Phillipa’s career journey

Phillipa has a background of over 20 years in primary education. After initially teaching English in Turkey after her undergraduate degree, she worked in recruitment, marketing and exhibition sales in the UK before completing her Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with the University of London.

Phillipa became a headteacher the year before the Covid-19 pandemic. Her breadth of teaching and leadership experience has given her an insight into the joys and challenges at every level of teaching, which she believes is “one of the best jobs in the world”.

A self-confessed lifelong learner, Phillipa has collected a string of qualifications including a National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), an ILM Level 7 Diploma in Executive and Senior Level Coaching and Mentoring, and a Fellowship of the Chartered College of Teaching (FCCT). She’s currently working towards a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration.

Teaching ethos

“I am all about allowing people to be independent. I believe every learner has the potential to learn and grow in their own way, so my role is to guide and support you, giving you a safe and engaging environment where I nurture your curiosity.

“My approach is very much learner-centred and enquiry-based. I'll encourage you to be a critical thinker – to ask questions, make mistakes and learn from them. I want you to explore what you can find, to foster a love of discovery and problem solving.

“As a teacher, I want to give you the knowledge and courage to spread your wings.”

Aims of the Straight to Teaching programme

Straight to Teaching is a teacher development programme that enables you to develop your teaching and get ready for the Assessment Only route to qualified teacher status (QTS) – without leaving your school and pupils, explains Phillipa.

“You'll work with your pathway tutor to identify your areas of development based on the Teachers’ Standards and teaching experience. Then we’ll support you to hone your knowledge and skills ready for assessment via the Assessment Only route to QTS.”

Phillipa’s aim for the programme also runs deeper than helping all learners achieve QTS: “I want our learners to be prepared so they can have the best possible journey in the teaching profession.”

Why learners love the Straight to Teaching programme

“If you're a learner, you can personalise it to you. You stay in your job and don't have to change schools. It's flexible and built around you. 

“As a school, the learner can carry on in the role they’re in. We support learners to develop their knowledge and skills so you can be confident that your learner will make it through to be assessed for QTS.” 

It’s this personalisation that means that Straight to Teaching is a particularly great fit for teachers in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision settings. When ready and compliant, learners are seamlessly transitioned on to the Assessment Only route to QTS. 

“On average, 50 per cent of our learners on Straight to Teaching are from SEND settings. This is because of the flexibility and how we can work with schools. We look at stage not age – students might be 15 or 16 years old but working at key stage 1.

“I genuinely believe we are the best preparation route to QTS for people in the SEND sector.”

What support is available for learners on the Straight to Teaching programme?

“Learners get someone holding their hand to meet the Teachers’ Standards criteria. We can work with them on that in terms of, how does that map? How does that look? And then, how do we demonstrate that you're meeting the standards?

“Many people don't necessarily need to go back to basics. They just need someone to tell them what their knowledge gaps are and to support them to fill them. We can do that.

“We get a lot of schools that return to us to train their staff because they can see how genuinely we want to support our learners to get to where they need to be.”

Phillipa credits the “amazing” pathway tutors on the programme who “genuinely care – not just about getting learners ready for QTS assessment, but about their wellbeing”.

The team work with learners “when life happens”, with options to extend the programme or defer if there’s a break in their learning.

Impact in the classroom

“We get feedback from headteachers telling us that they feel confident to leave their teachers in our hands to prepare for QTS assessment. I’m glad we can help like this at a time when so many schools are up against it in terms of teacher shortages and leadership capacity.

“I get comments back from schools about how we've managed to provide them with a really confident, strong teacher, because we've taken the time to fill any gaps that they have.” 

The programme always focuses on evidence-based learning and impact when supporting learners to fill these gaps. 

“We encourage our learners to ask ‘What do I need to know? How do I get that knowledge? How do I use it in my daily practice? What impact has it had on my teaching and my students?”

Phillipa’s advice for a learner on the STT programme

“If you’re thinking of doing the programme – get in touch. We have learners from all backgrounds, ages and contexts. We’ve worked with people who thought they would never achieve QTS.”

Phillipa and the team encourage learners on the programme to reflect positively, as well as constructively.

“As teachers, we are awful at telling ourselves we’ve done a good job. We never say, ‘Oh, I did a great job today.’ We're always going to sit there and nitpick, and the one thing I say to our learners is, I want you to blow your own trumpets. I want you to tell me what you're good at. I want you to say, ‘I can get that, but I need to do this.’ Because then we can work together, and we can work out a pathway through to what you need.”

The future of the Straight to Teaching programme

Phillipa regularly reviews the programme to make sure that the modules are up to date and fit for purpose.

“I'm responsible for making sure that the programme is the best that it can be and that it's going to actually give the learners what they want. And for making sure it's value for money – that's really important.”

Loved hearing from Phillipa? Find out more about Straight to Teaching and meet the rest of our inspiring programme leaders in our Spotlight series collection.