Institute of Education
Secondary PGCE (Core)
Initial Teacher Education
Transition Booklet (School 2)
2015
KEY INFORMATION – your professional mentor will share school expectations and introduce key
people. This page provides you with a space to record this information.
Your name:
Placement School
Other University of Worcester trainees on placement with you
School Information and Key Colleagues
Name of school
Headteacher
Number on roll
Type of school
Number of teaching staff
Professional Mentor (PM)
Subject Mentor (SM)
Form Tutor
SENCo
Other key staff
Age range
Number of Learning Support Staff
Subject(s) taught by PM
Subject(s) taught by the SM
Tutor group
Person Responsible for Safeguarding – how do you report a safeguarding issue?
School Policies
List here the key school policies and where they can be found.
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Health and safety training information
Fire evacuation and workstation assessment if applicable. How to report accidents.
Those teaching practical subjects like PE, D&T and science will need to record fuller information
elsewhere.
How to report sickness or absence
Department Information
Head of Department
Subject(s) taught
Teaching Staff – Analysis in your subject area
Name
Subjects and age range taught
Responsibilities
Examination specification taught in your specialist area
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The Aims of the Transition Period for Placement 2
As with placement 1 it is our hope that you will be treated as a full member of staff as far as
is possible, but you must remember that you are a guest in the school at this point. You
arrive as a qualified graduate with expertise to offer, but you should remember that your
mentors are the experts in teaching. Courtesy and tact are really important!
The purpose of the experience is to provide a transition between your first school
experience and this next phase. It should gradually introduce you to your new school and
move you towards independence and your ability to address all of the Teachers’ Standards.
This placement provides you with the opportunity to build upon your experiences from
school 1, to address your targets and take on new challenges – not least an increased
timetable.
Preliminary Visit 9th January 2015
At the beginning of term schools will receive your school 1 report, along with your ’Personal
Information for School 2’ document completed in December. Mentors will use this
information to draft a timetable and to plan their approach to mentoring.
When planning a timetable for this block placement please ask mentors to use the
guidance in section 2 – pages 29-31 and section 4 – page 43 of the Partnership Guidance.
Please note that you should have a gradual introduction to the 50% timetable. You should
not begin teaching the full twelve periods (solo) until after half term (week beginning 23 rd
February) although some negotiation may be necessary to suit your needs and issues such
as class rotations or assessment periods. Scientists should expect the majority of their
timetable to be within their specialism until at least Easter.
After the preliminary visit in January you need to come away with a clear idea of at least
some of the classes and details of what you will be expected to teach so that you can begin
to plan lessons and schemes of work in university and have access to support from tutors.
Second School Placement January 22nd – June 19th 2015
This experience gives you an opportunity for sustained planning, delivery and evaluation of
teaching and learning in your subject area and for the assessment of pupils. It will build on
earlier work, demanding more sophisticated planning, action and appraisal. In particular you
will concentrate on addressing the needs of pupils of varying abilities and aptitudes and to
plan schemes of work that incorporate inclusion, differentiation and progression.
During the placement you will spend specified days in university to review and reflect on
your experiences and to enable you to keep in touch with tutors and peers.
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During this placement you must experience the pastoral aspects of the teacher’s role – so
your timetable should include attachment to a form tutor group and, where appropriate,
some involvement in PSHE / Citizenship work.
For some subjects it is important that you can offer a second subject. School experience is
the only opportunity for you to develop your ability in a second subject and schools are
therefore asked to look favourably on requests for such experience. You are likely to work
collaboratively rather than independently with second subject colleagues. Overall your
timetable should be approximately 50% of a normal teaching timetable.
Please note that during this period you will be in university on the following days;
 Friday 13th February 2015
 Friday 13th March 2015
 Wednesday 25th March – 27th March 2015
 Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th May 2015
It is a good idea when planning the timetable to take into account that you will not be in
school on these 7 days in February, March and May. If lessons are scheduled for these
days of planned absence please work in partnership with your mentor to plan lessons
ensuring that all parties know what is to be covered. This is a good training opportunity as
the mentor can use the plan and then feedback to you on how the lesson went.
Initial weeks (22nd January – half term)
However well you have performed in placement one you will have to establish your
authority with new pupils and make new relationships with staff. You therefore need a
period of transition. For this purpose you have some transition tasks (detailed in this
booklet) to complete in the early stages of the placement. The focus of the mentoring at
this stage will be on checking that your basic skills of planning and classroom management
are being successfully demonstrated. New schools present new challenges and you will need
some time to adjust. It may be that some classes will be taken on at a slightly later date
than others.
