School Based QTS , PGCE (Primary)

The School Based ITE course is designed to help you become an outstanding teacher. The course reflects an approach to learning which involves you as an active participant with a responsibility for monitoring your own professional development.

A sense of individual responsibility and collective professional accountability are fostered through practical experience in school and work at the University.

We have a long record of initial teacher education. This record is built on each year by the high quality of recruits to our courses and the quality of our newly qualified teachers who are employed in schools across the region and beyond.

Our partnerships with schools and colleges are also longstanding and enable our students to be supported and challenged to become the best student teachers they can be during their teacher training. Our track record shows high-quality outcomes for our students as well as very high employment rates.

In addition to developing your knowledge of Core content Framework and Teachers’ Standards, the course helps you develop skills of critical thinking and reflection. Every year, student evaluations suggest that that the course offers very high-quality teaching and opportunities to become an effective practitioner in the classroom. The evaluations also suggest that it is a potentially life affirming and life changing period.

You are likely to develop in many ways, not just as a teacher but also as a person. You will probably find the year challenging but, approached in the right way, it will also be incredibly enjoyable and a never-to-be-forgotten experience. It will need dedication, enthusiasm and resilience from you to make the most of your teacher training and we, as your tutors, are here to guide you in your progression to being an outstanding teacher.

In addition to gaining QTS at the end of the year, you also have the option of gaining the award of the PGCE by undertaking some additional study within the same time scale. More information about this option will be given to you at the start of the course in September.

Congratulations on your offer and acceptance of a place to start on the School Direct Primary course in September. The course is very intensive and demanding, but is also a very enjoyable, stimulating and creative route to train to be a teacher. The more you can do before starting the course, the easier it will be, as this course is a school based route you will start in the school you are training with in early September, when the term starts.

You may already have received some recommendations for action as part of your offer for your place. The following points will support you in using the time from now until the start of the course to full effect.

In order to be well prepared to begin your School Based Teacher Training course you might wish to undertake some, or all, of the following activities:

Getting to know your school

Look at the most recent Ofsted report (link here).

• What type of school is it?
• Number of pupils on roll?
• How many boys/girls?
• How many children with English as an Additional Language (EAL)?
• What are the main linguistic groups?
• How many children have Free School Meals (FSM)?
• How many children attract Pupil Premium funding?
• How many children have Special Educational Needs (SEN)?
• What do you notice about pupil progress?
• What does Ofsted recommend the school should be doing to improve?
• Look at the OfSTED Data on this link
• How does pupil progress compare with other schools locally and nationally?

Look at the school’s website:

• How is the curriculum delivered?
• What extra-curricular opportunities are available to children?
• What can you discern about the ethos of the school?

Take a walk around the neighbourhood – what do you notice? What are the houses like? What sorts of shops/restaurants are there? Are there any places of worship? Is there any green space? Is there a community centre? What provision is there for pre-school children and parents?

Look at the school from above using Google maps (or alternative) satellite imagery. What do you notice in the immediate vicinity? What might this tell you about children’s lives and community?

During the first few days in school

Read the following policies and during your observations make notes to record how they are implemented within school/the classroom and how they influence the teaching & learning:

• Behaviour.
• Bullying.
• Child Protection/Safeguarding including e-safety.
• Medicine.
• Health and Safety.

Remember your first day is the first day of term, your first day with the University team will be in the first full week of term.

The National Curriculum and Early Foundations Stage

The National Curriculum continues to evolve and schools work within the framework it provides. It is therefore recommended that you familiarise yourself with the details of the National Curriculum:

• https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum

It would also be helpful to primary students to make yourself aware of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum advice, which sets the curriculum for children aged 3 to 5 years old:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2

Given the changing nature of education, you should also keep abreast of developments in education through consulting the relevant pages on the DFE website. The latest announcements in education can be found here.

And through the BBC education web pages found here:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education/

Subject Knowledge Audit

From your review of the current National Curriculum, you may identify areas of subject knowledge in which your own confidence is lower. In September, you will be provided with a Subject Knowledge Tracker and be supported throughout your training.

Remember you will join your school as their term starts and then be welcomed to the University shortly after during the initial weeks in September. We will also be holding a Taster Session for the course on 5th July 1-4pm, details of this will be shared when offered a place on the course.

Prevent Online Training

As a key aspect of safeguarding training, you are required to complete the Home Office Prevent training and submit evidence of the training. The training includes an online training session, followed by a test. To complete the training and to access your certificate you need to do both the training and test. We suggest it is a very good time, and useful for you to have engaged and completed it, just prior to starting your course with us. This training is expected to be undertaken by teachers to support safeguarding of children in schools.

When you have completed the training and test, you need to save an e-copy of the certificate ready to access and share at the start of your course.

You can access this training here. Select ‘Course 1: Awareness’: https://www.elearning.prevent.homeoffice.gov.uk/

FGM Online Training

As a key aspect of safeguarding training, you are required to complete the Home Office Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) training and submit evidence of the training. The training includes an online training session, followed by a test. To complete the training and to access your certificate you need to do both the training and test. We suggest it is a very good time, and useful for you to have engaged and completed it, just prior to starting your course with us. This training is expected to be undertaken by teachers to support safeguarding of children in schools.

When you have completed the training and test, you need to save an e-copy of the certificate ready to access and share at the start of your course.

You can access this training here: https://fgmelearning.vc-enable.co.uk/Register/

Regular checks are made to ensure all student teachers both complete this training and share a copy of their certificate for Faculty records as part of their safeguarding training. This helps us ensure best safeguarding practice.

We are often asked by students whether we recommend that they read anything before joining us. This is not essential, but should you wish to do so, we recommend the following as useful reading material in preparation for joining the course.

General:

• Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework
• National Curriculum in England - Primary Curriculum 
• Deans for Impact - The Science of Learning: 

English:

• Sims-Bishop, R. (1990) ‘Mirrors, Windows and Sliding glass doors’. Choosing and using books in the classroom, 6(3). 
• CLPE - The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. A website to sign up to and engage with the resources available
• The open university - a free course on Reading for Pleasure

Mathematics:

You can access all the suggested pre-course reading for primary mathematics via this link without having to make any purchases:

Primary Mathematics Padlet

These two chapters are key readings for the beginning of your primary mathematics seminars, so they would be useful to read in advance:

• Haylock, D. (2024) ‘Primary Teachers’ Insecurity About Mathematics’, in D. Haylock (ed.) Mathematics Explained for Primary Teachers. 7th edn. London: SAGE, pp.5-16.
• Taylor, H. (2014) ‘How Children Learn Mathematics’, in H. Taylor and A. Harris (eds.) Learning and Teaching Mathematics 0-8. London: SAGE, pp. 3-19.

We’d recommend that you also try some of the activities here:

• https://nrich.maths.org/12639

Finally, please watch these primary mathematics lessons:

• Year 1 on counting in steps of one and ten
• Year 2 show lesson on multiplying by five
•  Year 6 on line graphs

 Science:

• Primary Science Capital video. 
• Primary Science Teaching Trust: Enquiry Skills Guide