How to apply

There are a number of important things to consider when making a decision about whether to train to teach. The first thing to decide is which age group you want to teach. At Ripley ITT we offer courses for primary ages 3-7 years or 5-11 years, secondary in a range of subjects or a small number of 14-19 years courses. You’ll need to think about how you intend to finance your studies and what sort of training programme is best suited for you. We currently offer a Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship route and a School-Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) route.

For more information on each of these aspects, see the DfE’s ‘Get into teaching‘ website.

You can look at our primary and secondary offer on the courses page of our website. Alternatively, you can search all providers and courses on the government’s portal here.

The minimum application requirements* for Ripley ITT programmes are:

Original certificates for your degree and GCSE subjects or equivalents, will need to be brought with you to the interview. If you are in your final year of study, please enter a predicted grade.

*If your qualifications were not gained in the UK, you can visit the UK ENIC website to find out whether your qualifications are equivalent to UK GCSEs and degrees.

It is not essential to have school experience, we look for the potential to train to teach, for example excellent communication skills, team-work, responding to feedback and flexibility. However, school experience will obviously be beneficial at interview and once training starts as you will have a greater insight into the profession.  If you can organise some volunteer work or even simply some observation at a local school, this will be well worth it. It is also very important that you know what you are getting in to in entering the teaching profession. Really, the only way to appreciate this is to spend some time in a school setting. We may be able to help you organise this. Please contact us if you would like some advice.

You will need to complete an application form on the government ‘Apply‘ portal. The first step is to create an account and then you can begin putting in your details including your course choices, qualifications, any work experience and your personal statement. More advice on this can be found here or look at our ‘Drafting your application‘ section.

There is no fixed ‘recipe’ for a good application and there are very few things which we would consider unassailable obstacles. Obviously, we look for a strong rationale for wanting to teach and be in the classroom and how you feel you have the skills to do the job. This should come through in your personal statement on your application form. We would also like to hear about why you think you’re particularly suited for the age group you are applying for (and why your subject if you are applying for secondary). If, as a secondary applicant, you do not have a degree in the subject you are aspiring to teach, it is useful to explain how you are qualified to teach the subject. It may be necessary for you to follow a Subject Knowledge Enhancement course prior to commencing the training course. We will discuss this with you at interview. Whilst not essential (see below), it is always encouraging to see applicants have spent some time in a classroom either through volunteer work or some observation.

Once you have submitted your application to us, we will review your form and make a decision on putting you forward for our selection process. Each provider has their own process for this. For details of how we will assess your suitability for training with us beyond your application, see here.