Main Teaching Experience After half term you should be aiming to teach the full 50%
timetable having had a transition period, however, this should be negotiated on an
individual basis. It is in this phase that you demonstrate that you can meet the Teachers’
Standards.
It is particularly valuable for you to continue to observe and work collaboratively with
mentors at this stage, but with a clearly defined set of objectives. It is useful to use the eight
questions that ask you to observe from the viewpoint of the learner. Your greater
experience will hopefully enable you to make more sense of what you see and do, and to
appreciate the involvement in joint planning and teaching with an established professional.
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You may want to focus the fine tuning of particular skills or try an innovative approach to a
topic and may ask mentors to provide feedback on your performance using evidence of
pupils’ learning. Possible topics to explore in this way may be: - questioning skills, explaining
skills, group work, differentiation, active learning techniques, independent learning, elearning, formative assessment especially target setting, vocational teaching and field
work/learning outside the classroom.
There is a periodic review point during week commencing 16 th March 2015. Periodic
reviews should be emailed to tutors during this week. A second school report is due on
20th March 2015
At Easter you will send a research project proposal to your subject tutor (see Assessment
Guidance for details). Once approved by your subject tutor you can begin to work on your
research project although remember that you must not collect any data until you have had
ethical approval. You should also be researching teaching and learning and looking for
quality work to use as evidence in your final portfolio commentary (see Assessment
Guidance for further details).
You will maintain a 50% timetable throughout placement two. For some subjects this may
be problematic so schools should be looking to provide enrichment activities for you, for
example; participating in a school trip; one to one support with SEND pupils or gifted and
talented pupils; transition activities planned with feeder schools; organising activities for
an activity day/week.
There is a periodic review point during week commencing 18th May 2015. Periodic reviews
should be emailed to tutors during this week. The final school report is due on 12 th June
2015
Pre-and-post Phase Experience
During the course it is useful to engage with the age ranges immediately before and after
the ones that you are training to teach. This means that all trainees should have experience
of primary provision (in particular at Key Stage 2)*, and Key Stage 5 (sixth form).
This experience could be achieved in a number of ways:
 During university subject and professional studies sessions
 Wider reading
 Exploring the data secondary schools have, for example, on incoming pupils or
predictive data for sixth form.
 Discussions in the secondary school with teachers and other professionals, especially
those dealing with transition arrangements
 Observing practice in these phases.
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*Please note; Economics/Business Studies and Psychology trainees are not expected to visit
a primary school but should be working with Key Stage 3 pupils.
In terms of the primary phase, trainees are required to undertake a school visit during the
course to fulfil the following aims and specific requirements.
Aims:
 Understand the similarities and differences in pedagogy and pastoral aspects of
teaching in secondary and primary schools
 Understand the teaching of early reading and systematic synthetic phonics
 Understand appropriate teaching strategies used to teach early mathematics
 Appreciate liaison arrangements and the transition needs of pupils (from primary to
secondary) - this would be best achieved in a feeder school
Requirements:
 A visit of between 1 and 3 days at a primary school during the main placement. This
could be at different schools; and for trainees in ‘high’ schools, the visit may be to a
middle school (in particular, years 5&6 at Key Stage 2)
 This visit should be arranged by the professional mentor at the main placement
school
 Observe at least two different classes, and, if possible, your own subject being
taught. It is acceptable and encouraged, after observation, that you do a little
teaching if the ‘host’ teacher is agreeable?
 The form entitled “Primary Experience” (see Blackboard (uni docs)) should be
completed by you. This will form part of your portfolio. This should also be shared
with the primary school, as a matter of courtesy.
Post-16 Experience
Those trainees who are following an 11-18 or 14-19 route will be expected to teach post-16
groups. This should be arranged as part of your timetable. There are a few occasions where
a trainee on an 11-18 route has been placed in two 11-16 schools. In these instances the
university will organise a short third placement and mentors should complete the ‘Sixth
Form Experience Form’ (see Blackboard (uni docs)). This is supplementary to the final school
report if you do your sixth form placement away from your main school placement. You
must track your experience of teaching post 16 classes on the ‘School Attendance Record’
(apart from economics/business studies and psychology trainees) If you are taking the 1118 route this experience should be for a minimum of 20 hours. Please talk to your tutor if
this is an issue.
