IOE Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Partnership

IOE is home to the greatest concentration of expertise and specialism within education anywhere in the world.

Teacher education at IOE involves a network of national and international collaborative partnerships spanning pre-teacher training programmes, Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ teacher training in all four phases of education (early years, primary, secondary and further education), CPD and professional development, school improvement, research, consultancy and innovation and masters and doctoral study.

At UCL Institute of Education, our Initial Teacher Education (ITE) is values‑led, evidence‑informed and grounded in strong, collaborative partnerships. The success of IOE’s ITE programmes is dependent on these partnerships with schools, colleges and early years settings. IOE’s ITE partners make a vibrant and distinctive contribution to IOE’s role as a world-leading university for education. Through partnership, all partners are enriched.

IOE works with over 600 London settings (early years settings, schools and colleges) to develop new teachers who are reflective, knowledgeable, socially engaged and professionally confident. These partners provide placements for our student teachers in our early years, primary, secondary and further education PGCE programmes. Some schools also partner with IOE on UCL’s Secondary Mathematics Teacher Degree Apprenticeship programme. We also have primary and secondary schools that partner with us through IOE’s Lead Partner Direct route into teaching. 

Across our ITE programmes, partners take shared responsibility to help design and provide teaching placements that:

• Develop student teachers’ subject- and phase-specific expertise.
• Challenge and support student teachers to develop a deep understanding of evidence and practice.
• Support student teachers to integrate critical and scholarly thinking with their teaching so they are equipped to make values-led and evidence-informed decisions.
• Draw on the expertise of both university tutors and mentors in practice settings.
• Recognise, and capitalise on, the wealth of knowledge and diverse experiences of student teachers and mentors.
• Have student teacher fulfilment and wellbeing at their core.  

Student teachers benefit from the distinct learning environments of both IOE and placement settings. Coherence between these spaces is created through high‑quality partnership working and a shared commitment to an educative approach to mentoring.

Together with our partners, we are committed to developing intellectually curious, committed and critically reflective professional teachers who challenge inequities and transform lives through education.