Become a Teacher Training placement school

Ambition’s Teacher Training sets trainees on the path to becoming excellent teachers – ones that will inspire a generation of pupils across England to succeed. You can join us in our mission to shape the future of education by becoming a placement school for our 11-month Teacher Training programme.

1. What are placement schools?
2. What are the benefits of becoming a placement school?
3. Is my school eligible?
4. How does my school become a placement school?

What are placement schools?

Placement schools are where our trainees grow into confident, capable teachers. There are two types: main placement schools and contrasting placement schools.

Main placement schools
Trainees spend most of the programme in their main placement school. This means they are embedded in the school and can build relationships across the school community. By the end of term one, our trainees teach 30-40% of hours, rising to 80% by the end of the year.

Contrasting placement schools
Trainees spend approximately two weeks at a contrasting placement school, adding valuable breadth and variety to their experience. These placements intentionally differ from main placement schools and allow trainees to experience different types of schools, such as those with a different age group, location or religious background.

What are the benefits of becoming a placement school?

• Connect into our Outstanding Golden Thread provision. This is a stream of training and professional development that caters to every phase of a teacher’s career. It covers initial teacher training (ITT), our early careers teaching programme (ECT), and National Professional Qualifications (NPQs). Both our ECT and NPQ programmes have been rated Outstanding by Ofsted. The whole thread uses aligned language, approaches and research, minimising repetition and maximising learning.
• Develop your own talent. By training non-teaching staff, such as teaching assistants, who are already working in your school, you can gain new qualified teachers who are already well embedded in the school’s community.
• Receive high quality trainees. Trainees learn from our evidence-driven programme content. Our expert curriculum blends high-quality academic training with immersive, classroom learning. This helps build trainees practice over time using techniques backed by the latest research and evidence on what works best.
• Join Ambition's network of nearly 11,000 schools. Over 56,000 teachers and leaders from nearly 11,000 schools have developed on our programmes. By joining our school network you will not only gain high quality trainees, but also receive early access to our research, innovative programme pilots and news.
• Access government funding. You can access support on costs for trainee mentoring.
• Offer a salary to your trainees. Subject to DfE funding guidelines you can offer your trainees a salary to train.
• Support your recruitment. If you are a main placement school trainees will stay in your school for most of the year. During this time, you can induct them into your values and culture. This makes our programme a great recruitment tool. On the other hand, if you are considering becoming a contrasting school only, this is a great opportunity to connect with prospective teachers.

Is my school eligible?

We partner with a wide range of schools spanning a variety of communities across England. To give our trainees the experience they need, placement schools must:

• Be a state-maintained or independent school* which follows the national curriculum.
• Have an Ofsted grading of ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’.
• Cover at least two consecutive key stages, including KS1-2 for Primary (ages 5-11) or KS3-4 (ages 11-16) for Secondary. Please note that for this programme, KS3 is defined as Year 7-9 and KS4 as Year 10-11.
• Be located within a reasonable distance of one of our existing Teacher Training partners. These being multi academy trusts, or Teaching School Hub’s partnered with Ambition to deliver the programme in their schools. You can use our partner map to find our partners near you.

*Independent schools are required to undergo a suitability check and would not be eligible for trainee salary grants.

How does my school become a placement school?

If you are interested in your school becoming a main or contrasting placement school for our Teacher Training programme, we’re excited for you.

Please submit this enquiry form and our team will be in touch. You can ask them any questions you may have.