Tudor Grange became a Training school in 2004 and one of our main areas of focus is in providing high quality ITT provision. We have investigated a variety of routes into teaching and work with a range of HEIs, including Warwick, Birmingham, BCI, Newman, Open University and the Ninestiles Consortium We have also encouraged all of our departments to have at least one trainee over the four year cycle.

To enable prospective PGCE trainees to see first hand what life in a secondary school is like, we initiated a scheme with Warwick University and set up Taster Days which are open to anyone who has applied to Warwick to undertake a PGCE course. So far this year we have offered a total of seven such days.

In order to widen our trainees’ experience we have set up a successful Cross school PGCE programme whereby our trainees spend two days with one of our partner schools looking at both departmental and whole school issues.

We are also closely involved in Warwick SAS scheme and, for the past three years, our Deputy Training School Manager has presented to SAS trainees on how to develop a Learning to Learn Tutorial programme. This year she was invited to participate in the first Warwick in Africa Day and devised a range of activities which allowed the undergraduates to demonstrate their leadership skills, their initiative and their ability to think both logically and laterally! This helped to determine which of the 56 applicants would be best suited to teaching Maths for four weeks in schools in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam.

To enhance our mentors’ experience we have devised our own In House Initial and Intermediate Mentor programme which, as part of our Outreach work, has been offered to all schools within the Borough.

As we feel that it is important that our staff be involved in action research, we are in the process of applying to be a Pilot TLA school.

If you would like more information please feel free to contact:

Deputy Training School Manager

Debbie Forbes

dforbes@tudor-grange.solihull.sch.uk