Trainee Teacher (Primary)

Job Description

About this Role
Join our Teacher Training Programme to become a much-needed teacher and pass on your passion for learning.

Classroom-based Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programme based in one of our 57 schools. Lift Schools is one of the largest trusts nationwide and we are partnered with Ark Teacher Training to deliver our programme.

You'll gain a PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate of Education) and your Qualified Teacher Status whilst working hands-on in the classroom as a trainee Teacher.Immediately having impact, your tutor and coach will support you to build up your independent teaching time during the year.

The Programme Includes

• School Orientation Experience- a 5-day introductory placement before Summer term ends where you get to know the school, pupils, colleagues, the community and where you'll be working so you can hit the ground running in September.
• Summer School: Highly-rated by our trainees as the perfect start to their training and a great way to prepare for their first few weeks in school, our Summer School brings trainees together for two weeks in August (5th - 16th) to learn about the programme, educational theory, and practice.
• Weekly Coaching and Planning Sessions: Your in-school coach will observe your progress every week, supporting you by providing constructive feedback and helping you set achievable improvement goals.
• An allocated mentor,a trained lead planner who will help you create effective lessons, developing your planning skills and giving you the opportunity to ask detailed subject - knowledge questions.
• Weekly Training Sessions: Participate in-person/ virtual training sessions with your tutors and peers. These sessions provide valuable learning experiences and encourage a collaborative environment for professional growth.

The training programme itself is school-based and you will spend half a day every week in a session with your Ark tutor and other trainees from the network.

We will support you to become brilliant educators and in time, leaders within our network - we offer unrivalled career opportunities for professional growth. We're looking for talented people who will have successful careers within the Trust.

This is a Tuition Fee-Paying Training Route. PGCE Tuition fees are £9,250 usually funded through Student Finance

**Lift Schools offers a unique £3,000 bursary for Primary trainees to help with training costs *subject to eligibility

N.B - We are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Candidates must have Right to Work in the UK (full-time) from July 2025 until September 2026.

Information about the School

Westerings Primary Academy is an incredibly popular and successful school with pupils from age 4 to 11. Nestled in the beautiful woodland setting in Hockley, our children experience a learning environment second-to-none! The extensive grounds allow for a range of outdoor facilities to enrich their learning. Children may be seen working collaboratively in ‘Imagination Cove’, hunting for bugs in the ‘Wildlife Walk’, movie-making with the iPads in the ‘Wild West’ (woodland!) or enjoying their playtimes in our pirate-themed Adventure Golf course! We also have an outside amphitheatre built into the hillside, a dedicated gardening area, three adventure playgrounds, tyre park - there are countless places for children to work and play! Inside the school, our classrooms and learning spaces are themed to match pupils’ topics. Whether walking through Diagon Alley to reach year four, or an ancient Egyptian tomb to enter Year 3, our children love coming to school to learn in such an engaging environment!

Being part of Lift Schools we are able to access the newest thinking in education and high quality professional support to help us prepare our children to be happy, well-rounded and successful citizens of the future. We do have high expectations for academic success but also for personal development. Our children are exceptionally well mannered, smart, happy and very keen to learn!

We work closely with the other schools in Rayleigh, Hullbridge and Hockley as well as our trust. Our staff are well-supported in their CPD and wellbeing, with access 400+ high-quality courses (including apprenticeships and NPQs), a great private health-care plan, a staff-led marking and feedback policy, a rewarding employee scheme in partnership with ‘Vivup’ and two-week October and May half-term breaks. Staff retention is high at Westerings, and we know our pupils, environment, employee benefits and school ethos are key to this success.

We look forward to welcoming you to Westerings - we know you’ll be keen to look around and see the school for yourself!

Adam Stainsbury, Headteacher

www.westerings.org (main website) and www.westerings.com (curriculum site) @westeringsAET (YouTube/Threads)

Vision and Ethos

We are a very morally driven school where we follow the newest thinking in education to ensure our children and staff receive the highest quality provision. We are an school that actively encourages new thinking and fresh approaches. Foremost in our thoughts, we are aware that we provide a service to families, our local community and to the wider society including the business world, to help educate our children so they become global citizens in an ever-changing and increasingly digitalised world. We want to equip our children with the skills and attitudes to succeed in their future careers and personal lives, and yet retain the highest moral values.

We believe that an individual’s intelligence is expandable, not fixed. Success comes from learning, practice and effort. We want to help our children to have a ‘Growth Mindset’, i.e, to:

• Embrace challenges
• Persist despite struggling or coming across obstacles
• See effort and hard work as a way to improve
• Appreciate and learn from feedback, including constructive criticism

We want the best for each of our children and strive to prepare them well to succeed in every aspect of their future lives. Every Child really does Matter.

Who is Lift Schools?

Lift Schools is made up of 57 primary, secondary and special schools, educating more than 33,000 pupils across the country. We believe education can transform lives – and we want every child in our schools to achieve their full potential.

Our mission:

1. We will provide an excellent education to every child, in every classroom, every day.
2. With excellent leadership and teaching in every school, we will help children go on to lead successful and happy lives.
3. We will work with others beyond our network to benefit more children and communities.

Every adult in a school has the power to transform lives, and that’s why talented people are essential to us. Our ambition to give every pupil the best start in life relies on our dedicated teachers, teaching assistants, senior leaders, and admin teams. We attract dynamic individuals and provide the space to reimagine what’s possible.

That’s why your career is as important to us as it is to you. We want you to develop, we want you to grow, and we want you to feel valued.