TRAINEE teachers will benefit from ‘on-the-job’ training under a revolutionary new way of studying during their PGCE year.

Wensley Fold Primary Academy in Blackburn has taken in 21 students for the coming year and is working in partnership with The Redeemer Primary School.

The school is the first in the area to offer the revolutionary new way of training new teachers.

The students, who are all from the Blackburn with Darwen area and have already completed a degree, will study for their one-year post-graduate teaching qualification on the site and undertake three work placements within the borough.

Wensley Fold headteacher Gaynor Stubbs said the hope was that most of the students would go on to work within the borough. She said: “There has been a change in the way you can train to become a teacher and it is that teachers should be trained in school.

“Now, once students have achieved a degree, they can study for the post-grad in a school. We have spent the past year recruiting 21 students, which has been a mammoth job.

“Our hope is that they will all be appointed at Blackburn with Darwen schools.” The course has been validated by the University of Cumbria and students will be taught at the school in Manor Road.

Mrs Stubbs said: “It is a very exciting opportunity for them because we feel we know what we need from new teachers so we have tailored the programme to meet our needs and the students’ needs.

“They are all local students who have come back from doing a degree away from home.

“We are the first in this area to offer this but by 2016, the expectation is that half of PGCE students will be training in this way.

“This is so much better than sitting in a lecture theatre.

“It is a really good way for trainee teachers to learn and is definitely the future.”