Issue 6

March 2015

The Buckingham Partnership SCITT

Newsletter
Welcome to our January Newsletter. The aim of the Buckingham Partnership is to offer excellent provision to new teachers entering the profession. Our vision is to ensure that every child has a good or
outstanding teacher , equipped to cope with the demands of the role, in front of them in our Partnership Schools.

SCITT TEAM:
Lizana Oberholzer - Director of Partnership -

Inside this Issue:

1)

SCITT Priorities 2014/15

2)

Partnership News

3)

SCITT Training

4)

NQT News

Sam Brewer - Director of Primary

5)

CPD News

Howard Astley-Jones Lead Tutor Maths

6)

SCITT Calendar

Liz Nourshargh - Lead Tutor Science

7)

Contact Us

loberholzer@royallatin.org
Mobile Number: 07534 476122
Becky Ellers - Headteacher of the Primary Lead
School

Laura Whitty - Course Administrator/ Finance

Officer - lwhitty@royallatin.org

2014/ 15 Priorities

A coaching approach for mentors when feeding back

Effective use of the guidance and descriptors when assessing and

grading lessons for accurate outcomes

A coaching approach as mentors when setting targets enabling

the trainee to be more reflective and clear on their progress and
learning to have a greater impact on pupils' learning

Longer Term: Effective support for NQTs linked to the partnership

Partnership News!

Dear Partnership Colleagues,

We have started the new half term with great enthusiasm and most of trainees have now returned to their
main placement schools. They are hoping to apply their new skills and learning to their classroom practice. Our
Wednesday Sessions reflected on how they can use and apply these new skills in their classroom practice and
we are hoping that it will make a huge impact on their overall learning. The trainees have all expressed how
much they have enjoyed their second placements and we want to extend their thanks to each and everyone of
our partnership schools, professional tutors and mentors.
Many of our trainees are now in the process of applying for jobs. They have had workshops on how to prepare
for interviews and the interview days. Many of them might request references from their schools and have
been advised that they need to request a reference from the partnership via myself and then the headteacher
at their placement school. Please remind them of this if needed, they also need to request leave of absence and
must make sure all stakeholders are aware of their actions. We are also delighted to let you know that many of
our trainees already have secured a role for next year and we would like to congratulate them on this achievement.
In addition, the partnership is also busy with its 2015/16 recruitment cycle and we are delighted to meet our
prospective applicants. Many thanks to all the tutors, mentors and staff involved in this very important part of
our role to ensure we recruit teachers for the future.
In terms of our NQT support, Simon Wrigley visited our Lead Primary School, Buckingham Primary to work with
NQTs on Literacy. Peter Ort visits Buckingham Primary to share his experience in SEND and to observe colleagues in a maintained context for his own professional development too. We have a range of events planned
for our NQTs this term too which includes a Science session as well as a Modern Foreign Language Session. All
NQTs and RQTs are very welcome to attend. We are hosting our NQT Twitter discussions every Monday evening at 8 and the first topic for this half term is: Creative Teaching Ideas.
We are currently also continuing to deliver a variety of CPD courses in collaboration with our partnership
schools. Our Strategic Leadership, Middle Leadership and Good to Outstanding courses are still running for the
next few weeks. We are hoping to deliver a second round of these courses in the next academic term. Please
get in touch with us if you are keen to book colleagues onto these courses too.
We are looking forward to the next five weeks and we are hoping to meet with many of our Headteachers and
Professional Tutors at our Ofsted preparation meeting too. We wish all our colleagues a very productive and
enjoyable five weeks and we look forward to working with you in various capacities.
Yours Sincerely,

Lizana Oberholzer
Director of Partnership

SCITT Training:

