 Training School 
In 2008 GCH became a specialist Training School, adding to it's Language College status. This was a result of the DCSF identifying The Grey Coat Hospital as a High Performing Specialist School, and we were awarded with a second specialism.
Already the Training School is developing strongly, under the leadership of Assistant Head, Sandra Young.
The Training School department is housed in a newly refurbished annexe to the St. Michael’s building, with a dedicated training room, complete with a Promethean Board.
Ongoing Training Programmes 2009
Associate Teachers
This year we have hosted Associate Teachers from Goldsmiths, Kings College, the Institute of Education and SWELTEC. Our new programme of study is proving challenging to all and requires each to mentor an underachieving student. Phase A began in October 2008 with trainee teachers in English, Maths, Music, Art, RS, Business, MFL and Science. Phase B which got underway in January 2009 saw students from the same institutions but we are delighted to be able to add trainee teachers in Geography and History to our subject list. The trainees from Phase B will mentor underachieving Key Stage 4 pupils identified from the December mock examinations.
SWELTEC
In conjunction with Waldegrave, Lampton, and Tolworth Girls’ School we continue to deliver training sessions in the assessment topics for SWELTEC’S Graduate Teacher Programme (GTPs) and Overseas Trained Teacher Programme (OTTPs). We have run two sessions so far this year. Each was attended by approximately 17 teachers across a range of schools in London.
Southend Teacher Training Partnership
Feb 2009 – One day session on “Teaching in a Multicultural Environment”
Having established a new partnership in September 2008, we will now deliver core elements of the STTP’s training courses which lead their GTPs and OTPs to achieve their QTS status at the end of the one year course.
Learning Support Assistants (LSAs)
In January 2009 we ran the first 'in house' LSA training session for our new LSAs. Members of the local community with aspirations of becoming an LSA also attended the course.
6th Form Research Project
Understanding that students are the primary stakeholders in any school, we asked our Sixth Form prefects to carry out research on the following topics:
- What Makes a Good Teacher?;
- The Environment;
- Preferred Styles of Learning;
- The Library;
- The 6th Form;
- The School Council.
Recommendations on how the school could be improved have been passed onto the new prefect team for implementation in 2009/2010
MA in Educational Management
This will commence at Easter 2009 and will be hosted at Grey Coat.
If you would like to know more about studying for an MA in Education at GCH then please click here to download our flyer.
Year 7 'Leading & Learning' Programme
The Critical Thinking Programme, incorporating 'The Week of Applied Knowledge' and 'The Week of Reasoning' has been extremely successful in challenging and motivating students to think more independently in lessons. This cross-curricular project encourages collaborative learning from a skills based platform. Sandra Young is currently introducing the programme to teachers from Pimlico Academy and Westminster NQTs as part of their year-long induction programme.
Feedback on Training Programmes so far:
Most trainees consistently rated the training they received at either 1 or 2, 1 being excellent. Among the comments we have received on the evaluation forms are:
“Stunning, inspirational. A lovely school with great learning in the lessons I observed”
“This training school has outshone the others. The speakers took the material they were required to teach and made it relevant to the school environment – not just theory”.
“If I were to use this training session as a bench mark, I would have to downgrade my previous evaluations significantly”
“Planning of the training was fantastic. Extremely useful”
“A fantastic day”
|
