Happy New Year from GORSE SCITT and what a wonderful new year it has been for us in the world of teacher training! We started the year with our Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP), focused on reading through a phase or subject discipline, and the trainees were lucky enough to receive training from Alex Quigley as part of this. Trainees then began their second placement placed across Leeds, Bradford and Hull, where they were able to put the theory learned into practice through their ITaP enactment week. We received some great feedback from our trainees:

“The reading ITaP week has been really useful in understanding how important literacy is to students and their life chances. We have been taught that we are all teachers of literacy and secondary teachers should not assume all children are able to access the curriculum. Sessions have been really interesting and have taught how we can better support students. Even with the adverse weather conditions, GORSE has been great at making sure we get the best training and support. We have looked at language acquisition and phonics, all the way through to strategies to improve literacy, word decoding and comprehension in the classroom. The session with Alex Quigley was incredibly interesting and as trainees we were very lucky to learn from his expertise. I have really enjoyed this week, and it has taught us a lot about misconceptions regarding reading and literacy. I am excited to put this knowledge into practice on my second placement.”

This month also saw the University of Sunderland launch our latest PGCE module with an engaging and interactive session exploring action research. The session was packed with valuable expertise and practical advice as well as lots of fun! We are thankful to have such wonderful partners to support our trainees.

Employment clinics continue to run throughout this month with trainees working with the Lead Mentoring team on their applications and mock interview support. We are excited to announce that fifteen of our trainees have now got jobs and many have interviews lined up in the coming weeks. As trainees settle into their second placements, we are incredibly proud of the progress they have made and the resilience they have shown. We look forward to beginning our term two observations next week! For more updates follow us on social media @GORSESCITT.