GITEP offers internships in Gloucestershire Secondary Schools. 

Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Headteachers is keen to encourage people with an interest in becoming a teacher. We want to find and train the best teachers possible for the pupils in our schools. The number of pupils in Gloucestershire schools is rising and this is forecast to continue.

We will need more teachers.

We know that many of our pupils in our schools would make excellent teachers. The GITEP internships programme is designed to ensure that we identify and nurture those with an interest and encourage them to return to train and work with us when they graduate.

The GITEP Internships Programme

As an Intern, you will return to Gloucestershire during university holidays to work in our schools. On completion of three weeks in school interns will be paid £900. This is available for all  three years of an undergraduate degree.

Which school will I be at?

We will decide this with you. Many interns may want to return to their old school and, clearly, it will need to be a school near you. The point of the programme, however, is to help you decide whether you would like to become a teacher and we want you to experience different schools. Not all our schools will be able to have an intern in every subject.

Does it have to be a Gloucestershire school?

The programme is run by Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Headteachers but there are schools in surrounding counties which work with us on teacher training. It may be possible to do internships in some of them. We are looking for people who want to go into secondary teaching and are not currently offering internships in primary schools.

What will I be doing?

There will be a training element to the programme and we will spend some time with you talking about good teaching and what it involves. However, we really want you to get to see what it is like to work in a school and spend time with pupils. We assume you have a deep interest in the subject you are studying at university and the internship is for you to find out if you would enjoy sharing this with pupils.

You are being paid and we will expect you to contribute to school life. This might include:

• Working with individual pupils in lessons
• Working with small groups of pupils
• Helping with school trips
• Contributing to extra-curricular activities in areas of personal interest e.g. sport and music
• Preparing resources for pupils to use

We will plan this with you and it will, of course, depend on your subject, areas of interest and what your placement school is doing while you are there. We can promise you that you will not be left on your own with a class!

Do I have to make any commitment to being a teacher?

No. Although we are investing time and money in you, we know that some interns will decide that teaching is not, after all, for them. We will do a review with you at the end of each internship and keep in touch with you throughout the year. If you decide not to continue with the internship just let us know. We won’t ask for our money back!

How many places are there?

We have planned to have 15 interns in the first year. However, we are looking for people who are genuinely interested in becoming a teacher and could take more.

Does it matter which subject I am studying?

Possibly. There are some degree subjects which don’t transfer easily to subjects studied in schools. We will also be particularly keen to get applications from people looking to teach subjects in which it is currently more difficult to find teachers – maths, physics, chemistry, music, geography, languages, computing, DT and English. However, we will need teachers of all subjects.

What happens in my last year and when I graduate?

If you decide that you would like to apply for a teacher training place we will work with you on how to make an application, including a mock interview. We hope we will have got to know you by the end of the GITEP internships programme and can give you advice on the best options for you. Lots of things may have changed by the end of your degree.

Clearly, we would like you to stay with us and train in Gloucestershire. If you complete the internship programme we will guarantee you an interview with Gloucestershire Initial Teacher Education Partnership (GITEP). GITEP is a school centred initial teacher training (SCITT) provider and works with all the secondary schools in the county – and some beyond. We are very proud of the training GITEP SCITT offers and pleased that our training was judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in May 2023. Most of our trainees go on to work in Gloucestershire schools.