The Leicester and Leicestershire SCITT is a successful small provider of Initial Teacher Training, taking less than 30 trainees a year. It was set up by the headteachers of nine highly effective primary schools in Leicester & Leicestershire with the following aims:
to provide exciting, first class training that enables each trainee to exceed the Standards required for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and to achieve her/his full potential;
to continue to develop the capacity of teachers in schools within the SCITT Consortium to deliver high quality ITT, with a focus on the integration of Information Technology;
to change the profile of the teaching force locally so that pupils have a range of role models representative of their local community;
to improve the supply of locally trained teachers who are members of the immediate community;
to improve the attainment of pupils in schools across both LEAs;
The SCITT is managed by the Headteachers of the partnership schools who are fully committed to the SCITT achieving the highest standards and have a very direct interest in the quality of training provided by the SCITT. All trainees receive a high level of individual support from tutors and mentors and many of the SCITT's successful trainees gain their first teaching post in these schools or other local schools.
The SCITT Course also offers the opportunity to gain a PGCert, accredited by the University of Wolverhampton, a nationally recognised leader in providing high quality ITT. This qualification awards credits that can be used towards a Masters qualification and provides the opportunity to carry out research and gain a deeper understanding of a current issue in primary education.
Training in Leicester & Leicestershire
The City of Leicester LA has one of the highest populations of pupils from ethnic minority communities in the country with Asian and black children making up more than 50% of the school population. Leicestershire LA, in contrast, has a lower than national average number of pupils from ethnic minority groups.
The contrasting nature of the schools in the geographical area served by the SCITT means a distinctive feature of the SCITT is the diversity of the pupil population of the schools within the partnership: Partner schools range from schools where the majority of pupils are of Indian or Pakistani heritage, to schools situated in the most socially and economically disadvantaged areas of the city (with most pupils of a white British heritage), to schools in semi-rural settings where the percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is well below average.
This exciting and diverse mix of partner schools is deliberately used to enrich the training experience of trainees, so that all trainees are well prepared to meet the needs of a very wide range of pupils in both urban and rural settings in their future careers. Evaluations from teachers trained by the SCITT and their head teachers, (from all parts of the UK and a wide range of schools), indicate this is a considerable strength of the SCITT.
All aspects of the SCITT's training and management reflect a full commitment to realising Leicester City Council's vision for Leicester in 2025 to be:
“the most cohesive city in Europe, with safe and strong communities, where people successfully live, work and learn together, new arrivals are made welcome, and where diverse cultural traditions enrich one another and the lives of all its citizens.“
(Leicester City Council Corporate Plan 2006-2008)
