Report on Year 2 activity
March 2009
Vron Leslie
Fergus McKay
Mary Whitehouse
Priority Area: ITT
1. With reference to the Year 2 Business Plan, please provide a summary of
work/activities undertaken on behalf of WMCETT.
1.ITT Road shows
From January through to March we ran three road show events throughout the region.
The road shows were run in conjunction with the other priority areas. In excess of 100
people attended the road show events.
2. TEI Projects
Bidding criteria was established, ten colleges had bids accepted and are working on
projects. Interim reports on team progress and individual learning have been received
and evaluated and a report written. Ongoing monitoring and support for projects is
continuing and an event to showcase the projects is being held in July to which all
colleges in the Partnership, together with teacher educators from the ACL and WBL
sectors, will be invited. Final reports will support the showcase event and be
published on the website.
WMCOP newsletter
A Community of Practitioners consisting of teacher educators from Partner
organisations was set up and an initial discussion document was published on the
website. Following the success of this, a monthly Bulletin was developed to provide a
centre for information and news for teacher educators across the region. This has
been favourably received and 2 Bulletins have been issued to date.
4. Cross CETT conference
In September 2008 we held the third cross CETT conference at the University of
Warwick
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2. Identify any activities listed above which have been particularly
successful and explain why you think this occurred.
1.ITT road shows
The road shows were designed to provide information, advice and guidance around
the key elements of the Workforce reform agenda. The road shows were run in
conjunction with IFL, LLUK and JISC
The road shows proved to be very popular with practitioners form the wider Lifelong
Learning communities. Feedback was excellent and it was clear form the Q and A
sessions that knowledge and understanding of the workforce reform agenda was
variable
TEI Projects
Ten colleges have developed projects which involve all members of the ITT team.
After a hesitant start all the teams have moved from an initial task oriented approach
to more of an action research approach. The following have made this a unique and
successful project:
Empowered ITT teams to choose ‘riskier’ areas for personal development.
Increased the variety of learning strategies used in their teaching
Given time for them to reflect on the impact of the learning to themselves,
their learners, the team and the organisation.
The sharing of ideas and learning has strengthened teams and improved
relationships.
Ongoing support from the CETT has kept projects on track.
WMCOP newsletter
The Bulletin has a circulation list of 150-200 readers and evaluation feedback
suggests that it is welcomed for:
Providing a reference source for the latest news and initiatives
Summarising key documents and links to responses to those documents from
other professional bodies.
Providing a one-stop centre for information
We are building on this base to increase the circulation to a wider number of teacher
educators.
Cross CETT conference
The conference attracted speakers from HUDCETT, LONCETT, WMCETT and the
Institute for Learning. The key note speech was given by Professor Denis Gleeson and
in excess of 70 people attended the conference. Feedback was generally very positive
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3. Identify any activities listed above which have been particularly difficult
to undertake, or targets which have proven difficult to reach, and discuss
why.
Peer support programme
Whilst we received a lot of verbal support from partner colleges it has proved very
difficult find a college that is willing to commit to the programme. This has been due
in part to
[1] costs (actual replacement costs are higher than the CETT compensation fee)
[2] staff cover – colleges have very few staff who can cover for exiting TE staff.
Working with EMCETT
Whilst we have excellent working relations with EMCETT we have struggled to find
the right personnel to develop the third sector resource for the enrichment portal (I
only mention this because it is in our part of the business plan)
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