Pedagogy and Policy partners
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School partners
Our Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme is proud to work closely with over 45 school partners across Sheffield, South Yorkshire and beyond. Our partners host student teachers on placements, and in many cases they go well beyond this, contributing excellent teaching to the programme.
We have a highly skilled team of secondees working with us on a weekly basis. These colleagues are based in schools and bring their expertise one day per week to help ensure that our PGCE programme is up to date with the latest school developments. They offer great insights and opportunities to visit a range of schools beyond our standard placements, and they support our recruitment efforts to ensure that we bring the very best new teachers into the profession.
Our subject-based teaching is enhanced through focused sessions led by other school-based partners. Some examples:
- In mathematics, we have teachers from:
- All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield teaching about problem solving;
- Wingfield Academy in Rotherham discussing retrieval practice;
- Mercia School in Sheffield sharing innovative teaching approaches;
- Ridgewood School in Doncaster taking problem solving even further;
- Newfield School in Sheffield discussing ways to develop conceptual understanding of negative numbers.
- All of these contributions make a huge difference to the student teachers' experiences.
- In English this year we have had sessions on:
- developing more academic writing for pupils of all levels of literacy by Dara Harvey, head of department at Mercia School
- developing approaches to writing at GCSE level by David Sheppard at Meadowhead School
- understanding the importance of cultivating positive relationships for learning by Isabel Barnes at King Ecgbert School
- In geography, Megan Richardson (ex-APSE and PGDE) now Head of Department at King Ecgbert School, Sheffield has led a session on using visualisers in the classroom, and Yasmin Badat (ex PGDE), now Head of Year 10 at Yewlands led a session on working with Teaching Assistants to support children with SEND.
- In science, we’ve had two days focusing on physics and biology teaching with Matt Bailey from King Ecgbert School, Sheffield, as well as a range of practical sessions held at Wales High School, Rotherham.
Featured Partner: Wales High School
We have a long tradition of working in partnership with the University of Sheffield and have benefitted from working closely with PGDE team through hosting specific sessions on the delivery of A Level to leading session on effectively supporting students with SEND. Our staff also enjoy taking a lead role in the interview process for prospective ITT students and have been pleased to welcome many of these candidates back at Wales as they take up opportunities to join our department. At a time when recruiting new teachers has become a real challenge for Headteachers this partnership has provided our school with a direct pipeline to the very best post graduate entries to our profession.
Pepe Di'Iasio
Head Teacher of Wales High School