ABSTRACT
The Graduate Teacher Programme was an employment-based teacher training programme where a school employed a trainee as an unqualified teacher during their training year. Each headteacher was asked to reflect on the teacher they believed was fit to practise. They were questioned about their perceptions of the routes into primary teaching, the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the training and their perceptions of government moves to place greater responsibility for teacher training with schools. The headteachers were asked to identify characteristics demonstrated by teachers fit to practise and they responded with descriptions of attributes and actions which covered the job of the teacher as well as predispositions required to become a teacher. Identifying critical thinking as crucial suggested the headteachers perceived that to be such a teacher required a predisposition of intellectual capacity. A commitment to the job of being a teacher was the second most popular identifier of teachers fit to practise.
