Straight to Teaching
Our Straight to Teaching course will prepare you for qualified teacher status (QTS) assessment via our Assessment Only route while you continue to work at your current school. It’s a high quality, low-cost route to becoming a qualified teacher that’s personalised to you and your school.
Contents
Key details
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Duration
1-5 terms -
Location
blended -
Cost
£4,725-£7,875 plus VAT (as applicable) -
Funding
self-funded -
Level
primary and secondary
Course description
Straight to Teaching is a flexible in-school and online QTS preparation course. It allows you to continue working as a TA, higher level teaching assistant or unqualified teacher as you prepare for QTS assessment via our Assessment only route.
The course is personalised to your needs and based on your current teaching experience. It will help you to work towards having two years of teaching experience in two schools, enabling you to develop your teaching without leaving your school and pupils.
If you don't already have experience of working in a second school, you can gain this while on the course. The minimum requirement is 20 days if you're employed in a mainstream school and 30 days if you're employed in an SEND or alternative provision setting. Ideally you would take this as a block to immerse yourself in the teaching and life of the school, but to provide full flexibility, we offer a minimum requirement of one day a week.
You'll be assigned a Tes Institute pathway tutor who will support you throughout your journey to make sure you're meeting the Teachers' Standards. When you're ready, we'll support you through to the final QTS assessment via our Assessment Only route.
Our Straight to Teaching course will help you to:
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Become employed as a fully qualified teacher
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Potentially increase your salary by up to £7,000* per year
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Become a teacher who can inspire their students to make exceptional progress
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Share best practices with colleagues
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Potentially play a more significant role in school leadership and management
Straight to Teaching in specialist settings
You can apply for Straight to Teaching if you’re working in a specialist setting such as a specialist unit attached to a mainstream school, a pupil referral unit, a specialist school, including SEHM, SpLD or PMLD, an alternative provision or a residential setting.
The focus for your teaching will be the cognitive age of the students you teach and the curriculum taught, not the actual age of your students. For example, you may be teaching the KS1 curriculum in a secondary SEND setting to 11-16 year olds, so your age range could be 3-7 or 5-11.
Straight to Teaching in international schools
Straight to Teaching can also support international applicants. You'll need to be teaching the British curriculum relevant to the QTS specialism you're applying for. We may consider previous experience teaching a different curriculum if this can be mapped to the British curriculum. You'll need to meet all other requirements.
Please remember QTS is age phase or subject-specific focused. You can only be recommended for QTS as a subject specialist in the secondary age phase. Qualifying for QTS in the primary phase requires you to be teaching the core and foundation subjects.
Entry requirements
Our course is aimed at school staff such as unqualified teachers, TAs or higher level teaching assistants. It is suitable for most school settings including state funded mainstream schools, SEND settings, faith schools, independent schools and international schools teaching the British curriculum.
If you have two years’ teaching experience in two schools in the QTS specialism you're apply for, you may be eligible to go straight to our Assessment Only route, which assesses you for QTS within three months.
To be eligible for our Straight to Teaching course you must:
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Be employed in a school in a teaching role by the time you start the course
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Hold a degree from a UK higher education institution (or equivalent qualification) or be in the final year of completing one. If your degree was completed outside of the UK you'll need to provide an ENIC statement to demonstrate the comparability of your qualification
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Have achieved at least a grade C or 4 at GCSE level (or equivalent) in English language and mathematics (and science if you intend to teach pupils aged 3-11). GCSE equivalency tests can be taken during the course if needed – we can offer guidance with these
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Have the express agreement of your current or intended employer (school) to support you to prepare for QTS through Straight to Teaching and be assessed via our Assessment Only route (your school will be asked to sign a working agreement with Tes Institute). This support includes the appointment of a suitable member of staff to act as a school mentor
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Have the relevant experience and skills to succeed through the Straight to Teaching course, including a minimum of one term of group or whole class teaching experience
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From the start of the course you'll need access to a minimum of 50-80% of a typical teacher's timetable. You'll need to be responsible for planning, marking and assessing whole classes that are typical for your school
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Have the health and physical capacity to teach
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Have been subject to and passed the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and criminal/other records check
Course delivery
Our Straight to Teaching course is delivered through a mix of in-school experience and online learning and theory, enabling you to develop your teaching and build evidence to demonstrate that you meet the English Teachers’ Standards.