A reminder about observing other lessons
Observing entails listening, watching, asking questions and interacting with people. These
are important skills in themselves and it will be good for you to continue to develop these
skills in school 2. Making observations in a place like a school is not always easy; there is so
much happening that it is sometimes difficult to pick out salient points unless you have a
clear focus.
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Having a clear focus for your observations is important and the eight questions below are
designed to help with that. Your transition experience is not governed by these questions
alone. Sometimes you will be observing teachers and at other times you will be observing
pupils – during the course you will come to understand that it is the observation of the
pupils that provides the key information about the success of a lesson.
When observing lessons comment on the questions below and use the text in the Meeting
the Teachers’ Standards booklet (spring/summer) to analyse the learning.








How well does the structure of the lesson, as evident in both planning and teaching,
promote learning?
Are pupils sufficiently challenged and engaged given their prior skills, knowledge and
understanding?
Do pupils understand what they are being asked to do in every stage of the lesson?
Do pupils have opportunities and means to indicate their understanding (or lack) of the
concepts being introduced?
Do pupils improve their understanding as a result of detailed and accurate feedback on
their learning?
Are pupils who are having difficulty supported to help them understand?
How well is the pupils’ subject knowledge developed in terms of knowledge, skills and
understanding?
Is the management of the pupils’ behaviour effective to ensure that they make progress
in a safe and secure environment?
It is wise to select a specific focus that will help you to improve your practice. As a matter
of courtesy you should explain to your mentors the focus of any observation; teachers are
usually happy to discuss the issues addressed, and their comments will add to your
observation notes. In completing any observations you must remember that written
comments are open documents. Be discreet in your comments and show respect for the
school’s staff, pupils and procedures.
What to do with this booklet
Complete the sections below and add this to your portfolio (folder 1, section A).
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Task 3a – The School Profile – complete this early in January
Introduction
During the PGCE course you will go to at least two contrasting schools. To demonstrate this
we would like you to do a similar analysis exercise to the one completed in school 1 for
induction task 1b. On initial inspection your schools may look similar but a closer analysis
will demonstrate key differences.
The source of the data will be:
1. The School Data Dashboard – http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk
Ofsted explains the dashboard as: the School Data Dashboard provides a snapshot of school
performance at Key Stages 1, 2 and 4. The dashboard can be used by school governors and
by members of the public to check the performance of the school in which they are
interested.
The School Data Dashboard complements the Ofsted school inspection report by providing
an analysis of school performance over a three-year period. Data can be filtered by key
stage or by topic and gives the following information:
 Expected progress
 Attainment
 Attendance
 Narrowing the gap between disadvantaged and other pupils
Users are asked to refer to the guidance document for additional information on the
measures contained in the reports. (Ofsted website http://dashboard.ofsted.gov.uk –
accessed June 2013)
2. The school’s latest Ofsted report – http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/schools
3. Discussions with mentors and other staff.
If you are in an independent school it is not possible to complete all these tasks. Ask your
mentors for other data including the http://www.isi.net/schoolinspections/ report.
Recommended reading
Haydon,G The School Curriculum Unit7.2 (p468-479)
in Capel, S, Leask, M, and Turner T (eds)(2013) Learning to Teach in the Secondary School A
companion to school experience 6th edn, Abingdon, Routledge
Links to the Professional Studies and Whole School Issues Reading Pack 2014--15
See session 2 – Becoming a secondary school teacher and session and session
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Task 3a – The School Profile
This task might provide evidence towards [parts of] Teachers’ Standards:
TS3b,TS2d, TS5b, TS5c, TS7c.
What to do?
Look at data available on the Ofsted dashboard, from the latest school Ofsted report and
from talking with mentors. If your school has recently converted to an academy and does
not have data on the Dashboard or an Ofsted report, use data from the school before it
converted.
School dashboard data
Compare the school with “similar schools” and “all schools” using the following indicators
and then, in discussions with your mentors, answer the key questions below.
Exam results
Your school
Similar schools
All schools (quintile)
(quintile)
Overall
English
Maths
Science
According to the Dashboard how well are pupils doing in exams? (attainment)
Progress
Your school
Similar Schools
(quintile)
All Schools (quintile)
English
Maths
According to the Dashboard are pupils making progress?
Attendance
Attendance rates for the past three years
Comparison with other schools
How good is attendance and how does it compare with the National level?
