Wessex Teach
Welcome to Wessex Teach
Our aim is to support all schools in our trust to offer the very best opportunities to staff and students through a collaborative approach to professional learning.
Career Advice
We are here to support and guide, to answer questions:
What steps do I need to take to develop my career?
What courses are available to me?
Am I eligible to train?
How do bursaries work?
For teachers: What subject should I teach?
Professional Network
We provide regular training sessions, meetings, webinars and give you access to our annual conferences.
Share Best Practice
We facilitate the sharing of experiences with like minded people. Helping you to learn and develop within your role and share best practice.
News and Notices
Complete Your NPQ with Wessex MAT
Wessex Teach is proud to be working with Best Practice Network/Outstanding Leaders Partnership to deliver the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to colleagues across Wessex MAT and beyond.
The frameworks for the NPQs draw from the very latest evidence and research into pedagogy, behaviour, curriculum and more.
Full details for each of the NPQs, including the registration form and information on funding, can be found at www.outstandingleaders.org/npq or www.bestpracticenet.co.uk/npq. The team at Best Practice Network can be contacted through the live-chat function of their web site or you can send enquiries to npq@bestpracticenet.co.uk
Our teacher training courses for 2022-2023 are now open. You can complete your application online at: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-teacher-training
Bursaries and scholarships for ITT in 2022-2023 have just been announced – they include:
Tax-free bursaries of £24,000 in chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics. Scholarships worth £26,000 tax-free will be offered in partnership with professional bodies for chemistry, computing, mathematics, and physics.
The DfE are also offering a £15,000 tax-free bursary in design & technology, geography, and languages, including ancient languages, and a £10,000 tax-free bursary for biology trainees.
Further information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt/funding-initial-teacher-training-itt-academic-year-2022-to-2023
What we offer
Wessex Teach offers a wide range of services and support in the following areas. Please get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.
Initial Teacher Training
We are a lead centre for School Direct teacher training through Winchester University, and we have a long history of working with Exeter University in providing placements for their PGCE trainees. We work extensively with other local providers to support teacher training through all routes.
Early Career Framework
From September 2021, all Early Career Teachers have a statutory entitlement to a two-year programme of support and development based on the Early Career Framework. We offer a full induction programme for your Early Career Teachers (ECT) and their mentors. They will receive a two-year programme of high-quality, research-led training, based on the Early Career Framework. If you opt to provide ECF induction yourself we can support you with the delivery of your programme.
CPD
We can support you to plan and facilitate whole-school approaches to CPD that will bring about lasting improvement to the quality of teaching in the classroom. From bespoke training events and seminar programmes to continuous, enquiry-based professional learning, we will work with you to identify the best approach to suit your needs.
Annual conference events for teachers and TAs
We offer annual professional learning conference days for teachers and TAs. Our teachers’ conference day is attended by over 400 delegates from across the Dorchester area and beyond, and has attracted high-profile educators such as Guy Claxton, Lucy Crehan, Tom Sherrington and Mary Myatt. Our next big teachers’ event takes place at Thomas Hardye School on Monday 28 February 2022. Our annual TA days are dedicated to building TAs’ skills to be as effective as possible at supporting children’s learning. We are fortunate to have been supported on our TA days by a range of experts including Amjad Ali, Sue Cowley and Rob Webster’s MITA research team. Our next TA conference day takes place on Friday 8 April 2022.
Leadership Development
We have considerable experience of supporting a wide range of schools to build leadership capacity at all levels. We will work with you to plan and deliver a bespoke CPD programme to support your classroom teachers, middle leaders or senior leaders. We also offer individual development programmes for headteachers, including coaching.
Wessex Leading Learning leadership development programme – Whether you are an ambitious classroom teacher, aspiring subject leader or looking to join a senior team, this programme will equip you with the knowledge, strategies and confidence to successfully lead authentic, lasting change. Our leadership course will support you to identify and develop the skills and attributes needed to support colleagues, empower teams and bring about worthwhile change. We welcome a new cohort to our Leading Learning programme each September.
Specialist subject support
We offer specialist support in most subject areas, with Maths being a particular strength. We can help you to evaluate your provision in different subjects, assess strengths and areas for development and then work with you to plan for improvement. Our subject specialists work collaboratively with subject teams on areas such as curriculum design, high-impact pedagogy and evaluating teaching and learning.
Peer evaluation
One way we support leaders with school evaluation is by offering intensive one-day peer evaluation visits. Our evaluation team will begin by conducting contextual desktop review of your website and publicly available data. They will then arrange a day to visit your school to carry out a snap-shot one-day review that usually includes lesson observations and interviews with staff and students. At the end of the day, the team will meet with the headteacher to present their findings. Feedback and key recommendations for further improvement are summarised in a written evaluation report. We can conduct a whole school evaluation or focus in on a particular aspect of your school, such as a specific key stage or post-16 provision, for example.