ITT Regional Providers

Initial Teacher Training Opportunities

Chafford Hundred Teaching School Hub is a Lead Partner for the National Institute of Teaching accredited ITT provider offering early years, primary, and secondary initial teacher training routes across South Essex. Applications for our courses (starting in September 2025) open on the DfE Apply portal in October 2024, but our Regional Recruitment Manager, Yasmine Pieri welcomes expressions of interest all year round.

Each year we recruit a diverse cohort of trainees from university graduates to career changers and work alongside our HEI partners and Now Teach to support their transition into the profession.

Change Lives, Make a Difference!

ITT Support for Schools

We can support any school interested in hosting a trainee teacher that may be new to engaging in ITT or specifically interested in becoming a placement school for the National Institute of Teaching. Please contact our Partnerships Manager, Lorna Hale to get started.

Train to Teach in Essex, Southend and Thurrock

There are many great reasons to train to teach in our region.

Our ITT Providers are all rated Good or Outstanding and work with a wide range of placement schools. Please visit the DfE for a full list of current teaching vacancies in our region.

Living in Essex

Nearly 1.5 million people call Essex home, making it the second most populous county in England. Thanks to the size, location and geography of the county, there’s a huge diversity to the places where people live. Essex has lots of different options for housing whether you’re looking to rent or buy. For those thinking of moving out of London, Essex offers a wonderful quality of life, variety of different types of schools and more affordable property. Whether you want to live urban, rural or coastal, there are options to suit budgets of all kinds and prices that compare well to other parts of the Southeast.

The border with London is densely populated, and the South Essex Thames Gateway is an area of real economic growth. This southern part of the county is very different to the large rural areas of mid and north Essex – almost 75% of the county's land area is rolling farmland. Find out more about living in Essex.

Why teach in Essex?

You'll find almost 600 schools in Essex - along our stunning coastline, throughout miles of picturesque countryside and in towns and resorts with characters all of their own. This is where to search and apply for jobs in all of these primary, secondary and special schools. From teachers, school leaders and bursars to administration, catering and support staff, there's a huge range of roles, in schools that come in all shapes and sizes.

Find out more about teaching in Essex.

Living and working in Southend

Southend-on-Sea is a fabulous place to live and work. There is real community strength in the family of schools that are working together in Southend to bring about the advantages that high quality education provides. The diversity of schools in Southend is also unique for a small authority. With just 52 schools in total, contributing to the

strong community approach. Our 33 primary schools are comprised of small infant schools to large primaries, including Catholic and CE faith schools. We have 6 special schools, including a BESD College that includes a PRU, and amongst our

secondary schools we have 4 grammar schools, 2 Catholic high schools and high performing comprehensives.

Southend is a lively, thriving town with seven miles of award-winning beaches and coastal nature reserves. There are more than 80 parks and green spaces and 14 conservation areas. The borough is also home to the longest leisure pier in the world.

Southend-on-Sea is the one of the largest conurbations in the East of England and the closest seaside resort to London. It is located on the north side of the Thames estuary approximately 40 miles east of central London. There are two rail lines to London which is less than an hour away. Our rapidly developing London Southend Airport offers flights to a growing number of destinations throughout Europe.

Find out more about living and teaching in Southend.

Teaching in Thurrock

Lying on the southern tip of Essex and against the bank of the River Thames, Thurrock is an ideal place to build your teaching career and offers a great quality of life on your doorstep. Whether you are taking your first position as an ECT, looking to take on extra responsibility, or you’re keen to become a middle or senior leader, Thurrock offers you the commitment and support to deliver your ambitions. Teachers in Thurrock will experience a wide range of school settings, from village schools to town centre academies, all within a 10-mile radius.

Thurrock’s education sector is a close-knit network, providing the opportunity to get to know other teachers both professionally and socially. Despite the majority of schools being academies, the local authority maintains a strong and close working relationship with all schools and is committed to continually improving standards for all its children.

High quality teachers are needed to continue the rapid improvement that Thurrock schools have achieved so far. Thurrock schools continue to improve with a large proportion of schools now judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted.

