Initial Teacher Education Partnership

Through our partnership we work closely with 600 schools, colleges and early year’s settings in the region to provide Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in:

• Primary and Secondary (including School Direct Salaried) leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
• The Teacher Apprenticeship leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)
• Further Education and Training leading to Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills Status (QTLS)
• Early Years Initial Teacher Training (EYITT) leading to Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS).

The teachers we train are:

• dedicated to implementing effective safeguarding and child protection procedures to promote the welfare of young people, keep them safe and practice in a way that protects them
• highly committed to their pupils’ learning and progress and ambitious in what they want to help them achieve
• inquisitive, critically reflective and motivated to keep learning and improving their own practice
• quick to adapt to different learning contexts and confident to challenge inequalities
• an asset to the profession, willing to share their knowledge and experience and to collaborate with others
• well prepared for the realities of teaching, with the confidence, resilience and skills to be innovative, to take risks and be creative.

Governance of our ITE partnership

Our Partnership in Education Strategic Committee (PiESC) consists of primary, secondary and special school heads and other representatives from across the partnership. PiESC was formed in 2012 and continues to meet on a termly basis to lead the strategic development of the partnership.

Alongside PiESC, the Initial Teacher Education Strategic Committee (ITESC) and ITE Course Management Boards and Staff-Student Forums, ensure high levels of consistency across the partnership, and facilitate the sharing of good practice and the identification of common areas for improvement.

Our approach

We believe that equipping the next generation of teachers to be outstanding is only possible through an equal and close collaboration between schools, colleges and universities. Within our partnership we collaborate from initial trainee recruitment, through the delivery of teacher training, and beyond qualification to the continuing professional development of teachers.

Read the School of Education's vision statement.

Our ITE Partnership

• The University of Brighton Initial Teacher Education Partnership aspires for all students to become outstanding teachers. 
• Our student teachers are placed at the heart of our ambitious and innovative ITE curriculum, enabling them to flourish as professionals who will have a positive impact on the life chances of every child and young person they teach. 
• The Core Content Framework is embedded within our curriculum, supporting student teachers to know and do more by engaging with recent, relevant theory, policy and practice. 
• The learner-centred curriculum is underpinned by the University values of partnership, inclusivity, creativity and sustainability. 
• As our student teachers progress through three stages of the constructively aligned curriculum: the Emerging, Embedding and Enhancing stages, they develop their knowledge, understanding and associated practice through engagement with University and Setting-Based Training.  
• Through engaging in the wealth of experiences of the curriculum, including forming collaborative working relationships within our rich partnership community, every student teacher is empowered to achieve our ambition for all students and graduate with professional agency and their own teacher identity demonstrating the University of Brighton graduate attributes. 

Our ITE Partnership wheel details how our curriculum enables student teachers to realise the aspirations we have for them to become: 

• creative and confident users of digital tech
• critical thinkers
• engaged global citizens
• solution-focussed innovators
• confident communicators
• inclusive collaborators
• resilient self-advocates.

ITE partnership achievements

What we’ve achieved

In our 2024 inspection, Ofsted judged the overall quality of our initial teacher training for primary and secondary trainees to be 'outstanding'.

Our initial teacher training for trainees in early years and further education and training was judged as 'good'.

Read our Ofsted report.

ITE partnership priorities

Overview

The University of Brighton ITE Partnership aspires for all trainees to become outstanding teachers.

Working towards the aspiration for all trainees to become outstanding teachers, the partnership is unrelenting in its drive to continually improve all aspects of its ITE provision.

Building on our success, and arising from our rigorous self-evaluation, the following priorities for improvement have been agreed for 2023–24 across all our age phases:

• to enhance student wellbeing and welfare through the ongoing review of the ITE curriculum
• to further develop the quality of mentoring
• to enhance trainees’ knowledge and practice in promoting inclusion and adaptive teaching
• to improve recruitment in line with local, regional and national teacher supply needs.

School-based Training Partnership

Each year we place approximately 1,200 student teachers in school-based training.

Find out how your school can benefit from joining our ITE Partnership and offer school-based training to our student teachers.

Colleges and training organisations

Partnerships for post-16 education

We work with a number of FE colleges, sixth form colleges and private training organisations in the learning and skills sector. They provide our trainee teachers with valuable placement opportunities, and we also work with them to provide part-time courses for trainee teachers.

Want to offer a placement or the Cert-Ed course?

If you are based in the south-east and would like further details about offering placements, or if you are interested in offering a Cert-Ed course in your college, contact us at: soe-office@brighton.ac.uk.

Setting-based training for Further Education and Skills teachers

Full-time trainees enrolled on our year-long Further Education and Skills PGCE and ProfGCE courses must all spend a significant part of their course on placement in colleges or other training environments.

We provide mentor workshops and ongoing support to your staff throughout the placement. We view teacher training as a partnership and are keen to support staff in our partner colleges as much as possible.

Trainee teachers spend at least two days a week from September through to June at their placement, and in some circumstances the placement is extended to May. Initially trainees only observe classes, but they are expected to assist in teaching and then to lead classes as their training progresses.

Read more about the Further Education and Skills PGCE and ProfGCE courses.

Partnership for part-time PGCE/Certificate in Education courses 

We currently work closely with five local colleges that offer part-time Certificate in Education and PGCE courses.

We developed the courses in partnership with the colleges. We continue to meet regularly with college staff and to work closely together to improve the courses and address any challenges that arise.

The colleges we currently work with are:

• Bexhill College
• East Sussex College Group
• Greater Brighton Metropolitan College
• Plumpton College
• Reigate College.