Integrating initial teacher training in your small school

Exploring Initial Teacher Training in Small Schools: A Guest Blog by Karen Taylor-Paul from Alban Teaching School Hub, with case studies from Hertfordshire schools

As part of the HFL Education Small Schools’ Programme—now in its second successful year, and about to enter a 3rd academic year—we’re pleased to share this special blog post on Initial Teacher Training (ITT). The blog aims to complement the programme’s mission to support our smaller schools through practical, relevant, and timely content.

We’re especially grateful to Karen from the Alban Teaching School Hub for contributing this guest post, in collaboration with Chiltern Teaching School Hub. Drawing on her experience and the voices of small school leaders, Karen explores the opportunities and challenges of engaging with ITT, offering practical advice and real-world examples, including some case studies.

Whether you're considering hosting a trainee or simply curious about the benefits for your school community, this blog is designed to inform and inspire.

The HFL Education Small Schools' Programme launched in early 2024 with sessions facilitated by our experienced team of advisers and speakers hand-picked for their innovative and successful approaches to leading smaller schools.

The first series was very well received, earning a BETT Award nomination for Leadership and Management Solutions for 2025 and an endorsement from Neil Short, Chairman of the National Association of Small Schools.

The Third round begins in autumn 2025, with sessions each half term. Focuses have been chosen for their current relevance and based on feedback from the sector. We hope you can join us for the next instalment! 

Find out more:

With the continued downward trend in teacher qualification and ongoing national recruitment issues, it is important to ensure that we are doing all we can to support those who do choose to train.

Supporting trainees can be a daunting prospect for headteachers, and especially for those in smaller schools, but can offer huge advantages.

In this blog, we provide the answers to some frequently asked questions, as well as sharing the experience of two local headteachers, who have successfully supported trainees within their small school settings.

Recruitment into primary ITT – the national picture

There has been a continued downward trend in postgraduate primary entrants since the high during the pandemic (14,380 in 2020/21 to 8,258 in 2024/25). 88% of the PGITT target was achieved in 2024/25 primary compared to 94% in 2023/24. School workforce in England data published in June 2024 showed the teacher workforce grew by less than 300 teachers in the previous year as record low numbers of early career teachers entered the profession coupled with rising numbers of teachers leaving (39,971 – rate of 8.8%).
 

Benefits of hosting a primary trainee

Hosting trainee teachers in school can bring a whole range of advantages:
•    Additional classroom support
•    Build a talent pool and pipeline for future recruitment in your school or trust
•    Support retention
•    Create professional development opportunities for colleagues who mentor
•    Bring in new ideas to your school 
•    Offer release time for phase leaders or senior leaders 
•    School-based trainees are supernumerary

Other considerations:

•    Building capacity in your small teams (with falling roll and financial instability)
•    Access funding through the apprenticeship levy
•    PGTA is brilliant for job shares (e.g job share with an Assistant Head).  
•    In a trust the release time can enable experienced colleagues to work across a trust within the school day 
•    Many trainees go on to successfully gain employment in their placement or another local school
•    If you have a really good member of support staff with a degree could they be supported to train? These colleagues would need to be known to your school for at least a year to commence the programme. There are a range of providers in the local area which can be signposted to you by your local Teaching School Hub.  

Some barriers to being involved in training are perceived rather than actual experiences

Often schools are worried about some or all of the following, but none of these need to prevent you from working with trainees: 
•    Mentoring requirements
•    Mentoring capacity (experience / suitability)
•    School Ofsted grading 
•    Quality of Education in the school
•    Staffing changes in the school
•    Having both an ECTs and an ITT trainee at the same time

Mentoring 

In fact, mentoring is an exciting role for more experienced practitioners within in a school and as leaders we need to elevate this status in our organisations:
•    Mentoring can be shared so that more than one staff member takes responsibility for ensuring high quality training and mentoring
•    Mentoring is essential to the development and retention of your workforce
•    Mentors impact colleagues throughout training and their induction
•    Evidence informed professional development is provided for mentors and schools are funded for this training time.  
•    Training material can be embedded into wider teaching practice.
•    Access to the latest research, practice and innovation on teaching and support for young people
•    Payment to the school to support the training
•    Makes staff feel valued and subsequently supports staff retention 
•    DfE are responsive to feedback from the TSH – you will see changes within your schools
•    Build school capacity through mentor development and growing expertise
•    Trainees must deliver 80% (14 hours) of a timetable by the final term which provides capacity for the colleague in the class they are assigned

What are the training pathways?

There are a variety of different routes available, including:
•    Primary 3 – 7 (QTS only and PGCE)
•    Primary 5 – 11 (QTS only and PGCE)
•    Post Graduate Teacher Apprenticeship (PGTA)
•    BEd
These programmes are now all available as part-time routes (3 days or 4 days a week).

What is the Post Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship?

