Registering trainees
Once the trainee has accepted a School Direct place, St Mary’s will need to register the trainee as they would any other trainee. All trainees must be registered on an eligible graduate route to QTS.
Funding for the School Direct Training Programme
The School Direct Training Programme is funded by tuition fees paid by the trainee who will be eligible for the standard student support package, including training bursaries, tuition fee loans and scholarships where eligible.
Once trainees have accepted places on the School Direct Training Programme, they can then make applications for tuition fee loans through Student Finance England, to cover the cost of their training. This money can only be paid directly to St Mary’s to deliver School Direct, and trainees have to be registered on the programme before St Mary’s can receive the money. The Student Loans Company will pay St Mary’s in instalments, but trainee attendance must be registered at the start of each term before payment is made.
Lead schools will collaborate with St Mary’s as to how their ITT programme will be delivered, including how much training is delivered across the school partnership and how much is purchased from the accredited provider.
Training bursaries and scholarships
Trainees on the School Direct Training Programme, who are eligible for bursary funding and scholarships, will be able to receive bursaries in the same way as trainees on other post-graduate ITT routes. St Mary’s will receive an allocation of bursary funding from the NCTL for all eligible ITT places, including those bursaries allocated for School Direct places. St Mary’s will then pay the trainee the bursary directly.
The School Direct operations manual should be used in conjunction with the training bursary information for 2017/18. If any changes are made to this document, updates will be announced.
Funding for the School Direct Training Programme (salaried)
The NCTL provides funding to cover training costs and subsidise salary costs for these places. Because it is an employment based route trainees are not eligible for student loans. As the costs of training to achieve QTS are included within the funding provided by the NCTL, individual trainees should not incur any costs for this.
Trainees employed in a maintained school should be paid as an unqualified teacher on point one or above of the unqualified teacher scale. Other conditions relating to employment-based provision, including limits on teaching time, can be found in the ITT criteria.