The missing piece in the jigsaw
I recently had the thought to offer some free webinars for those NQTs and RQTs new to A level History teaching. This was in large part because even though my training involved some Sixth Form, I felt under prepared when I joined a large Sixth Form College in my NQT year. In fact, my first set of results were and absolute disaster. Thank the heavens for the fact that this was a January module and I could rescue the situation by the summer. However, with the new linear A level, this safety net is no longer available.
I had a huge response to my offer on social media and I am still getting them! The first session was well received and we are now building a supportive community of teachers new to A level teaching. I decided to run a poll on the back of this. It appears that around 80% or respondents had up to 5 hours of training on KS5, around a 3rd had no training at all. Now granted, many teacher training programmes only advertise themselves as an 11-16 course. An average PGCE course is over 30 weeks and is around 40 hours per week. Less than 5 hours seems laughable. Further, a PGCE for example is quite a typical route in to teaching A level. This is especially important given the mushrooming of schools with Sixth Forms attached that emerged over the last few years. A level should be more than a footnote in the current training programmes. We are doing teachers and their students a disservice.
Join our webinar
Whilst we wait for the training providers to catch up, perhaps you would like to join the new History Rocks: New to A level Teaching Webinar. The next event will take place on the 19th of August at 7pm. email hello@historyrocks.co.uk for details on how to join.