Why should my school sign up to the DfE School Experience service?
At a time when education is experiencing a recruitment crisis, encouraging new entrants to the profession is vital. The DfE runs a Get School Experience platform which seeks to facilitate visits to schools by prospective applicants to ITT courses. As many providers do require evidence of engagement with education, including school visits and lesson observations, this is an important service to offer.
Using the DfE Get School Experience service - Saffron Walden County High School
Rachel Mills, Director of Initial Teacher Training at Saffron Walden County High School, explains why she recommends the DfE Get School Experience service
At Saffron Walden County High School we have found that being registered with this service allows us to have better oversight of the volume of visits and be able to schedule them more effectively at times that work best for our staff. Rather than receiving many ad hoc requests from multiple channels, directing all prospective visitors through the DfE Get School Experience platform has improved my workload significantly and reduced the admin load in a number of ways.
Firstly, you are able to input all core information about visits which generates a standard email to applicants, saving you from typing the same information multiple times. All requests and bookings are available to view on the website, including applicant details, so no trawling back through emails to try and find information when you have forgotten something or want to check on arrangements. It has also been useful in being able to easily show my line manager the number of visitors in each year.
There are some top tips I would suggest when setting up your school profile:
- If you are offering ‘windows’ rather than specific dates for visits, make sure that you give a clear start and end date and base this around your school calendar. We have no visits for the first month of the autumn term, nor in the last three weeks, to give staff time to get to know new classes and then be protected from lots of visits in the final weeks of a long term when they are exhausted. In the spring term, the observation window avoids our year 11 mock period. We don’t offer visits at all after Easter as summer term is too busy with public exams and then trips and activities in the final weeks.
- You should also make it very clear on your profile what you do/do not offer - we only offer a day of observations and discussion around support for applications - we don't offer block placements nor teaching opportunities.
- We found that some applicants were cancelling their visits at the very last minute, sometimes on the day itself. We now ask for 48 working hours' notice of cancellation where possible. There is the option to charge for visits to cover admin costs - this is not a route we have taken but some schools may view this differently.
All in all, we have found being registered with this service to be a positive experience and one that makes managing school visit requests much easier. We have also welcomed back several visitors to our school as trainees which has been encouraging for us as a school!
Register your school for the DfE Get School Experience service
As a school using the DfE Get School Experience service, you can:
- Advertise experience at your school
- Allow candidates to request experience dates
- Accept or reject candidates' requests for experience
If your school would like to offer school experience through the DfE Get School Experience service, find out more and sign up at: