you
• talk to practising teachers about life in the classroom
• meet representatives from schools and universities that deliver teacher training in your region to find out about their courses and entry requirements

School Direct Information Evening 19th October

School Direct Information Evening

Bitterne Park Teaching School Alliance

Wednesday 19^th October 2016, 17:30 – 19:00

Sixth Form Theatre, Bitterne Park School, Copsewood Road, Southampton, SO18 1BU

The Bitterne Park Teaching School Alliance is a growing partnership of primary & secondary schools across Hampshire and Wiltshire offering high quality teacher training.  Our School Direct route is delivered in partnership with the University of Southampton and allows our trainees to follow a school-led programme leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) validated by the University of Southampton. The programme also contributes towards Master’s level accreditation.

We are holding an information evening for anyone considering a career in general primary teaching or secondary art, biology, business, chemistry, computing, dance, DT, drama, English, geography, history, maths, MFL, music, PE, physics or RE.

This event is intended to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about our School Direct teacher training programme and to find out more about how to apply to the Bitterne Park Teaching School Alliance.  Representatives from the University of Southampton and our alliance partner schools will be present to answer your questions.  Places are limited so please register to attend by emailing teaching.schools@bitterneparkschool.org.uk

Our Attainment & Progress Dashboard 2016

Our KS2 outcomes for 2016 are beginning to be put into some of context as the national picture emerges. 'FFT Aspire' is a non-profit organisation that works alongside the DfE to provide schools with information about their performance for  the purposes of self-evaluation. While we still have some work to do as we begin to explore how our key groups performed, our initial self-evaluation is that this KS2 picture looks pretty good! A ranking of '10', while it is volatile, puts us in highest banding of schools nationally. Reason to be proud of our pupils for sure.

Examples of Resilience...

The Learning Pit from Kenilworth Learning on Vimeo.

This is a really good example of someone very well known thinking about resilience! This fits in perfectly with our current focus on this value and how it it such an important learning behaviour to encourage in our children.

Bitterne Park Teaching School Alliance

We are becoming part of a growing partnership of primary and secondary schools that have come together to share their skills, experience, talent and capacity to help improve the learning of young people across Hampshire and Wiltshire.  

The Bitterne Park Teaching School Alliance already provides high quality secondary school-led teacher training for an increasing number of trainees in collaboration with the University of Southampton. We will soon (September 2017) be providing a primary element to their program. We will also be able to offer primary NQT induction and training. 

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN TRAINING TO BECOME A QUALIFIED PRIMARY OR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER WITH PGCE STATUS?

ARE YOU A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE?

ARE YOU IN THE FINAL YEAR OF YOUR DEGREE?

OR ARE YOU THINKING OF A CAREER CHANGE INTO TEACHING?

For more details, follow this link!

Lead School:

Bitterne Park School, Bitterne Park, Southampton – a National Teaching School

Secondary Schools:

Chamberlayne College for the Arts, Weston, Southampton

Matravers School, Westbury, Wiltshire

Pewsey Vale School, Pewsey Vale, Wiltshire

Regents Park Community College, Shirley, Southampton

Saint George Catholic College, Swaythling, Southampton

The Burgate School & Sixth Form, Fordingbridge, Hampshire

The Petersfield School, Petersfield, Hampshire

Primary Schools:

Bitterne Manor Primary School, Bitterne Manor, Southampton

Moorlands Primary School, Bitterne, Southampton

Mount Pleasant Junior School, Newtown, Southampton

St Denys Primary School, St Denys, Southampton

Townhill Junior School, Townhill, Southampton

Ofsted: Where Next...?

Part two of our INSET day was about where we go next following our June Ofsted. During their visit, Ofsted focussed very much on several key areas:

• Consistency across the school
• Fixed starting points to show progress children are making 
• End of year attainment 
• High expectations in EVERYTHING! 
• Gaps of key vulnerable groups are closing but who is keeping you awake at night? 

To avoid a potential post-Ofsted 'hangover', we feel it is important to have time to reflect and ask ourselves some key questions:
Where are we now?
What do we want to get better at?
This initial thinking will form much of our school improvement planning for the future. Reminding ourselves that we don't need to do everything 100% better but 100 things 1% better!

Inset: Importance of Resilience

Part of our INSET day on Monday was to launch a focus on our next learning value: Resilience. Partly inspired by Team GB success and other successful famous individuals, we began by defining resilience and why it is such an important quality. We also wanted to work our thinking around to the classroom and why it's such an important learning behaviour. Teaching children well being and happiness is important and the ability to 'Bounce' back when things don't go so well is a vital part of this. We also considered how to teach and model this in the classroom. What do children do when they find something hard? How can we support them in getting off and beyond that first step? Over the next few weeks, each class will be looking at building resilience into their work and we hope it encourages pupils to take a more positive view of themselves and how they learn.