Spotlight on: Dave Potts

With over 25 years’ teaching experience, Dave started his career teaching geography in London. After helping to set up a multi-academy trust (MAT) and a free school in the UK, he then made the move to Malaysia in 2016 where he worked as a vice principal overseeing pedagogy and assessment.

His most recent teaching role before joining Tes was in Dubai, where he worked as a secondary headteacher. He now brings his knowledge of international schools and educational leadership to the iQTS programme.

Teaching ethos

For Dave, his teaching ethos is similar to his leadership ethos: “It’s relationships first.”

“For iQTS, that means picking excellent pathway tutors, who have a range of professional backgrounds within education, and are also all lovely people who build very strong relationships very quickly with our trainees.

“If you want people to maximise their learning, then having that strong relationship enables us to influence our learners in the best possible way.”

Aims of the iQTS programme

The iQTS programme aims to address the unique challenges faced by international schools.

“The international school sector is growing rapidly while teacher training and teacher supply is waning,” Dave explains. “That’s only going to get more difficult for international schools. The iQTS pathway is one way to help solve that problem, and beyond that, the Tes Institute team can help international schools figure out multiple pathways for teacher training and teacher development. That’s very exciting.”

At the heart of the programme are the learners, and Dave explains that our iQTS learners come with a range of teaching experience, “so we want to add value for all of them.”

“Ultimately, we want our learners to graduate feeling supremely confident in their teaching ability, able to fulfil their personal goals of living in different parts of the world if they wish to do so, and able to fulfil their professional goals which might come through promotion, but also simply being the best teacher they can possibly be for the students that are in front of them.”

Why learners love the iQTS programme

A key part of Dave’s role is overseeing the quality of the programme.

“We ensure that it’s tailored to the context of each international school and region, and that it adheres to the ITT ECF and the iQTS standards.”

These are the same standards as teacher training provision in the UK, including being inspected by the Department for Education (DfE), which means learners can be confident the programme is held to a high standard.

While the course itself gets learners to achieve the same standards, every learner’s classroom setting and situation is unique.

“Our trainees tell us time and time again how impressed they are by the level of personalised support that they receive to get them to their end goal, which is to qualify as a professional teacher.”

What support is available for learners on the iQTS programme?

The programme is designed to support learners throughout their journey. All learners have in-school mentors. These mentors are enrolled on a mentor training programme.

Dave explains: “They’ll have two hours of contact time with their mentor every week, which includes being observed in their teaching, discussing key priorities for improvement and development and also observing other expert colleagues in school.”

This is in addition to support from a dedicated pathway tutor who knows the programme and international schools very well. Pathway tutors will carry out an initial assessment meeting with the learner right at the start to personalise the course and support.

After that, learners meet with their pathway tutor every half term and receive regular feedback online, but the pathway tutors are also “always on hand if there’s ever a need for support”. All of this means that you have a fully triangulated support system.

Impact in the classroom

At the heart of the iQTS programme is a commitment to improving teaching and learning outcomes in the classroom. Learners build their skills week on week, and everything is based on solid research and the latest pedagogy.

This means that learners can bring the most relevant and up-to-date evidence-based teaching practice into the classroom.

As Dave explains, we also train mentors through the MTED training programme, equipping them with “the skills and the processes to be able to mentor their colleagues through a variety of different professional challenges”. So the impact of the iQTS programme goes beyond the individual teacher – it’s also an opportunity for the school to build their own professional development network and share best practice.

Dave’s advice for a learner on the iQTS programme

As a learner on the iQTS programme, you’re embarking on a journey that will shape your teaching practice and career. Dave recommends making the most of the opportunity and the support you’ll get from our expert team.

“We know our trainees work incredibly hard. There’s no getting away from the fact that doing a full-time teaching qualification while also being employed as a teacher is a difficult undertaking.

“But when I check in with my trainees, I find that they’re happy in that work, and they’re happy for two reasons. One is that teaching is the work they want to do, and it is deeply rewarding. The second reason is the excellent support they receive from the Tes Institute team and their in-school mentor.”

The future of the iQTS programme

Dave believes that the iQTS programme is well-positioned to address the challenges facing international schools.

“We know that international schools and school groups are going to have an increased demand for teachers. They’re going to want highly qualified, well-trained teachers with a strong sense of what outstanding teaching and learning should look like, not just in a pedagogical sense, but also being able to develop those leadership competencies that that can be very specific within schools.”

One trend that Dave notes is the shift towards international schools running their own professional development. But for schools “to bring new people into the profession and get them to the required standard at volume and pace is something that’s hard to do themselves.”

“That’s where a provider like Tes Institute comes in to provide the guidance, support and structure to do that well.”

“We know that there are people out there who want to teach and want to become professional educators in a way that the iQTS programme can achieve. I’m looking forward to Tes Institute being a big part of that solution for schools worldwide.”

Loved hearing from Dave? Find out more about iQTS and meet the rest of our inspiring programme leaders in our Spotlight series collection.