School Direct Placements

Train to Teach through the South East Learning Alliance: School Direct Programme

Our School Direct courses are designed as school-centred initial teacher training routes and are a popular choice for those who hope to secure a role in the network of schools where they train.

Our School Direct courses last a year and result in qualified teacher status (QTS).  On completion, you will be awarded or given the opportunity to undertake a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) and/or Master’s-level credits depending on whether you take the salaried or unsalaried route.

Please use the following link to view the current online brochure.

If you have been working for three years or more and like the idea of School Direct, but want to earn a salary, School Direct (salaried) is available exclusively for you. Otherwise you can elect to take the unsalaried route but you are also equally eligible for a training bursary or scholarship and can apply for the same financial support, such as student loans.  

You will train in at least two schools in the Alliance and can specify your preference of lead school should it be Hamsey Green or one of the others in the Alliance. You will get the chance to learn ‘on the job’ – but you shouldn’t worry about being thrown in at the deep end. You will be part of a team from the very start, receiving intensive support from experienced teachers and mentors. The principles of academic rigour on School Direct are the same as on university-led courses.

Our School Direct Alliance is one that allows prospective teachers to gain an opportunity to train in a dynamic educational setting. Our Alliance is located across four successful comprehensive secondary schools, which are working in partnership to help produce high quality and well trained teachers of the future. Our School Direct Alliance is coordinated through Riddlesdown Collegiate in Purley, Surrey, which is a Multi Academy Trust. Our Alliance includes a variety of partner schools including those in mainstream, across the 4-19 age range, as well as Faith Schools and specialist behaviour schools. For the 2019-2020 cycle, we are pleased to announce that we are now recruiting also for Primary School applicants.

We are an innovative and growing partnership, which is continually expanding and developing further links with schools in the wider community. We invest greatly in the professional development of all our staff and those who choose to train alongside us; to ensure that the quality of our work remains consistently high and the Alliance continues to be at the forefront of pedagogical practice. For 2019-2020, we are seeking to fill a large number of places across eight of our schools and we are working with three different university providers to achieve this (The University of Roehampton, e-Qualitas, and Kings College London).

Training within our Alliance gives you the unique opportunity to experience a broad range of teaching environments, with all our schools providing the highest quality teaching and learning for their students and the trainees they are supporting and developing. Within the Alliance there are extensive opportunities for future professional leadership positions and development; including an excellent Masters Programme, which we run in connection with St Mary's University, Twickenham.

Currently there are four secondary schools and four other primary schools within the South East Learning Alliance who offer School Direct placements and a further two schools who offer opportunities for school experiences and observations. Please visit their websites to find out more. The secondary schools are Warlingham, Riddlesdown Collegiate (Lead School), Archbishop Tenison’s and The Quest Academy.  Applications for primary schools should be made through the Riddlesdown Collegiate website as they are the lead hub school in the partnership.  The primary schools where training offers are available are Hamsey Green Primary, Woodlea Primary, Gossops Green Primary, Gilbert Scott Primary, Waterfield Primary and Courtwood Primary.

For further details about all of our available courses, please click here for the 'Find Postgraduate Teaching' website or view our course list below. 

For general information on how to ‘get into teaching’ and how to apply; please use the following websites:

• www.ucas.com
• www.getintoteaching.education.gov.uk

Please find below the courses the Alliance offered for the 2020/2021 cycle.

School Direct Training Programme:

Thank you for your interest in the South Croydon Learning Alliance Training Programme; we welcome your application and look forward to hearing from you soon!

Should you have any queries or need any further information please do not hesitate to contact us on: schoolsdirect@riddlesdown.org

Please click here for the current School Direct Brochure (October 2019).