I am a newly-qualified primary teacher who has just completed a postgraduate certificate in education. The school-based training was fantastic, if demanding. But too much of the information the universities have to teach is not useful.

Primary students are lectured on maths and literacy to GCSE standard, which they should know already but will never use. And the Government requires a piecemeal and perfunctory tick-the-box science test. This three-subject overkill leaves lecture slots for other subjects so restricted that curriculum coverage is merely pick-and-mix.

Then there is lesson-planning. Few teachers rave about paperwork, but observe them while they plan, then watch those lessons being put into action, and dry forms come to life.

While many universities show videos of teachers modelling “best practice”, it is obvious that the kids have been drilled to perform perfectly. Observing teachers in the raw is the best way to pick up ideas. Masses of NQTs never even look at their college notes after graduation.

I would like to see even more time spent in schools, such as on the school-centred initial teacher-training courses.

Many universities find it hard to persuade schools to provide training places. At least by reassuring heads that they only have students falling off their horse for seven to 10 weeks at a time, the number of schools willing to let students saddle up will not be rarer than a rodeo rider without a sore backside.

There has to be more of a point to college-based teacher training than to give schools a break from trainee teachers.

Isn’t it time that more schools allowed trainee teachers to ride the real thing?

David Ogle is an NQT at Pooles Park primary school in Islington