Welcome to the pre-arrival information for the School Based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) course at our University. Many congratulations on being offered and accepting a place on your School Based QTS course with Canterbury Christ Church . We hope that you enjoy your education and training in what we expect to be a challenging, stimulating and rewarding year for you.
Claire March
Course Director
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.
On behalf of all my colleagues in Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education, we wish you a very warm welcome to your School Direct course and look forward to meeting you in September.
Please see the Routes into Teaching webpage for an overview of the course.
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).
Look at the school’s website:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
We look forward to meeting you early September
You can pre-order or purchase any of the books mentioned below through our University Bookshop.
It is useful to note that the University Bookshop offers 10% discount on most titles in print and have some price-beating book bundles. They also price match Amazon on core texts recommended in the module handbooks you will receive when you start in September.
International students: don't miss out! Make sure you register for our international student success programme which provides practical advice on preparing to live and study in the UK.
FAHE.CourseAdmin@canterbury.ac.uk