Centralised Training:
Trainees and Mentors: The start of this half term is very important for trainees to settle back into
their main placement schools. The second placement is selected and have been requested by many
of our partnership schools to happen during the first half term of the Spring term to accommodate
exam preparation needs for pupils. However, this is also an ideal time for trainees to learn about
different contexts and acquire new skills. The key is that they now need to use these skills when
they return to their main placement school. In our final session before half term we looked at how
these skills can be employed. In addition, on the first Wednesday back Assignment 3 was touched
on which has a SEND focus this term. Trainees were reminded to discuss these aspects of their
course with mentors to ensure that they start early with their assignment project and make sure
they develop are able to engage fully in the project. It will be extremely helpful if mentors and
trainees can make a point of discussing trainees learning in sessions too to make explicit links with
their practice too.
Mentor Training:
The partnership does not have any official mentor training scheduled for this half term. However,
during our Tutor visits mentors are working with tutors on a coaching approach when feeding back.
In addition, mentors are reminded to use both the success criteria guidance for lesson observations
and also when completing the summative mentor report. It is important to apply the guidance to
ensure that judgements are in line with these documents and the trainees progress.
In addition, bespoke mentor training will take place this term. Our tutors will be in touch with
Professional tutors and mentors to arrange visits and sessions to ensure that you are fully supported this term. If you have any specific needs or skills you would like visiting tutors to help you with
please let us know. This is also an ideal opportunity to enable members of departments to work
with tutors to develop mentors for the future. Please feel free to involve your whole department
and colleagues who might be interested in the role.
One of the fantastic benefits of mentoring is the fact that we constantly share in best practice
and new ideas to enhance our teaching. We are always explaining our practice and deeply analysing
how we too can improve. This has a long term impact in the sense that our own teaching improves
consistently and our pupils have a more improved experience overall. This of course, has a wider
impact on a whole school level where our pupils learning improve and outcomes are improved too.
To be part of someones development not only benefits the wider learning community it also
ensures that we develop teachers for the future who will ensure that life chances are improved for
every child we work with as a learning community. Kindly please get in touch if we can continue to
help with your development as a mentor we offer a variety of different courses to support colleagues in their development too as mentioned in the newsletter. A useful read:

NQT News

Just a reminder that partnership tutors

are aiming to see all our NQTs this
term. Please make sure you book
our appointments with your tutor as
soon as possible.

Recommended read for this month, with a

focus on enthusing your teaching practice and
developing new ideas:

With this support in mind we are aiming

to explore a teaching and learning
focus with them during the visit and
to work with them on developing
key aspects of their learning.
Just a reminder of our Twitter discussion
every Monday Evening after half
term focusing on NQT matters
@bpscitt! Our first discussion takes
place on the 2nd. Caroline FitzGerald
will be leading this for us and the
topic is: Creative Teaching Ideas. The
session starts at 20.00 and will last
for 30 minutes.
However, all partnership colleagues are
also welcome to join the discussion
online!

CPD News

We are very excited about our 3 projects which have been running for the past 6 weeks: Strategic
Leadership, Middle Leadership and Progressing from Good to Outstanding. Our delegates are now
engaging in a range of activities within their schools leading on specific projects ranging from
implementing approaches to engage Gifted and Talented Pupils; developing praise policies; developing
a detailed support data collection system for SEND; leading on a well-being programme for staff;
developing and supporting 6th Form teaching in Maths and Developing a strategic approach for
feedback in English.
These projects are all starting to develop in a very exciting and interesting way and we are looking
forward to observe the feedback on these as well as the delegates presentations outlining the impact of
their learning on their pupils and their school.

If you are interested in taking part in any of these CPD opportunities please get in touch with Laura
Whitty to book your place for the next round.

Important Reminders:

Headteachers and Professional Tutors :

The partnership is aiming to host an Ofsted Preparation meeting for partnership school leaders on
the 13th March between 1.30 and 3.30. A formal invitation will be sent to partnership schools via
Laura Whitty to inform you of the training arrangements. Can you please confirm your attendance
with Laura as soon as possible. Our aim is to make sure all our partnership schools are fully informed of the ITT inspection format. We look forward to working with you on this aspect of the
partnerships development too.
Mentors:
A reminder of:

Summative assessment form (term 2) deadline20 March 2015

Trainee self-review to be completed prior to the completion of this document.

Trainees:
A reminder of:

Tutor visits for March 2015

Summative assessment form (term 2) deadline 20 March 2015

Trainee self-review to be completed prior to the completion of this document.

Assignment 3 deadline24 April 2015

Tutors:
A reminder:

Tutor report form (term 2) and 2 lesson observations20 March 2015

Trainee Progress guidance to be completed after each visit

NQT TutorsReports: 26th March

Contact Us:

Our contact details:

Telephone: 01280 813605
www.rlstrainingschool.co.uk

www.facebook.com/pages/The-Buckingham-Partnership
@bpscitt

Find Us on Linkedin

Inspiration:
"Be the Change you wish to see in the World." - Gandhi