At Co-op Academies Trust, we believe in changing the lives of young people through empowering teachers and young people to work together for a better education and a better community. I’ve been lucky enough to have visited several academies since joining the Trust as Head of ECF with ITT in January and the purposeful learning that was present everywhere was amazing to see.

I found an affinity with the Ways of Being and knew that I wanted to be a part of the driving force behind such a dynamic Trust. Outstanding education is the single biggest driver of outcomes for our young students with the quality of staff being the most significant variable that leaders can influence directly. Co-op Academies Trust are committed to ensuring teachers receive high-quality training and professional development at every stage of their career, I was again drawn to work with like minded practitioners. 

Like Co-op, I value self-help and self-responsibility, meaning when I was tasked with ensuring supportive and structured opportunities for practitioners to explore and master strategies where present, I was ready for the challenge. 

Co-op Academies’ commitment to curriculum, pedagogy, teaching and learning and the wider trust community resonated with me to guarantee we are evidence-informed, rooted in honesty and openness and do what matters most across all schools so that we work in solidarity to best create outstanding opportunities for our young people.

As well as overseeing Early Career Teaching in all of our academies and working with our superb practitioners, my new role is to create our own Trust Initial Teacher Training programme. We will be working with Bright Futures SCITT to bring together expertise from across the Trust Primary, Secondary, Special and Further Education provisions in an aim to promote excellence in all aspects of education. Our trainees will benefit from focused, central and school-based training, working in our academies on the thirteen courses we offer: Primary 3-7, Primary 5-11, Primary SEND, English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Religious Education, Computing and Design & Technology.

Although they will be completing a PGCE, all our trainees will benefit from being on our School Direct course which means being in the classroom from day one, working and training with our outstanding practitioners  and understanding what it means to be a Co-op teacher. Thank you to everyone who has worked with me so far in helping to create the foundations of the programme. Your eagerness and ambition will make this a fantastic provision we have to offer. 

Train to Teach with Co-op Academies