Creating the curve
Creating the Curve:
Embracing innovation with undergraduates to further enhance outstanding practice at TMA SCITT
Two Mile Ash SCITT has a proud and long-standing reputation in Milton Keynes. It is trusted, respected and admired for sharing excellence, embodying outstanding practice and working purposefully and proactively alongside their partnership schools to produce highly-skilled, high-motivated and highly-employable postgraduate trainee teachers. Their alumni have enviable rates of retention in the profession and many are now experienced, excellent practitioners and leaders.
In recent years, TMA SCITT has continued to proactively embrace innovations which are at the forefront of best practice in ITT by extending their offer to include an undergraduate programme in what has been a national first.
Recruiting their first undergraduates who began their degrees in September 2018, the TMA SCITT entered into a ground breaking partnership with Birmingham City University to establish the first ever school-based undergraduate programme. The BA Hons in Primary Education with QTS is a school-based, three-year undergraduate course leading to Qualified Teacher Status alongside their degree.
This exciting and innovative programme was the first of the kind in the country and represents a potentially powerful revolution in the way undergraduates are trained nationally. It allows you to specialise in age phases 3-7 or 5-11 years with ongoing school-based training at its heart; complemented by training in the core curriculum, foundation curriculum, professional studies and subject specialism. Dovetailing high-quality core training which embraces excellence in evidenced-informed theory with the very best practice in its partnership schools; right from the start trainees gain invaluable insight, knowledge, understanding and experience from the innovative way that their school-based and core training inform and enhance each other.
Recognised as a powerful, purposeful pathway to teaching, current cohorts cover a wide range of demographic profiles; from school leavers to mature students: some of whom are TAs/HLTAs who can remain partially employed by their schools for up to 1.5 days a week or others who are career changers embracing the opportunity to achieve a high-quality degree whilst also learning through ongoing opportunities for professional practice within partnership schools.
Three years on, TMA SCITT are incredibly proud of their first generation of third year undergraduates who, having had two days a week working in schools for three years alongside their three successful teaching practices and high-quality core academic training, are now fully-prepared to embrace their ECT experience from September 2021.
Furthermore, ever embracing opportunities for innovation and excellence, the team at TMA are now working alongside BCU to support and inspire the next generation of SCITT undergraduate providers. Proud of it’s past, ever innovative and inspired by the horizon; Two Mile Ash SCITT continues to work collaboratively to create the curve for outstanding ITT in the classrooms of today and tomorrow.
If you’re interested in discovering more about the future of undergraduate provision within SCITTs, TMA and BCU would be delighted to hear from you.
