Keep up to date with all the latest news happening at the moment.
With a new dynamic School Direct team and a new cohort of 15 exceptional trainees, the St Anthony's Teaching School Alliance Initial Teacher Training has got off to a flying start!
The beginning of September saw Rebecca Gambrill take on the challenges of Primary 5-11 Lead, whilst Gemma Martin took up her old role of EYFs lead, ably assisted by Rachel Capaldi, who will be taking over form Gemma when she goes on maternity leave. Meanwhile, seasoned School Direct veteran, Andrew Bove was there to provide communications and organisational support.
The 15 new trainees joined the team for their first formal training session on Wednesday 4 September, and bowled the team over with their enthusiasm, diligence and professionalism. Overall it was clear that the cohort are going to prove once again that St Anthony's knows how to pick and train outstanding members of the teaching profession.
And staying on that subject, a warm welcome must also go to out to our Alliance NQTs, 6 of whom were all trained last year by St Anthony's! We look forward to working with them and their new colleagues over the year.
And though it is only the third week of term, it looks to be shaping up to be a very successful year ahead. Good luck to everyone on their learning and teaching journey!
St Anthony's Application Portal for the 2019 - 20 courses has now officially closed.
As ever, it has been a busy year, with the standard of applications at it's usual outstanding level. However, we got there in the end, and now have 16 exceptional trainees ready and raring to go in September. We thank them for bringing their talents and passion for Education to our alliance and wish them every success for the start of September.
Meanwhile, rather incredibly, the planning for School Direct 2019-20 continues. Not only that, the ball has now been set rolling for the first stages of recruitment for the 2020 - 21 course, and we haven't even started the Summer holidays!
Watch out for more application information in the Autumn. Now where's my bucket and spade ....
It seems incredible that it's May already! And whilst SATs week is once more upon us to signal the onset of summer, we are also nearing the end of our current recruitment cycle for the 19-20 School Direct course. But we're NOT CLOSED YET! So if you have finished your studies or are just looking to change careers , then look no further than our tried and tested and very successful School Direct programme. Although we have nearly filled all our allocated places, we do still have a few open for both the Early Years (3-ll) Primary course and the General Primary (5 - 11) course. So if you feel ready to get the next phase of your career off to a flying start, apply now! You may just be one of the lucky ones to join our 19-20 cohort.
For further information on our School Direct courses, just click on our initial teacher training web-pages. Or alternately, you can contact our Teaching School PA, Andrew Bove:
0113 2776944
St Anthony's and a host of our Alliance Schools will be closing this Friday for the annual Easter Break, however Easter won't be celebrated until the end of April! Still, it's pretty certain that as the daffodils shoot up and the buds appear on the trees, some chocolate will still be consumed!
More importantly however, the school will celebrate the resurrection and ascension of Christ the week following our return from the Easter break. So this year, we will have a rare opportunity to enjoy a welcome break, before moving on to contemplate and learn from the somber and moving experience of the Easter story.
The School will be closed from 1.00 pm, Friday 29 April until Monday 15 April. Followed by the Easter weekend, when the school will be closed for Good Friday, 19 April and Easter Monday, 22 April.
But in case you were thinking of applying for School Direct but need some information or advice to help you, don't worry, even though the school will be closed, you can still find a host of information on our website:
http://www.stanthonysteachingschool.co.uk/why-the-st-anthonys-teaching-school-alliance/
Furthermore, our Teaching School P.A. Mr Andrew Bove, will be available by email (which he promises to check between chocolate breaks) should you have any pressing concerns or questions about the School Direct application process:
He will be checking applications and hopefully inviting applicants to interview in the first few weeks after Easter. So don't delay, keep those applications rolling in! And most importantly, have a wonderful, relaxing Easter break!
As we nearly reach the half-way point with our recruitment figures (9 firm offers out of twenty vacancies so far) I'm pleased to announce that Leeds Trinity is hosting another PGCE open day on Saturday 24 February 2018, 11.00am - 2.00pm.
Whether you are interested in a future teaching career but not sure where to go next or if you're ready to apply now, this event is a MUST!
During the event you will have the chance to meet with representatives of St Anthony's, receive valuable advice about how to use the UCAS portal and even get a sweet and a pen or two!
Trinity will also be providing information about all the different teaching levels and subject areas available; there will be stands run by the different partner schools, and the opportunity to find out about student finance, the application process and how to prepare for your interview.
To find out more and to book your place online, visit the Trinity PGCE Open Page by clicking the link here.
Most of our current trainees, initially met with us on an Open Day and gained invaluable information and resources which evidently helped them to take that first vital step on the way to their future career: applying for a School Direct place. So if you don't believe me, come and find out for yourself. Join us at Trinity and see why you should join the St Anthony's Teaching Alliance, one of the best, most supportive and professional School Direct Teacher Training establishments in the region!
Yes, it's that time of year again - only earlier!
