A partnership built on shared values

Images by Stuart Carroll Photography.

For more than a decade now, what’s now known as Leicester and Leicestershire Teaching School Hub has been supporting over 200 schools in Leicester city and across Leicestershire with professional development programmes.

We officially became a teaching school hub in 2021.Our hub supports a mixture of primary, secondary, special and alternative provision (AP) schools. 

We deliver a suite of programmes in partnership with Teach First, supporting teachers as they begin their early teaching career with the Early Career Framework (ECF) and developing their specialist and leadership skills on the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs).

A unique place

Leicester is known for its multiculturalism and diversity. This is something which makes our schools distinctive and is a source of pride in our city. Inclusivity is a cornerstone of our approach to education in Leicester and Leicestershire.

Teach First’s core vision is about making sure we have the very best teachers and leaders in the school communities which need them most. This is something we feel equally passionate about.

These shared values were important to us when deciding who to partner with.

Contextualising the programmes

Curriculum design was another important factor.

For us, being able to shape the programmes around our schools’ contexts is crucial to supporting our teachers with the development they need.

For example, the second year of Teach First’s ECF programme is structured to take a subject-specific focus. This was particularly important to us.

Teachers can take core elements of pedagogy and classroom practice and understand how they’re expressed through a subject-specific lens.

We’ve been very impressed with the quality of the ECF and NPQ programme content. It’s contemporary, evidence-informed and easy to translate to our context.

Open to feedback

I’ve also found Teach First to be open and responsive to feedback about the programme design.

There’s plenty of ‘you said, we did’, and Teach First has been keen to collaborate on curriculum development.

There’s always a way for us to give feedback on how things are going.

How we make the programmes work for us

We strongly value the opportunity to tailor the programme delivery to our specific needs.  

Our ECF and NPQ facilitators are experts in their field and key in contextualising the programmes to our setting.

For example, they can take what’s in the framework documents and translate it effectively to the context of our schools.

This is particularly useful for our SEND schools.

Equally, we’re somewhat unique in having multiple facilitators to deliver our NPQ programmes. For instance, our NPQ in Headship is facilitated by executive leaders and principals from a range of local authority settings and multi-academy trusts.

We ensure there’s diversity within the facilitation team. This means that all of Leicester’s demographics are represented on the programme. The content can be translated to meet each programme member’s needs.

Data and insights are a Teach First USP

Running programmes at the scale we do, with the number of programme members we have, we need the infrastructure to keep track of how programme members are progressing.

Teach First provides the data and insights we need.

They’ve made good use of platforms like Power BI to present large data sets in an engaging and visual summary. This helps us adapt the programme delivery in an agile way and remove any barriers to supporting teachers on the programmes.

Not all national providers have an approach so deeply driven by data infrastructure and insight. It sets Teach First apart.

Adding value through networking

We value hearing from other delivery partners in the steering group meetings.

They provide a good network and useful forum for us to raise issues or changes we’re wrestling with.

Teach First has been good at connecting the dots, and will say, “That’s the same issue that X delivery partner in Y location is experiencing. Let’s make introductions and link you together.”

I’ve had several conversations with other delivery partners about changes to SCITT or measuring the impact of NPQs.

These networking opportunities are worth so much. I’m grateful to Teach First for adding value in that way.

You have a voice

Working with Teach First is a mutually supportive relationship.

I’m pleased that we’ve been able to feed into the things that are important to us. Decisions about values, curriculum and programme member experience have all been collaborative.

You can be assured that the curriculum materials are well resourced and evidence-informed, and that you have a voice.

You can give feedback where things need to change. Teach First has the resources and infrastructure to support that collaboration.

If your organisation’s values align with those of Teach First, this partnership will be a good fit.

Interested in partnering with us?

Find out more about becoming a Teach First delivery partner.