A teaching school hub, set up two years ago by Government, is celebrating supporting more than 2,000 teachers with training and development.
Now it is looking to support the changing needs of educators – right from the start of their educational journey.
Leicestershire and Rutland Teaching School Hub (LRTSH), based in Glenfield, has supported more than 600 teachers to achieve their National Professional Qualifications (NPQs), worked with in excess of 300 schools and seen 15 headteachers throughout their leadership coaching.
It was set up two years ago as part of the Government’s teaching school hub programme. That programme created a network of 87 centres of excellence for teacher training and development, focused on some of the best schools and multi-academy trusts in the country.
Formed in February 2021, LRTSH, like other hubs, began operating at the start of the following academic year, to provide high-quality professional development to teachers at all stages of their careers.
Kay Shepherd, director of Leicestershire and Rutland Teaching School Hub, said: “It’s incredible to see how far the hub has developed since opening. My passion is to develop teachers at all levels. We now work with the most brilliant people across the schools in our area to help achieve that. Our next step into ITT is particularly close to my heart as that is where there is a real need at the moment.”
Currently LRTSH has 585 early career teachers being supported by 575 mentors through the Early Careers Framework. This framework was set up at the same time as the hubs were rolled out and entitled teachers starting their induction period to a two-year training programme and mentorship.
The hub has now begun its Initial Teacher Training, or ITT, meaning it is training those people taking their first step on their journey to becoming a qualified teacher.
The hub is also looking to the future and the emerging areas in which educators need additional training. In January this year, it opened a SEND and Inclusion Hub, designed to help education professionals support increasing numbers of children presenting with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
One of the SEND and Inclusion Hub’s main areas of focus will be on introducing and explaining SEND to teachers and providing practical classroom tips to those working with children. Increasingly, it is staff in nursery settings who are seeking this kind of training and support.
Kay said: “We know that nurseries are seeing more children attending who now come with special educational needs and staff need the training and support to know how best to offer activities and learning opportunities for those children.”
According to the Department for Education, 6.3% of three and four-year-olds and 3.5% of two-year-olds accessing the 15 funded child care hours a week have special educational needs (SEN), as do 2.8% of three and four-year-olds accessing the extended, 30-hour, funded entitlement.
In the month since opening, the SEND and Inclusion Hub at LRTSH had already trained 50 people, enhancing their knowledge and ability to support pupils with special education needs.
Kay said: “We are here to support teachers throughout their careers as they work to make a positive difference to the lives of our young people.”
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