Teacher Support
SASP Enhancement Programme
Background
In the summer of 2007 the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) launched an innovative pilot CPD programme for science teachers. The Science Additional Specialism Programme (SASP) is designed to enable teachers without a first degree or secondary initial teacher training specialism in either physics or chemistry to teach the subject more effectively. SASP focuses on developing participants' subject and pedagogical knowledge enabling them to teach learners aged 11-19 with more confidence, expertise and enthusiasm. In July 2009 the courses will be rolled out nationally.
Aims of the SASP Enhancement Programme
The Institute of Physics (IOP) and Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) with Gatsby funding provide a programme of subject centered support to all teachers on the SASP pilot courses. The support programmme starts during the course, is available for up to two years afterwards and aims to:
- provide guidance to participants in putting learning into practice in their own school environment over a significant period of time
- ensure that participants are inculcated into the various physics/chemistry support networks
- enable participants to demonstrate and develop sustained good practice in their second specialism
Support Structure
The SASP Enhancement Programme is totally free to all SASP teachers and consists of the following components:
- Mentoring support from an experienced local subject specialists. This takes the form of face to face meetings as well as telephone and email support
- An annual National summer conference
- Visits to annual ASE conferences
- Regional Saturday workshops in the Autumn and Spring terms
- Affiliation to IOP and RSC
- IOP and RSC resources
- A termly newsletter (SASPnews)
Project time scale
Funding is available to support teachers in the two pilot cohorts until July 2011; however the programme will not be available to teachers on the courses in the national rollout.
National course Roll-out
From summer 2009, the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) is launching the SASP courses nationally in ten centres. The course is free for participants and the TDA will fund supply cover for participating schools. In addition to gaining new skills, successful participants meeting eligibility criteria will receive a £5,000 incentive on completion of their course.
For more information on SASP courses and the ten national providers, visit the TDA website.
SASPnews
SASPnews is a termly newsletter distributed to all SASP participants and tutors. It is designed to offer support and advice, highlight current teaching issues and help foster a sense of community.
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| SASPnews no. 1 (PDF 1.4MB) | SASPnews no. 2 (PDF 625 KB) | SASPnews no. 3 ( PDF, 504KB) |
The SASP team
For further information about the SASP Enhancement Project please contact:
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| Dean Park SASP Enhancement Manager Institute of Physics 76 Portland Place London W1B 1NT Tel: 0207 4704899 email: dean.park@iop.org | Lara Ogunbawo |
Regional Advisors
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Our other Regional Advisor is Steve Emberson.
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