As a newer training option, this is often a route employers understand least about, which can lead to a lack of confidence to support participants. Here are some key points of reference:
•    An apprenticeship to enable degree holders to gain QTS whilst employed in a school
•    Fees of £9000 are payable from your apprenticeship levy which will be on the approved providers list at HCC if your staffing does not make you eligible for levy funding directly. 
•    Apprentices are paid on the UNQ1 and are employed full-time during their training period
•    12-month contract from 1 July 2025 to 31 July 2026.  This is currently being reviewed by the DfE to reduce the duration. 
•    The apprentice can teach up to 60% of a timetable solo from September (equivalent of 10 hours)
•    The apprentice will be required to complete a contrasting placement in the Spring Term

Hear from Hertfordshire primary headteachers

Two local headteachers share their own experience supporting initial teacher training in small schools:
 

"We were delighted to learn about the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme through Alban Teaching School Hub as we had an outstanding staff member eager to advance her career. Our primary concern was how to facilitate this development without losing her valuable contributions to our team.

Having previously collaborated with the Alban TSH in supporting Early Career Teachers (ECTs), I was pleased to discover a new pathway offered by a trusted provider. Initially, I was apprehensive about the time commitment required for mentoring, particularly given our status as a small school. However, I found that most mentoring sessions occurred outside of teaching hours, and there is a clear expectation that the school day extends beyond 3:15 PM.

The consistency in scheduling trainee teachers' days out of the classroom has greatly facilitated our planning and organisation of cover. Additionally, we receive ample notice for any additional days required, ensuring minimal disruption.

I have been thoroughly impressed with the diligence of the tutors who visit to monitor progress. Their visits provide an excellent opportunity for both our mentor and me to address any lingering questions.

I highly recommend this pathway to other small schools, as it has proven to be an effective means of retaining talented staff."

John Ferguson
Headteacher, Kimpton Primary School working with Alban TSH
 

Our rationale for having a trainee:

As a small school with well established staff it gives the opportunity to bring someone new to the team. It’s great CPD for the mentor and brings in some money too. I like the idea of giving something back, after all we were all trainees once up on a time.

Did you have initial concerns or reservations?

It does involve a time commitment for the mentor and also other staff across the school. Historically we had some bad experiences with students who didn’t seem to understand the role or the commitment needed. Over the past decade this has shifted and we have only had positive experiences.

What training route have you identified? PGCE, PGTA, part-time?

We’ve had BEd, PGCE and part-time students. The best for us have been final year BEd or last placement PGCE as they can take on more teaching commitments. When we have had emergency staff requirements these students have been worth their weight in gold. They took on large teaching commitments and really stepped up to the challenge. Part time students are the hardest to accommodate as they never see a whole week through and can miss whole subjects and sequences. We’ve found they need to have the flexibility to do different days in order to get the bigger picture.

Benefits that having a trainee has brought to our school:

• New and current teaching practice and resources used in school.
• Children get to experience a different teacher, when they often have the same teacher for at least two years, this is especially valuable in a small school.
• They often have more energy and enthusiasm which rubs off on current staff
• It’s helpful sharing rationale behind decision making as it can help us all question our practice, staying curious is really important and can be hard otherwise
• Teachers can be released while students are teaching, even if it’s just to mark at the back of a room!
• Some of our students have kept in touch, attending the summer residential and productions
• Children across the whole school build up relationships with different adults
• Students often bring a new skill set in school, they might run a club or introduce a new sport or language which all enriches school for everyone

Tips or things to consider for schools not currently engaged in ITT

• The mentor will need to attend training
• All staff need to be on board in a small school as students need to experience each phase and will have random questions for everyone!
• Workload of the mentor is increased at least at the start of the practice
• The mentor has to want to be involved

Anja Tyler, Headteacher
Benington C of E Primary School working with Chiltern TSH

Common questions for small schools:

Q: We have small classes or mixed year groups in classes.  Can a trainee work with these groups as part of their training year?

A: Trainees must experience four consecutive year groups across their training year.  A mixed class is in keeping with the training guidance.

Q: What happens when our trainee leaves for their contrasting placement?

A: Training provisions will accommodate a direct swap with someone training on the same programme, where possible.

Q: Our classroom teacher has areas of responsibility due to the size of our school. Can the trainee take these on?

A: The collaboration between a trainee and the experienced classroom teacher can often breakdown feelings of isolation in small schools.  The trainee can build up the support and delivery of specific areas of the curriculum in the earlier part of the training year. The regular class teacher can continue to deliver the specific specialism in the early stages of the training year.

Engage your school community into considering a career in teaching

This does not necessarily mean to train in your setting but we know that the majority of applications for teacher training in Hertfordshire are from applicants where specific schools or local communities are known to them.

Consider the following in your communications:

• Pop up on your website
• Train to teach info in newsletters and on websites
• Pop up banners if your school is used for external hires
• Host a school experience morning for perspective applicants in your area
• Use the Teach in Herts recruitment service to signpost opportunities to candidates

For more information

Please contact your local Teaching School Hub for more information or support: