Why train with Teach West London?

School-based, fully immersive programme

Immerse yourself in school life from your first week, learning from expert practitioners within a supportive environment. With a seamlessly integrated curriculum where nothing is left to chance, you'll continually connect theory and practice, developing the skills and confidence to thrive in the classroom. 

Choose where you teach

We know trainees thrive when they can choose the community that's right for them. You choose from our network of partner schools, allowing you to build a sense of belonging, develop strong professional relationships from selection day onwards, and make a lasting difference in a community that matters to you. See where you could train to teach.

Train with one of the country's leading teacher training providers

Recognised by Ofsted as exceptional, our teacher training reflects sector-leading practice. As part of Twyford CofE Academies Trust, one of the country's highest-performing multi-academy trusts, we share their relentless commitment to educational excellence, enabling you to make a lasting difference to children and communities. 

Thrive with exceptional support

You'll receive expert mentoring, dedicated wellbeing support and personalised guidance throughout your training year. As part of a Teaching School Hub serving 300+ schools, we're not just your training provider, we're a partner throughout your teaching career, offering access to a wide range of professional development opportunities from trainee through to school leader.

At Teach West London we have a dedicated team and subject experts to support you through your training.

ITT Team

ITT Secondary Subject Team

Induction

In July, Teach West London will welcome all successful candidates to a 2 day induction session. During this, trainee teachers will be introduced to the basic tools for beginning to teach in the classroom from the outset of the foundation phase.

The training year is split up into 3 main training phases:

Foundation Phase

• During this training phase (September – December), the foundations for a career in teaching will be built. Trainee teachers will have the opportunity to observe expert colleagues and learn from them whilst based in their main placement school.
• As a fully immersive school-centred training programme, trainee teachers will be teaching from the beginning of the academic year.
• Trainee teachers on a non-salaried route will have a small teaching timetable, which will increment throughout the year, although they are supernumerary and will have other colleagues in the classroom with them.
• Trainee teachers on a salaried route may have a larger timetable to begin with, which may also increment throughout the year and they may be required to teach on their own.

Development Phase

• As well as being in the main placement school, during this phase (January – March), trainee teachers will also complete a second placement for 20 days in a contrasting school. For salaried trainees, the contrasting placement may be less than 20 days. Trainees on the SEND Post Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship route will complete a second placement for half a term. Unlike many providers, Teach West London organise this contrasting placement for our trainees, through working with our extensive group of West London partner schools. 
• This will broaden their experience and will provide the opportunity for them to develop as a resilient and reflective practitioner whilst simultaneously developing their teaching and learning skills.

Consolidation Phase

• During the final phase (April – July) of the training year, trainee teachers will be based at their main placement school. This is when they will consolidate what they have learnt during their initial teacher training year through an increased teaching timetable.
• This will enable trainee teachers to not only refine their pedagogical practice but also develop into a skilled and confident practitioner, who is ready to begin their ECT years. By the end of the teacher training year, trainee teachers will teach 80% of a qualified teacher’s timetable.

During the initial teacher training year, Teach West London and each placement school work together to provide a fully integrated training experience. Trainees learn new concepts, techniques and approaches through centre-based training and immediately put them into practice in the classroom. This deliberate connection between training and practice ensures learning is reinforced, embedded and refined throughout the week. 

Teach West London’s ITT Curriculum will cover some of the following areas of learning:

• Professional Behaviours – What it really means to be a teacher in a school and what else teachers do outside of the classroom, how to build professional relationships with all the different stakeholders and communicate with them, how to effectively deploy support staff, how to act on the advice of expert colleagues, how you can look after your own wellbeing, and manage your workload.
• Subject & Curriculum – School curriculums, the phase-specific and subject-specific knowledge that teachers need to have and how they can develop this, what specific subject pedagogy needs to be used to teach a subject effectively, how you as a teacher promote scholarship and literacy, how to teach phonics and early maths.
• Expectations & Behaviour – How teachers create a safe learning environment, how teachers create high expectations and rules and routines from the start of the year, how to manage pupil behaviour and nurture mutual respect.
• How Pupils Learn – How pupils learn, how pupils of different age groups, ability etc are capable of building on their pre-existing knowledge, understand how to implement modelling and the use of explanations for pupil learning, how to incorporate opportunities for practice and retrieval so that pupils will retain new learning, how to avoid overloading pupils with too much information.
• Classroom Practice – How to plan lessons effectively, how to plan for other learning activities outside of the classroom, learn how to plan for short-term, medium-term and long-term by creating schemes of learning, and how to be a reflective practitioner.
• Assessment – How to draw on different forms of assessment to check on pupils’ misconceptions and measure the depth of their knowledge and understanding, how to provide effective and meaningful feedback, how to use the data to support the needs of your pupils.
• Adaptive Teaching – How to adapt teaching to make it inclusive for all pupils and to meet their specific needs, understand the barriers that pupils have towards learning, as well understanding how children develop.

At Teach West London we believe that bespoke support is vital to ensuring that our trainee teachers have a successful training year. Our trainee teachers will be supported throughout every step of their journey into becoming a qualified teacher.

Whilst at school, trainee teachers will be supported by their mentor, who will work closely with them every day at every step of the way. In addition, they will also have a School ITT Lead - an experienced senior leader who co-ordinates all the trainee teachers, who will monitor their progress and support them throughout their learning journey.

At Teach West London, each trainee teacher will have a Director of ITT, who is responsible for co-ordinating and leading the weekly professional learning sessions. They too will monitor progress and provide bespoke support to ensure that each trainee teacher makes the intended progress to gain QTS.

Additionally, a lead mentor from Teach West London will also be working with trainee teachers and will visit them regularly whilst on school placement.

Equality and inclusion: Teach West London and its partners are committed to promoting equality of opportunity and avoiding discrimination. We champion inclusion, equity and the right for all trainees to thrive - read more about our commitment to equality and inclusion below. 

You can find out more about how we support you in our initial teacher training prospectus below.

Or download the prospectus here:

Teach West London and its partners are committed to promoting equality of opportunity and avoiding discrimination. We champion inclusion, equity and the right for all trainees to thrive. Our practice is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and we do not discriminate on the basis of protected characteristics. 

All trainees are given the opportunity to disclose any disability, specific educational need, or barrier to learning or wellbeing at any stage of the programme, including during application, interview, induction or throughout training. This enables us to work proactively with trainees to identify and implement reasonable adjustments as early as possible. Where adjustments are required, we will work in partnership with trainees and placement schools to ensure that every trainee has the opportunity to meet the requirements for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). 

Our training programme is designed to be inclusive, personalised and highly supportive. Weekly in person training sessions and regular school visits allow us to build strong professional relationships with trainees and provide tailored support aligned to individual needs. We prioritise mental health and wellbeing throughout the training year and provide guidance on workload management and work life balance. 

All trainee teachers have access to our Employee Assistance Programme, which offers confidential counselling, advice and wellbeing resources. 

All successful applicants will be asked to complete an Occupational Health assessment, usually via a confidential medical questionnaire, prior to starting the course. This process is used to identify any reasonable adjustments required to support trainees to train and teach safely and effectively. 

Information relating to disability, health or wellbeing is treated confidentially and managed in accordance with UK GDPR and data protection legislation. Information will only be shared with relevant stakeholders where consent has been provided and where this is necessary to implement agreed support. 

Reasonable adjustments do not change the professional competence standards required for the award of QTS. All trainees are expected to meet the Teachers’ Standards 

See our ‘who can teach?' section to find out more. 

Teach West London support doesn’t end once you’ve completed your initial teacher training.

As 1 of 87 national Teaching School Hubs accredited by the Department for Education to offer support and development to teachers at all stages of their career, training to teach with Teach West London means you can continue to benefit from our ongoing professional development for Early Careers Teachers (ECT) and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) beyond your first year. This golden thread of professional support sets us apart from many other ITT providers.

Being connected to a high concentration of partner schools in London also provides excellent opportunities for career progression, so you can continue to learn and step up into a wide variety of roles in school.