Latest News

 We are still recruiting for Secondary PGCE!

Places are still available for , Geography (Flexible places only), Maths and Modern Foreign Languages.

Check out details of our Secondary PGCE Course and how to apply using the links at the bottom of this page.

If you would like further information, please contact the GITEP Office on 01452 509208

GITEP 15th Anniversary  - The History of the Partnership

When GITEP was established it was the outcome of some very rigorous negotiations between Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads and universities in the area.  When the Government indicated that school-based initial teacher education was their preference, Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads wanted to embrace this philosophy.  However, upon negotiations with local universities, i.e. Bristol, Bath and the University of the West of England it became apparent that what GASH was seeking i.e. two-thirds resourcing for two-thirds of the time in schools was not on their agenda.  It is to the lasting credit of Dame Janet Trotter that she saw how important this could be to Gloucestershire to the then College and then, indeed, to education generally if we could reach agreement on the way ahead.  She therefore instructed that Mick Abrahams, who was head of education at the time, link with Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads to try and reach agreement and write a programme.  Initially only twelve schools were involved.  However, once the programme became common knowledge and the quality of the training became known, more schools wished to become involved.  It was also common knowledge that schools had to apply and indeed we rejected certain schools because we were not happy with their proposed training managers.  This gave the programme immense credibility and was really one of the key factors in its success.

The partnership has gone from strength to strength because of the quality of people who work in it.  We have had outstanding university staff working with us, most notably over many years Gareth Nutt and Elaine Judd.  We have had high quality subject leaders offering all National Curriculum subjects in training and we were able to establish the full range of courses because we linked the main programme with a local SCITT to offer subjects which the former College traditionally did not offer.  The next phase will be to link the two courses and bring it all under one umbrella.  Further developments of the partnership were when we took over the former GWIST organisation's GTP programme.  This was further enhanced when following a failed inspection, Bath Spa trainees were placed under our jurisdiction.  Hence we now have in excess of 150 secondary trainees and 35 primary GTP trainees within the partnership.  The exciting aspect of the work is now to see early trainees taking on senior positions in Gloucestershire schools and in turn feeding back into the partnership.

The mantra of the partnership was always to "train the best to retain the best" i.e. have the best teachers retained in Gloucestershire for Gloucestershire schools.  It is my contention that this resulted in the improvement in the performance of Gloucestershire secondary schools whereby it is one of the highest performing areas in the country.  Some of the comprehensives being at the very top of comprehensives in England is in no small way due to the quality of teachers who have come through the GITEP scheme. 

Many of us have up to 40% of our staff who are now former GITEP trainees.  Initial Teacher Education has never been better.  We have been commended by Ofsted on many occasions and, indeed, have been inspected almost annually since 1994.  What is most important is what we see happening in the schools and as we celebrate our 15^th Anniversary it is fundamental that we develop and plan for the next 15 years to continue this important, high quality provision of teachers for Gloucestershire schools.  Yes, with our GTP programme we go down as far South as Weston-Super-Mare, up to Worcester and into Herefordshire, but primarily we are serving Gloucestershire schools and the success of the last 15 years must be emulated over the next 15.  As existing staff depart the education scene the plans are already in place for the succession so that what has become extremely special and important to Gloucestershire education system is so embedded that regardless of key personnel who move on, the scheme itself will continue to grow and flourish.

Larry Montagu

Head of St Peter's High School

Gloucester

Counter Stats

MySpace Comments