School Direct Partnership
Our School Direct Partnership:
Thinking of a career in teaching?
School Direct is an exciting training route for graduates who are interested in teaching in Early Years, Primary or Secondary Education.
Working in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University, this Wirral-based Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is delivered in schools, by schools and with the aim that you will go on to work as a qualified teacher within our alliance.
We are an alliance of early years, primary, secondary schools in the Wirral area who have an excellent reputation for working collaboratively to deliver high quality School Direct training. The group of schools involved is diverse, and led by Weatherhead High School, an outstanding school and National Teaching School.
You will spend the vast majority of your one-year full time training programme in the classroom, getting to the heart of what outstanding teaching looks like.
Learning from outstanding teachers, you will enjoy a rigorous training programme (in areas such as behaviour management and meeting the needs of student learning) and excellent 1-1 subject and professional coaching and mentoring.
Our alliance draws on its vast experience to provide professional learning training days where trainees across the alliance have a chance to learn together as a larger group.
You will have a home-school where you will begin your training, spending time in a contrasting school-based experience with a school in our alliance. All schools in the alliance are experienced in providing ITT and excel at developing and training their staff.
We recruit and select our own trainees and, whilst we cannot guarantee employment, we aim to employ the majority of our trainees within our alliance of schools, offering excellent opportunities for career development. Perhaps unique to our alliance is our Career Teaching and Leadership Development (CTLD) programme which accelerates the most talented graduates into school leadership positions by providing a framework of professional development and support that goes far beyond simply training you to teach.
Each school is happy to offer a tour and the opportunity to speak to a current associate teacher. We also offer volunteer training so you can ensure this is the right career for you (subject to DBS). Please contact: Sarah Brear at brears@liscard.wirral.sch.uk who will be pleased to give you further information and arrange a visit to our school.
Schools in the Alliance:
Primary Schools & Early Years Centre:
Secondary Schools:
Weatherhead High School
Mosslands High School
Birkenhead High School Academy
Wirral Grammar School for Boys
Wirral Grammar School for Girls
Bebington High School Sports College
Special Schools:
Claremount Special School
Kilgarth Special School
The Process
School Direct applications are made through the UCAS website.
To apply you must register via UCAS:
https://teachertraining.apply.ucas.com/apply/student/login.do.
You then quote the UCAS code per training place (listed under the tab: Places for 2021-22).
If you are successful in being offered a place, you may train in any of the schools listed. We place you by matching your needs to the needs of the school.
The fees are £9000, paid to LJMU. You may be entitled to a bursary - for information click here.
More general information on the teacher training routes is available on the UCAS site: https://www.ucas.com/ucas/teacher-training
Gaining school experience is essential. We can support applicants to gain additional school experience following the interview stage. Simply state any experience, plus your commitment to gain experience, to submit your application and we can take it forward from there.
If you are looking to teach Sciences, Maths, Computer Studies or MFL you can sign up for the School Experience Programme.