School Direct Secondary

Our School Direct programme creates great teachers. We believe that you can make rapid progress when you are immersed into a supportive school environment, learning from outstanding practitioners.

What is the EborHope School Direct Programme all about? 

  • A truly school-centred experience with 80% of your time in school from the start of the programme.
  • Supportive and innovative learning environments across York & North Yorkshire which enable you to flourish as an excellent teacher. 
  • A thriving network of excellent school mentors and university tutors, passionate about creating rounded learning and professional development opportunities. 
  • Two immersive School Direct placements, designed to provide you with high quality contrasting training experiences.
  • Outstanding career development opportunities, with many schools directly recruiting from our teacher training programme. 

 

We are the longest standing provider of School Direct in our region and our Initial Teacher Training partner, York St John University, has provided teacher training since 1841. We work in partnership with York St John University to ensure that teaching in the classroom is underpinned with a rigorous academic understanding.  If you are interested in training to teach with us, take a look at our eBrochure to find out more.

At EborHope, you are always treated as a member of staff and not a trainee teacher. Our training teachers are referred to as EborHope teachers, as you are considered a member of the teaching staff of a school from day one.

Our EborHope Teachers will undertake two contrasting placements during the year. For the majority of the year, our EborHope Teachers will be in their base placement. The second school placement lasts for 6 weeks during the spring term. Read more about our PGCE Course here.

Why I chose EborHope TSA

Meet our Teachers and Mentors | Case Studies

Secondary subjects offered

We offer training in the following subjects:

  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics
  • Drama
  • Religious Education
  • Geography
  • History
  • Mathematics
  • Modern Foreign Languages
  • English
  • Music
  • PE
  • PE with EBacc

School Direct Secondary entry requirements

  • You must have an A Level in the subject you wish to teach.
  • You must be an honours graduate of an approved university or other institution granting equivalent qualifications acceptable both to York St John University and the National College for Teaching and Leadership. The first degree should be specific to the subject-based PGCE you are applying for. In some circumstances candidates without a subject specialist degree may be considered if you can provide evidence of strong subject knowledge, and have at least an A level in the subject.
  • All applicants require GCSE grade C or above in English Language and Mathematics. Applicants for the Secondary PGCE in the sciences must have a grade C or over above in GCSE Science.

Apply to our Secondary programme if you:

  • are committed to ensuring that all pupils can succeed no matter what their background or starting point.
  • have a passion for teaching and a love of learning.
  • are enthusiastic, combined with excellent organisational skills.
  • have the ability to reflect and develop as critical professionals.
  • can express ideas clearly and succinctly.
  • have a high level of resilience and respond well to constructive feedback.
  • show personal initiative and can work well with peers, pupils, tutors, staff and parents alike.
95

% of Secondary School Direct EborHope Teachers qualified with an outstanding or good grade (all cohorts)

Our Alliance works in partnership with York St John University and leads to the award of a PGCE with a recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status.

School Direct PGCE course structure

Academic sessions take place on a Wednesday afternoon and these sessions are either led by York St John or EborHope staff. We use outstanding teachers within our school network to facilitate our sessions. These sessions aim to give you an academic understanding alongside pedagogical strategies to deploy in the classroom. You can then deploy these strategies in the classroom the next day as the majority of your time is spent at your base school.

 

Spring TermSecond placement - Development phase 6 weeks assessed teaching 40-45% (10 hrs) of the week
Summer TermReturn to Base Placement - Consolidation phase 10 weeks assessed teaching up to 75-80% (16 hrs) of the week
Autumn TermBase placement - Introduction phase5 weeks observation and team teaching
7 weeks assessed teaching 40-45% (10 hrs) of the week
Additional week primary placement
One day diversity placement
Enrichment week - school based experience related to individual training needs

 

Academic and Mentor Support

Support is an integral part of developing and nurturing EborHope trainees to be outstanding teachers. Through weekly mentor meetings, as well as regular feedback on your teaching, you will be supported by your school mentor as well as your York St John University Link Tutor. You will also have a Professional Mentor who will provide you with support.

In addition, you will also be allocated an academic tutor from the York St John University to support with writing at Masters Level. Students have full access to the Student Support Services offered by the University.

Induction is a key part of the programme and each placement as we feel it is important for you to feel welcome in the school community and valued as members of staff from the start. You will attend school meetings such as staff meetings, participate in school training days and other professional development events as appropriate. You are given the opportunity to participate in all aspects of school life and the wider school context. This helps you to understand your own professional identity and be a fully committed member of a school community.

The support you receive at EborHope will continue into NQT year and beyond.

