Initial Teacher Training

Derbyshire Teaching Schools Together (DTST) are a consortium of 6 Derbyshire Teaching Schools including Alfreton Nursery School Teaching School Alliance. We work together to provide high quality support for Initial Teacher Training, Continued Professional Development and School to School Support. Any school can access DTST services.

We strongly believe 'Together for Derbyshire Stronger Through Collaboration'.

Please see our website for further details:

www.dtst.co.uk

We are delighted to be able to offer both Primary and Secondary School Direct Teacher Training through our links with Derbys Early Years Teaching School (DEYTS), the University of Warwick (Primary), David Nieper Academy and Derby University (Secondary). Please contact the school for further information, or visit the Teacher Training area on our website.

Our innovative and integrated primary and secondary programmes are at the cutting edge of teacher training. Designed in collaboration with both universities, we aim to produce outstanding reflective practitioners who can provide creative, challenging and exciting teaching and learning. Working together, Alfreton Nursery School alliance has collaborated with both universities to ensure our offer is cutting edge and relevant to all our future graduates.

SLEs are outstanding teachers, members of senior management teams with at least 2 years proven experience in their chosen specialism. SLEs work with other schools on an area/areas the matched school have addressed for improvement. SLE deployments are used to provide short or long term support to subject leaders, to address teaching and learning priorities for teams or individuals, to deliver staff meetings, twilights and inset days or address whole school improvements/initiatives.

Please see our school to school support pages for details of our Specialist Leaders of Education and their specialisms. If you are interested in receiving support from one of our SLEs, please contact Alfreton Nursery School.

We offer half day visits to our inspirational Teaching School.

Come and see us in action.

At Alfreton Nursery School Teaching School Alliance, research remains at the forefront of our practice. We constantly look at new ways of working based on a wide variety of research including our own. Projects that we have recently been involved in include, working alongside the Local Authority on School Improvement projects; Project READ and Project Teddy Bear. Autumn 2018, leading an International Study Tour to Sweden to look at Forest Schools in Action.

Examples of our research can be found below

- All Schools need to join a teaching school alliance. -

Schools do not have to join a teaching school alliance. However teaching school alliances offer a unique platform for support and development within the school system. With the focus on school improvement, research and professional development and strategic partners across the education system, they offer a secure network for any school seeking to work collaboratively, whatever its designation.

- All outstanding teachers within a teaching school alliance are expected to work at different schools within the alliance. -

Outstanding teachers with a proven track record for improving school performance will be given the opportunity to apply to become Specialist Leaders of Education. These teachers may be given the opportunity to support other schools within the alliance and beyond. It is up to each individual school to decide if this is a path they would like their school and excellent teachers to take. The success of a teaching school alliance is dependent on the reciprocal relationship of the schools within. On the basis that all schools have something to contribute to the learning community, your school will identify expertise and knowledge that can be shared as well as needs which will be supported by others within the alliance. As teaching school alliances evolve the dynamics of the partnership will develop and deepen.

- You have to pay an annual subscription to become a member of a teaching school. -

Charging to become a member of a teaching school is at the discretion of individual teaching schools. Some teaching schools operate with subscriptions and a memorandum of understanding to which schools sign.

- Schools need to join the teaching school nearest to them. -

Teaching schools are not bound by county borders and schools can ask to join whichever teaching school best meets their needs, character and ethos.

- Teaching Schools are the same as academies -

Academies are independent, state-funded schools, which receive their funding directly from central government, rather than through a local authority.

Teaching schools are outstanding schools that work with others to provide high-quality training and development to new and experienced school staff. They are part of the government’s plan to give schools a central role in raising standards by developing a self-improving and sustainable school-led system.

Importantly, teaching school alliances are not set up to be multi-academy trusts, although some may have a lead role in a MAT. Belonging to a teaching school alliance does not require a change in governance or the same ‘due diligence’ approach that schools take when converting to an academy or becoming part of a MAT. Lead teaching schools have a responsibility to deliver support to schools within the alliance but are not accountable for performance in the same way as a multi-academy trust. Where a school is underperforming, Teaching Schools are not expected to become a sponsor but may be approached if they are a MAT.

- Schools that are part of a Multi-Academy Trust cannot also be part of a teaching school alliance. -

Both MATs and teaching schools offer different support and are not mutually exclusive. It can greatly benefit a school to be part of both. A teaching school alliance may offer a range of training and expertise that is either not available through the multi-academy trust, or complements the work of the trust. The wide ranging brief of teaching schools, their performance measures, and both the regional and national networks, mean that they are well placed to support schools and offer opportunities for professional development for aspiring leaders and teachers. As more MATs are emerging, many are remaining as members of a teaching school alliance.