You'll have access to an extensive online library of subject-specific and pedagogy modules. Your pathway tutor will guide you to specific topics to close any gaps as your practice develops. You'll have full access to all modules for self-study and to support research opportunities as you develop your reflective and analytical skills.
Throughout your course, you’ll be supported by your Straight to Teaching pathway tutor and your school mentor. Your pathway tutor will visit you face-to-face, arrange virtual Keeping in Touch (KIT) meetings, and provide feedback online via your learning platform as you develop through the course.
The length of your Straight to Teaching course will be based on your existing teaching experience and will be designed in collaboration with you and your school.
Course leader
Phillipa Bild
Phillipa joined Tes Institute after a 20-year career in primary education, most recently as a head of school. Phillipa is passionate about professional development and made it a priority for all her teachers and support staff, especially in the wake of the global pandemic. After joining Tes Institute as a pathway tutor in 2022 she is delighted to be part of our mission to drive up standards in teaching.
Course fees and funding
Fees vary depending on the amount of preparation you need to get ready for QTS assessment. All fees include the Straight to Teaching course and the cost of QTS assessment via our Assessment Only route.
You can pay in full at the start of your course, or pay termly or monthly to spread the payments across the length of your course.
Our Straight to Teaching course costs £4,725-£7,875 plus VAT (as applicable).
| Course | Price (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|
| Straight to Teaching: short preparation, 1.5 terms | £4,725 |
| Straight to Teaching: medium preparation, 2-3 terms | £6,300 |
| Straight to Teaching: high preparation, 4-5 terms | £7,875 |
A private loan company may provide you with a flexible loan with long-term repayment options to help you pay for course fees and other living expenses.
If you're an international applicant, we'll aim to find you an in-country pathway tutor and assessor to support you through blended face-to-face and virtual visits. Where pathway tutors and assessors aren't available, you'll be required to pay and provide costs for flights, hotel, transfers and sustenance for the visit. These will be discussed with you.
Course application and start dates
Courses start every half term.
Course start dates
| Straight to Teaching application deadline | Straight to Teaching start date |
|---|---|
| Monday 3rd February 2025 | Monday 24th February 2025 |
| Monday 24th March 2025 | Monday 28th April 2025 |
| Monday 12th May 2025 | Monday 2nd June 2025 |
Krishna's story
Being able to study and connect with other student teachers was a great experience. The connection was one of the highlights of the course.
Next steps
You can apply for our Straight to Teaching route by:
- clicking the 'Apply' button
- emailing your Confirmation of School Support Form to s2t.institute@tesglobal.com
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1Apply
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2Application review and confirmation
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3Enrolment
Documents you will need
Please print off the Confirmation of School Support form below for a Senior School Manager (or staff member with equivalent authority) at your employing school to review and sign.
These must be hand-signed (wet signature) by your head teacher.
Confirmation of School Support form - Download
Apply for Straight to Teaching
Need more information?
Contact us about this course.
FAQs
- You can visit ENIC – National Recognition Information Centre to check the equivalency of your qualifications prior to application to ensure they meet the eligibility criteria.
- You can also carry out these checks on your GCSE qualifications. Please be aware that for primary phase you also require science at grade C/4 or above.
- We can support you in completing these – to find out more read our equivalency tests information.
- Please be aware there is a charge for these tests.
- From April 2020 the national skills test requirement stopped. To meet the Teachers' Standards you will need to meet an expected level of competency in numeracy. We're replacing the national skills test with a fundamental maths test. You must gain 9/15 in the diagnostic test to pass. The test must be taken under exam conditions at your school and your headteacher will be required to validate your certificate. There's more information in our fundamental mathematics and English guidance and FAQs.