Partner schools

Our Teaching Schools Alliance is made up of partner schools throughout York and North Yorkshire, offering a diverse range of teaching and learning opportunities to our School Direct training teachers when you are on your training placement.

You will benefit from direct road and rail links into York as our partner schools are easily accessible, not only to the access York St John University facilities, but also the wealth of entertainment and leisure facilities, historical sites, coastal beauty spots and outstanding countryside.

To discover why York was voted the UK’s best place to train to teach and work, click here: York Best Place to Teach

You can see the locations and names of our partner schools on the map below.

To find out more about each of our partner schools, select the relevant link below:

School Experience Programme

Gaining experience within a school environment is an important first step on your pathway to teaching. At EborHope Teaching School Alliance we offer a School Experience Programme (SEP) which aims to give you a valuable opportunity to experience what it is like to teach your own class and engage with pupils of varying ages.

Click here to find out more

Support to secure your first teaching role

Working in partnership with York St John University as York’s original School Direct provider, we have supported 112 training teachers so far to secure their first teaching posts. We offer an extensive range of CPD opportunities to help you learn, develop and shape your career during your PGCE year and beyond.

Recruiting for our 2021-22 training cohort, our newest cohort will be the 9th to choose to start their teaching journey through this immersive, school-centred route into teaching. Between 2018 and 2020, approximately one third of our training teachers have gone on to secure teaching roles within our Hope Learning Trust schools while many of our partner schools have also employed our training teachers based on their performance during their placements.

EborHope TSA offer training to help your start your teaching career after your PGCE year, such as job applications advice and mock interviews, as well as preparing you for your NQT year by working with Ambition Institute on Early Career provision. Equally, our partners at York St John University continue to support you after your training year with a dedicated NQT service.

Our School Direct PGCE programme develops our EborHope student teachers into competent and confident professionals as they begin their NQT years. They learn that intellectual endeavour, criticality and personal reflection are key to developing outstanding teaching practice during the early stages of their teaching careers.

Dr Brian Rock, Secondary ITT Lead at EborHope Teaching Alliance

At York St John University, we recognise, and celebrate, the fact that many of our schools have very robust, highly effective NQT induction programmes. Our aim is to complement the support being offered in the school, by the Local Authority and Teaching School Alliances and to be instrumental in creating highly-skilled, confident and resilient teachers of the future. We offer regular webinarson a range of topics, a dedicated NQT website containing a wealth of resources, frequent communication with our NQTs in the form of newsletters, and also bespoke support both for those in employment and those seeking their first teaching position.

Louise Whitfield, Senior Lecturer in Primary Education/ NQT Lead

To date, 112 secondary school teachers have trained with EHTSA0%

A third of teachers from our 2018/19 cohort secured jobs in Hope secondary schools0%

75% of teachers from our 2019/20 cohort secured teaching jobs in our partner schools0%

100% of secondary school teachers recruited to Hope schools since 2013 are still employed by the Trust0%

Fees and funding

To find out more about tuition fees for both the Primary and Secondary school-centred (School Direct) PGCE programme please click here.

How to apply

We welcome all applications for both Primary and Secondary programmes which must be submitted via the UCAS website. For full details on how to apply including availability of Ebor Hope Teaching Schools Alliance School Direct places, please click here.

Meet our Teachers

Meet our Mentors

What our teachers say…

  • The joy I have already felt from my first term with the EborHope teaching placement has affirmed that this is the job that is right for me. I have a strong support system of mentors and tutors, guiding me through beginning my teaching practice, also providing weekly sessions on the various elements involved in the job. EborHope focuses on staying true to yourself and tailoring your development around that – there is no certain mould you have to fit in for teaching, teaching is expressing your personality and knowledge in your own individual way.

    - Emily Easton

  • I have had a really positive experience so far, the link with the university and school is seamless. The department I am in is very welcoming and the support I am getting is great. My mentor is also very experienced and knowledgeable which is great when I need help or advice.

    - Dominic Burnett

  • Ebor Hope Teaching Schools Alliance goes above and beyond to help the trainees on the programme. The connections through Ebor Hope have also been very beneficial and helped me greatly; being able to see how science is run at St. Peter’s School was a wonderful experience. The partnership with YSJ seems to be very strong and I like how sessions on a Wednesday are either run by YSJ or Ebor Hope staff.

    - Sophie Snowdon

  • I wanted to be involved in a School Direct programme, so after searching on UCAS I discovered Ebor Hope - when I looked on the website it was clear and easy to understand.

    - Megan Taaffe

Want to find out more?

If you have any questions about the programme, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the form below.