TRAINEE secondary school teachers will be immersed into classrooms from the outset in a new initiative which begins in south Cumbria next month.

Kendal's Queen Katherine School has been accredited as a provider of the scheme which will see trainee teachers spend time in 20 of the region's secondary schools on their way to gaining a PGCE at master's level.

A group of schools from across south Cumbria have been working together over the last three years to deliver a successful school led teacher training course, called School Direct.

These schools have now formed the School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT), which will enable schools to accredit teachers themselves from September 2015 onwards.

“It is a really exciting time in teacher education where the theories of teaching and application in the classroom are learnt together in school," said Alison Chapman, Vice-Principal and ITE lead at The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust.

"The trainee teachers are immersed into classrooms with young people from the start and they are taught by excellent teachers from a range of schools to ensure that we train the next generation of outstanding teachers for our schools."

The schools who will lead the development are: The Queen Katherine School, Queen Elizabeth School, Dallam School, Ulverston Victoria High School and Dowdales School, with all of the other secondary schools in the South Lakes Federation and Furness Education Consortium involved in the training and placements.

The course's academic qualification is accredited by the University of Cumbria and it is hoped that the SCITT will expand to include early years and primary school training for 2016/17.

Stephen Wilkinson, executive head teacher of The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust said: "I am delighted that the Directors of The Queen Katherine School Multi Academy Trust were happy to be the gateway organisation for this very exciting development for initial teacher education for the whole of South Cumbria."

Further details are available at www.qktsa.org.uk or at www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/teacher-training/postgraduate-routes-teaching.