🌟 Trainee Teacher Opportunity – The Vale Primary School, part of GLF Schools Trust.
The Vale Primary School is looking for a trainee to train in the 5-11 age range on the fee-funded route. Could this be you?
Are you a passionate graduate based in or near Epsom, Surrey and ready to begin your teaching career at The Vale Primary School?
🌱About The Vale Primary School
At The Vale, they are committed to ensuring every child strives for excellence. They promote a passion for life-long learning through an enriched curriculum that is active, purposeful and challenging in a nurturing environment. There are also many extracurricular opportunities in sport, drama productions, outdoor learning and music.
A central pillar of their curriculum is the effective implementation of the Thrive approach, which supports children to have the mental health and well-being to be successful learners and well-rounded citizens for the 21st century.
The Vale are incredibly proud of their children and their behaviours for learning that demonstrate the Vale Learner qualities:
- Being Caring
- Being Safe
- Being Respectful
- Being Ready
- Being Resilient
- Being Reflective
- and Embracing Challenge
Their motto 'Inspiring All' is reflected in the commitment from staff, school standard board members, parents and children all working to create a school where together they can achieve and flourish.
🌱About GLF Schools
The Vale Primary School is part of GLF Schools, a Multi-Academy Trust comprising 43 schools, with a strong presence in the South East region, including both primary and secondary schools. Through our partnership with Inspiring Future Teachers (IFT), we offer a variety of locally delivered teacher training routes — from employment-based options to fee-funded pathways.
We are committed to training, developing, and employing our trainee teachers as Early Career Teachers (ECTs) across all our GLF schools. We have a specific teacher training base in Banstead in Surrey, in Didcot, Oxfordshire, and in Highdown School and Sixth Form Centre in Reading, offering candidates a choice of where to do their Friday core training.
🎓 Qualifications Required
To be eligible to apply, you’ll need:
- A UK bachelor's degree (2:2 or above, although some 3rd class degrees may be considered)
- GCSE English and Maths at grade 4 (C) or above (plus Science for primary)
- Right to work and study in the UK, with 3+ years of residency in the UK/EEA
💷 Funding & Training Route Options
We offer both salaried and fee-funded routes in Surrey schools:
🔹 Salaried Route (Employment-Based)
- You are employed full-time (32.5 hrs/week) on the Unqualified Teacher Pay Scale
- The school pays tuition fees for QTS
- Option to add PGCE for £500 (trainee-funded)
🔹 Fee-Funded Route
Unpaid training placement, but eligible for:
- Tuition Fee Loan (up to full cost)
- Maintenance Loan (up to ~£13,000)
- Tax-free DfE bursaries (for shortage secondary subjects)
Training fee costs:
- £9,535 (QTS + PGCE)
- £9,035 (QTS only)
🔹 Part-Time Route (over two years) This is a pilot route for 26-27 and available for some subjects/routes
- Year 1: £7,145 | Year 2: £4,762
- PGCE is not available on this route
🔹 Postgraduate Teacher Apprenticeship
- Employed by the school
- £9,000 fee funded by the employer's levy- assuming eligibility
- Leads to QTS (PGCE not included)
🌱 Why Train with GLF Teacher Training?
- Local training: Receive weekly training in your area by local expert practitioners — no long commutes!
- Collaborative Trust: Work alongside a network of professionals across the region within GLF schools
- Personalised support: Your wellbeing and workload are prioritised
- Career progression: Many trainees secure ECT positions in our GLF Schools. 96% of last year's trainees secured an ECT position with our support.
📍Placement School- The Vale Primary School, Epsom
All trainees have two placement schools, and GLF Teacher Training ensures your second placement school is carefully matched to ensure reasonable travel and the right fit for your training needs.
Safeguarding Statement:
GLF Schools is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Employment is subject to a satisfactory enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
As a Trust, we are happy to discuss flexible working opportunities. GLF Schools recognises and celebrates the diversity of its schools and their communities. There is a shared commitment across the Trust to develop further a culture of respect, where discrimination is not tolerated, and individuals are treated equitably and fairly and feel a sense of belonging. We strive for an inclusive environment where staff, children and students are comfortable to express their own identity, should they wish, in which diversity and inclusion is of mutual benefit for everyone in our schools. We particularly welcome applicants from under-represented groups including those based on ethnicity, gender, transgender, age, disability, sexual orientation or religion.
We reserve the right to withdraw this vacancy at any time ahead of the closing date if there is a good level of response. Therefore, we recommend you submit your application as early as possible.
We also reserve the right to interview shortlisted candidates ahead of the closing date.
Please be advised that references may be requested on receipt of your application. Please state if you wish this to be delayed until shortlisting/interviews have taken place.