The University of Reading’s Institute of Education is a large teacher training provider that offers training to over 550 future teachers each year in the early years, primary and secondary phases. Our long-standing Partnership involves over 400 nursery, infant, junior, primary and secondary schools, academies and special schools representing local authorities across the Thames Valley region and beyond.
One of our strengths, as recognised by Ofsted, is the high quality of support we provide to schools and Reading Partnership Teachers (RPTs) on placement. We want to continuously improve on this service and have therefore created this site to support you. As many of our RPTs go on to secure jobs in their placement schools, active engagement with the Institute of Education (IoE) partnership in training new teachers is an excellent way to recruit Early Career Teachers (ECTs) to your school. The following pages are aimed at keeping you, our partnership schools, informed about the opportunities and benefits of working in partnership with the IoE as well as highlighting any professional development opportunities, conferences or research that might be of interest to you. If you are a school who is not currently working in partnership with us, please feel free to explore the way we work with schools to provide Initial Teacher Education (ITE) or contact us on ioe@reading.ac.uk.Partnership overview
Partnership benefits
The Partnership works with a diverse group of schools and early years settings across the region. At the last count, the Partnership worked with over 400 early years and school settings.
Many of those taught go on to get their first teaching posts as Early Career Teachers (ECTs) in Partnership schools and settings.
Many of them go on to work in the Partnership as mentors and ITE Coordinators (ITECos) in our partnership schools and settings. Many of them go on to do further study at the University through our MA, SENCO, Ed.D and Ph.D. programmes.
The partnership provides the opportunity to:
- become a Lead Partner
- host trainees and recruiting teachers with a proven track record
- be part of the applicant interview process
- access a robust process of CPD for Reading Partnership Mentor through Mentor Certification
- bring new skills and knowledge to the classroom, assisting teachers to improve pupils’ learning
Climate and sustainability education
At the University of Reading, we believe that climate and sustainability education is everyone’s responsibility. This is why we have set out our vision that all student teachers should be able to access education that empowers them to effectively incorporate climate education within their teaching across all levels and subjects as part of our National Climate Education Action Plan.
Across all of our ITE programmes at the Institute of Education, our student teachers will learn about:
- what is happening to our climate, how to help children learn about climate and sustainability in an age-appropriate and accessible way, and how to develop their own positioning as a teacher
- climate justice, the impact of current and future changes to our environment and climate on ourselves and others, and implications for teachers
- how to translate knowledge and theory into change and personal action through building climate and sustainability education into their planning, teaching, and children’s learning.
Visit Partnering for the Planet to find out more about the University of Reading’s world-leading work in climate science.