Top marks for teacher training centre

The school’s School Based Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) programme has been awarded Ofsted’s highest accolade and now joins just a handful of training providers in the North East who are judged to be outstanding.

Inspectors praised the excellent training on offer, saying that newly qualified teachers from the courses “are fully committed to their vocation, their training, their pupils’ achievement, and the profession itself. ”

Lesley Powell, executive principal at the Academy and CEO of the Shotton Hall Learning Trust said: “We are delighted that our SCITT has been recognised as outstanding and that inspectors have rubber-stamped what we know to be one of the highest quality teacher training experiences available.

“It was a big step for the Academy to take on the task of training the next generation of teachers, but the SCITT has been a great addition to the school and the award of the outstanding badge is the icing on the cake.”

Jo McShane, director of Shotton Hall SCITT added: “We think the best way to learn how to teach is in the classroom learning from outstanding teachers and we have built a programme to reflect this.

“Our trainees have access to fantastic teaching across our partnership of 60 schools and, as noted by Ofsted, are professionals from day one.

“We believe, we have something quite special at hotton Hall and feedback from our trainees, and now inspectors, echoes this.”

Teacher training has traditionally been the auspices of universities, but the courses at Shotton Hall SCITT offer an alternative route.