BA (Hons) Primary Teaching Studies with QTS

Blended learning aims to make this course more flexible for trainees, and for you as their employing school. Their sessions will be conducted through a variety of different ways including face to face, online Live and online Pre records sessions.

Trainees will need to be on campus for one day per half term.

No, in our new blended learning delivery approach, we aim to ensure that online live sessions happen in the evenings, and much of the taught content will be delivered in a way that enables them to manage their own time around their TA work.

However, PTS trainees would benefit greatly from ring-fencing time for study during the school week. This is something that you and your TA can negotiate.

Yes – in part. During the majority of the year, TA/trainees will study around their TA commitments and are required to continue their TA role (either paid or voluntary) in their ‘home’ school for a minimum of 2 days per week. However, during placement times, the trainee will not be able to carry out their role as a TA as they will need to be a trainee teacher for these weeks. Placement periods are all day, Mon-Fri even if the trainee only works part time as a TA, and even if the placement is in their ‘home’ school.

We are not able to confirm exact timings for the placements yet as timetables will not be confirmed until the summer. However, a provisional timetable of dates is shown below and includes:

An Introductory placement which may take place in the TA’s ‘home’ school occurs early on in the course.

A longer Developing placement will usually occur in the Spring/Summer term in a different school.

Another long Extending placement will occur in the Autumn term of the following academic year – this may be able to occur in the student’s ‘home’ school.

These placements have been organised to ensure BGU complies with the current ITT criteria (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-criteria/initial-teacher-training-itt-criteria-and-supporting-advice ) and schools/TAs should NOT attempt to source their own placements for the Developing placement in an alternative school, or for Introductory or Extending placements if they can’t happen in the TA/trainee’s home school. All placements will be organised in liaison with the BGU Placement Services Office (PSO) to ensure they are fully compliant.

The PSO will contact your TA a minimum of 2 weeks before the placement is due to commence.

The PSO will do their best to allocate a school as near to the TA’s home address as possible. The placement will be allocated in line with the BGU Transport policy (available https://www.bgu.ac.uk/about-bgu/policies-and-procedures) This policy should be read carefully by students before the course so they are aware of the processes that take place in order to secure placements.

School contractual arrangements should be discussed with the TA’s line manager. However, be aware that TAs will not be able to carry out their roles as a TA during their placement weeks. We understand that schools will need to arrange for cover during your TA’s absences during placement times, and explain to potential applicants that this is something they should discuss with their school preferably before applying for the course.

We encourage schools to support their TA/trainee by allocating a member of staff to informally provide support throughout the year, through encouraging TA/trainees to challenge themselves and engage in as many opportunities to develop their practice as possible, and ensuring the TA/trainee has someone they can go to for advice.

TAs/Trainees will be required to carry out self-directed tasks relating to their academic modules during non-placement times. These will be flexible, and not require significant input from your staff; for example the TA/trainee may be asked to reflect on how your school’s behaviour management policy was used during an incident in school, or look at the maths resources used in EYFS. TAs/Trainees will be expected to anonymise all names when discussing their work-based learning with others, and also avoid making negative judgements.

On assessed placements a more formal school-based mentor (SBM) will be allocated, supported by university based mentors (UBM).

No. Occasionally, we have been able to change placement dates by a few days in exceptional circumstances, but generally, the planned placement times published by BGU must be adhered to so that we can ensure placements are planned carefully, organised in a timely manner, properly moderated and quality assured. This also ensures that trainees do not fall behind with academic modules and assessments.

While we will be as flexible as possible to meet the varying needs of this group of trainees who will be balancing their roles as TAs alongside studying for the final part of their BA (Hons) degree, and taking into account the many pressures facing each school, there are some aspects of the programme we are unable to change due to ITT Criteria Compliance https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-criteria/initial-teacher-training-itt-criteria-and-supporting-advice.

In this document you can see that trainees must teach in at least two different schools (we deem the Developing and Extending placements to fulfil this requirement so the PSO arrange an alternative setting for the Developing placement to facilitate this and provide an earlier contrast in the trainee’s programme. Our trainees will train as either 3-7 or 5-11 trainees.

For this programme we generally do not place students in SEN settings unless their home school is an SEN setting. A placement in an SEN setting will be compliant based on the chronological, rather than the cognitive age of the children.

For the Introductory placement, normally, we would place a PTS trainee in either the same class as they are employed in, or an alternative key stage. Then for Developing, we find out what class they are likely to be in for their Extending then go the opposite for Developing.

So, there are two options for 3-7 trainees, and 6 options for 5-11 trainees for their Developing and Extending placements:

Our Placement Services Office are responsible for organising the placement of all trainees. Our PSO will contact you early in the programme to discuss possible arrangements and see if you are willing to host a student in your school while your TA/Trainee is elsewhere. The PSO cannot guarantee a student can be found to come to your school while your TA/Trainee is elsewhere. If you have links with a school nearby that might be able to offer a placement for your student, please discuss this with the PSO so that they can negotiate the arrangements. Please do not make arrangements for this to happen before discussing it with the PSO. Trainees should not phone schools themselves in an attempt to arrange placements.

Changes often occur for our trainees and their ‘home’ schools during the course. We have often had students fulfil their ‘home’ school requirements (2 days per week) in either more than one school at once, or after changing ‘home’ schools during the course. The TA/Trainee will be responsible for sourcing and alternative ‘home’ school should their role at their original school change for any reason during the course.

Who should I contact for more information?

Please contact the interim programme leader Christopher.ives@bishopg.ac.uk in the first instance for any further queries.