- You'll be assessed on your literacy competency through the quality of your written submissions for the route. Your headteacher will validate these by completing an audit as part of the first visit in recommending you for QTS and the final assessment.
- Once everything has been submitted as part of your application you'll be made an offer via email for a specific start date.
- If you accept this offer you'll be sent confirmation.
- This will be followed by an Induction email three weeks before your start date which contains a registration link for the learning platform, Tes Learn. To access the learning platform, please ensure you use the email address you have used for your application to link you to your course.
- The Induction email outlines all aspects of the course, course handbook information and all the resources you'll require. The three weeks before your start date is a preparation period before your official start date. Please share these important documents with your school and mentor.
- Straight to Teaching course costs are :
Low QTS preparation (1 to 1.5 terms) and QTS assessment
£4,500 plus VAT (as applicable)
Medium QTS preparation (2 to 3 terms) and QTS assessment
£6,000 plus VAT (as applicable)
High QTS preparation (4 to 5 terms) and QTS assessment
£7,500 plus VAT (as applicable)
- There are other cost implications such as if you require equivalency tests and checking your qualifications if your degree is not from the UK.
- If you are applying internationally, we endeavour to use in-country pathway tutors and assessors. In certain cases where pathway tutors and assessors are not available, you must pay and provide costs for flights, hotel, transfers and sustenance for the visit. We will endeavour to take into consideration your geographical location.
- Please be aware this is a CPD course so does not qualify for a student loan.
- The CSSF – Confirmation of School Support and Financial Agreement – is a document signed by your headteacher which confirms that you have the support of your school. This document will need to be completed as part of the application process and confirms your school will support you on your Straight to Teaching course and also confirms your teaching role and commitments at your school as part of the eligibility criteria.
- This document corroborates what length of course you will be offered to support meeting the requirement of two years/six terms teaching experience to be eligible for QTS assessment via our Assessment Only route.
- To be eligible for the primary phase you need to be teaching the core curriculum of maths, English – phonics, science, geography, history, for example. For primary, you cannot be a subject specialist such as PE or music.
- If you're teaching in the primary phase, you need to ensure you're aware of statutory assessments. How they're delivered, what students need to learn and why, and the expected progress they'll make.
- For secondary, if you're teaching KS3, you'll need to be aware of the progression to GCSE and how the curriculum is structured to work towards the exam board requirements.
- If you have limited experience to ensure you can show breadth across your applied age phase we require four weeks/20 days of teaching in a second school.
- For international applications, if you have not taught the British curriculum for two years you'll be required to complete a six-week placement.
- If you're working in a specialist setting your second school experience will need to be six-weeks/30 days of teaching.
- You must have evidence of teaching across two consecutive age group for two years with at least three terms (one year) of whole class responsibility.
- Your role must have full responsibility for planning, assessing and reviewing whole-class teaching, and responsibility for students' progression.
Please note whole-class teaching is what is typical in your school/setting.
- Roles that do not enable you to be eligible to prepare for QTS could be :
Cover supervisor – you deliver lesson planned written by others
Adult educator – teaching students aged 18 years plus
Teaching GCSE to children below the age of 14 years
Pure pastoral/administrative role
- We are experienced in supporting candidates in a variety of settings beyond mainstream education.
- The focus for your teaching is the cognitive age and curriculum taught not the actual age of your students, for example, teaching the KS1 curriculum to 11-16 year olds.
We would require you to show your subject specialism. As you will be teaching across the breadth of two key stages we're aware you can be teaching all three sciences to KS 3/4 but QTS requires a subject specific of biology, chemistry or physics. We acknowledge you will teach all three.
* On average, a fully qualified teacher in England earns approximately £6,000-£7,000 more a year than their unqualified counterpart. For full details about qualified and unqualified teacher pay scales, visit education.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/salary.
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