The DfE have confirmed the opening date of the UCAS portal as Tuesday 9 October. All courses will be searchable on UCAS from Saturday 6 October with the application portal being fully open the following Tuesday.
As our current group of trainees begin their first school placements, it seems incredible to think that only a year ago (actually slightly less, as the portal opened in November) we were meeting them at the various recruitment events around the region! But we have been delighted to see that our recruitment paid off and we have 19 superb candidates who have already distinguished themselves in the short few weeks they have been on the course.
With the excellence of last year's recruits on show, it is only natural that we are excited about starting again and look forward to meeting our next cohort of recruits.
I am delighted to say that our cohort for the School Direct 2018 - 19 is now full!
With double the allocation of places this year, it has been a long and intensive process for the recruitment team, with record numbers of applicants visiting St Anthony's. As always, the standard of applications has been outstanding making it even more difficult to choose the final cohort of trainees. However, we got there in the end and now have 20 exceptional trainees ready and raring to go in September. We thank them for bringing their talents and passion for Education to our alliance and wish them every success for the start of September.
Meanwhile, the planning for School Direct 2019-20 begins! Good luck to our ever busy recruiters!
Since it's inception, St Anthony's School Direct Programme has always succeeded, not only in terms of recruiting to it's full quota of places, but most importantly, recruiting only the very best teacher trainees.
Nevertheless, it was with a real sense of apprehension that we began the latest round of recruitment back in November. Not only were we in competition with some of the best Teacher Training establishments in the region (some of them encompassing nearly triple the number of schools in our partnership) but we had been awarded a never-before-tried recruitment target of 20 places to fill, nearly three times as much as last year! However, not to be daunted and under the assured leadership of Siobhan Leonard and Clair McFadden, we have risen to the challenge and with months still to go before the Summer vacation, we are proud to say that we have almost filled our quota!
At the outset, we were adamant that despite the largest ever recruitment target, we would not compromise on the quality that we expect in our trainees and decided that even if we recruited just five brilliant candidates, that would be better than twenty candidates whose potential was unclear. And as the recruitment process nears its end, we are delighted to say that every candidate we have recruited this year (like every year so far) has been quite exceptional. Each and every trainee invited to join us, has the potential we feel to be an outstanding practitioner, who will go on to enrich the lives of the children and communities they will serve in their professional capacity. And as we near the end of the recruitment cycle, we can only be grateful that they have chosen to train with us. As you can well imagine, we are look forward to the start of the new term in September, with a great amount of excitement.
However, before we begin resting on out laurels, there are still a last few places to fill and some more brilliant candidates to interview. So, if you are thinking of applying to join one of our courses or know someone who is thinking about it - get a move on! There are only a few places left and we are fairly confident that these will be filled by the end of May! Send your application to us as soon as possible; then, who knows, you too might be training alongside some of the best teacher trainees, under the instruction of some of the best mentors and trainers in the region.
Good luck to you and to our exceptional 21018 - 19 trainees. It is going to be a quite challenging but truly outstanding year!
As we reach the half-way point with our recruitment figures (10 firm offers out of twenty vacancies so far) I'm pleased to announce that Leeds Trinity is hosting another PGCE open day on Saturday 24 February 2018, 11.00am - 2.00pm.
Whether you are interested in a future teaching career but not sure where to go next or if you're ready to apply now, this event is a MUST!
During the event you will have the chance to meet with representatives of St Anthony's, receive valuable advice about how to use the UCAS portal and even get a sweet and a pen or two!
Trinity will also be providing information about all the different teaching levels and subject areas available; there will be stands run by the different partner schools, and the opportunity to find out about student finance, the application process and how to prepare for your interview.
To find out more and to book your place online, visit the Trinity PGCE Open Page by clicking the link here.
Most of our new trainees met with us on the Open Day and gained invaluable information and resources which evidently helped them to take that first vital step on the way to their future career: applying for a School Direct place. So if you don't believe me, come and find out for yourself. Join us at the roadshow and see why you should join the St Anthony's Teaching Alliance, one of the best, most supportive and professional School Direct Teacher Training establishments in the region!
It's been a busy three months since the UCAS portal opened, but we at St Anthony's can honestly say we have been delighted by the high quality of applicants we have received (not to mention the high volume). When we were awarded 20 places in the Autumn, our highest recruitment number since we opened as a teaching school, we were filled with some trepidation as to whether we would ever be able to fill such a large number of vacancies. Well, we needn't have worried. Even though it is only January, we have made 14 offers and had 10 firm acceptances! So, I think it is fair to say we are half way there already!
We have been wowed by some truly excellent trial lessons and dazzled by the passion and commitment of those who have visited us so far. And we can honestly say we are excited by the prospect of welcoming such high-calibre recruits to our alliance in September.
So if you haven't put in your application for the 18-19 School Direct course, you probably better hurry! After all, it might not be long before we are announcing our course is full!