Drive to attract trainee teachers to region’s rural communities
A DRIVE has been launched to attract teaching students to some of Yorkshire’s most rural communities.
The Swaledale Alliance, an amalgam of 60 primary schools in North Yorkshire and County Durham, is opening up its Initial Teacher Training School Direct programme.
There are challenges in attracting the best candidates to some of these more remote areas, manager of the alliance Andrea Offord has said, despite it being one of the most “beautiful and diverse” parts of the country.
“Rural areas have a much more sparse population so there simply isn’t the population of young people living there to train as teachers,” she said.
“Secondly, people considering the profession automatically think they must train at citybased universities not realising that there is a very rewarding rural option offered by organisations like ourselves.
“Lastly, people thinking of career changes, who are attracted to the idea of teaching, share the belief that it has to be done in towns and cities not realising that there is an outstanding provider on their doorsteps.
“The profession is crying out for new blood and where better to train than glorious North Yorkshire?”
Every year the teaching school alliance trains around 15 new teachers via a School Direct programme in partnership with Barnard Castle-based provider High Force Education.
Initial teacher training is a major focus of the work of the Swaledale Alliance, alongside school to school support and continual professional and leadership development.
Under the School Direct Programme trainee teachers spend a day learning theory with High Force Education and the rest of the week in the classroom at one of the Alliance’s primary schools.
Brompton-on-Swale Church of England Primary School is the designated teaching school with Leeming and Londonderry Primary School taking responsibility for ITT.