£100 million will be invested in our schools including building two new secondary schools and improving Treetops Special Free School. The borough has several new schools and will require many additional primary and secondary school teachers and subsequently new leadership teams to support those schools.

Find out more about living and teaching in Thurrock.

Our ITT Provider Network

We are also proud to work in collaboration with all 12 ITT Providers and partners in our region including:

• National Institute of Teaching
• Colchester Teacher Training, CTTC (Ofsted Outstanding, March 2024)
• Essex and Thames SCITT (Ofsted Outstanding, January 2024)
• Essex Primary SCITT now merged with CTSN – Cambridge Training Schools Network (Sept 2024) (Ofsted Good, March 2022)
• Mid Essex SCITT (Ofsted Outstanding, March 2024)
• NESTT – Norfolk, Essex and Suffolk Teacher Training (Ofsted Good, June 2023)
• Reach Teach in partnership with Bath Spa University (Ofsted Outstanding Secondary, Good Primary, February 2024)
• Teach First (Ofsted Outstanding, April 2023)
• Teach Thurrock with University of Greenwich (Ofsted Good June 2023) and University of Derby (Ofsted Outstanding, May 2024)
• TES Institute (Ofsted Good, May 2022)
• West Essex SCITT (Ofsted Outstanding, February 2024)

From October 2024, Anglia Ruskin University will also be offering ITT and BEd Primary Education with QTS. Please access our ITT Providers brochure below or visit their individual websites for more information about their upcoming events, courses, and placement schools.

Our ITT Strategy 2024-2028

We are collectively committed to increasing teacher recruitment in the region.

In 2023-24 the DfE reported achieving 96% of the Primary target and only 50% of the Secondary Subjects targets for ITT. The next ITT Census update will be in December.

The Teaching School Hub ITT strategy responds to recommendation 10 of the ITT market review, by building school capacity for ITT via increasing the number of school placements, developing our regional mentor network, providing support to schools in disadvantaged communities, and modelling high-quality intensive and practice placements. We regularly collect and analyse data from our schools and ITT Providers to respond to the barriers within our context and report our activity back to the DfE.

As a centre of excellence in the region, it is our impartial role as a Teaching School Hub to signpost prospective trainees and schools to all of the fantastic provision on offer in our region. All our ITT Providers have recently been reaccredited by the DfE and refreshed their curriculums in-line with the Core Content Framework to ensure trainees are receiving the very best available evidence-informed practice. We are also delighted to be working with the Greater Essex Careers Hub to promote teaching as a profession for our pupils in schools and colleges.

The ITT Providers and Teaching School Hubs in our region have a long-standing history of collaboration and have worked together on a joint mentor training programme, and our annual mentor conferences, transition events for trainees entering ECT Induction, and Get Into Teaching events. Our next local Get Into Teaching event in Essex will be held on Tuesday 3rd December. Please sign up for more information.

Getting into teaching and how to apply

A good place to start for general information on becoming a teacher is the DfE Get into Teaching website. This offers prospective candidates the opportunity to access general information, from how to set up a school experience visits, to seeing what primary/secondary school life is like, to checking if you have the correct qualifications to apply for a teacher training course, to how to apply for a place on a teacher training course. There is also a step-by-step guide to the process, from thinking about training to teach through to application.

If you prefer to speak directly to local teacher training providers for more information, you might be interested in the Department for Education’s virtual Train to Teach events. There are a range of events hosted from around the country that will showcase local providers in your area and you will be able to book a slot to speak to the providers that you are interested in.

The DfE also offers a useful tailored advice service which provides you with personalised advice from a team of telephone agents who can talk you through training options, the application process and your next steps.

You can register for this here.

For teachers trained outside the UK and looking to teach in England please visit this DfE website for overseas teachers.

Visit and volunteer in schools

To help you decide if teaching is right for you, and to support your application, you should do some observation, work or volunteering in schools. If you are not sure which age or subject would suit you, contact schools in your area and ask to observe in a classroom. You should also speak to the teaching staff about the challenges and rewards of teaching and ensure you understand both the nature and demands of the job. This will not only help you make your decision but will ensure you are stronger in the interview process.