(%)
(quintile)
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Ofsted
Look at the latest Ofsted report for your school.
Date of last
inspection
Judgement
Overall Effectiveness Previous inspection
Latest inspection
Grade
Achievement of pupils
Quality of teaching
Behaviour and safety of pupils
Leadership and management
Sixth form provision (if applicable)
Identify key strengths of the school and areas for improvement.
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Describe the profile of the school in terms of its social, cultural, linguistic, religious, and
ethnic mix. What is the relationship between this profile and the number of pupils
receiving free school meals? Is there necessarily a relationship?
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In discussion with mentors and other staff, explain how the profile above impacts on the
work of the school. What are the school's particular challenges and opportunities? How
is diversity valued in the school as a whole, in the classroom, and in the pastoral system?
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List five ways in which your school 1 and school 2 placements contrast. For example are
the Ofsted ratings different?
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Complete this before the session on ‘Using Assessment Data’ on February 13th 2015
Task 3b– The Pupil Premium
Introduction
What is the pupil premium?
The government believes that the pupil premium, which is additional to main school
funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children
eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle
disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. The pupil premium was introduced in
April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free
school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’). Schools also receive
funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months,
and children of service personnel.
Up to £50 million of the pupil premium was available to fund a Summer School Programme
for disadvantaged pupils to support their transition to secondary schools in September
2013.
How schools deploy their pupil premium funding is up to them and it is being used in a
variety of ways in different schools. The government believes that head teachers and school
leaders should decide how to use the pupil premium, and they are held accountable for the
decisions they make through:

the performance tables which show the performance of disadvantaged pupils
compared with their peers

the Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of
pupil groups, and in particular those who attract the pupil premium

the reports for parents that schools have to publish online
How schools present the information in their online statement is a matter for each school.
There is certain information that must be in the report: the school’s pupil premium
allocation in respect of the current academic year; details of how it is intended that the
allocation will be spent; details of how the previous academic year’s allocation was spent,
and the impact of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the
school, in respect of whom grant funding was allocated.
If you are working in an independent school look at the pupil premium data from school 1.
Links to the Professional Studies and Whole School Issues Reading Pack 2014--15
See sections on raising aspirations and removing barriers to learning and using assessment
data.
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Task 3b – Pupil Premium
This task might provide evidence towards [parts of] Teachers’ Standards:
Ts5b, Ts5b, TS1b
What to do?
Using the school website - how does your placement school use the pupil premium grant?
Find out how much money your school is allocated using the toolkit.
http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/
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In discussion with the data manager or member of staff responsible for data find out the
following:
What percentage of each year group are pupil premium students?
Using last year’s GCSE results- compare the 5A*-C% including English and Maths for the
pupil premium students with the 5A*-C% including English and Maths for non-pupil
premium students. The difference between these figures is known as ‘the gap’. Comment on
how your school is ‘closing the gap’.
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Task 3c – Promoting Fundamental British Values as part of SMSC in schools
Introduction
All maintained schools must meet the requirements set out in section 78 of the Education
Act 2002 and promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of their
pupils. Through ensuring pupils’ SMSC development, schools can also demonstrate they are
actively promoting fundamental British values.
Meeting requirements for collective worship, establishing a strong school ethos supported
by effective relationships throughout the school, and providing relevant activities beyond
the classroom are all ways of ensuring pupils’ SMSC development.
Pupils must be encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect
and tolerance.
It is expected that pupils should understand that while different people may hold different
views about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, all people living in England are subject to its law.
The school’s ethos and teaching, which schools should make parents aware of, should
support the rule of English civil and criminal law and schools should not teach anything that
undermines it. If schools teach about religious law, particular care should be taken to
explore the relationship between state and religious law. Pupils should be made aware of
the difference between the law of the land and religious law.
Fundamental British values
Schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law,
individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and
beliefs. This can help schools to demonstrate how they are meeting the requirements of
section 78 of the Education Act 2002, in their provision of SMSC.
Actively promoting the values means challenging opinions or behaviours in school that are
contrary to fundamental British values. Attempts to promote systems that undermine
fundamental British values would be completely at odds with schools’ duty to provide
SMSC. The Teachers’ Standards expect teachers to uphold public trust in the profession and
maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour, within and outside school. This includes
not undermining fundamental British values.
Through their provision of SMSC, schools should:
• enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence;
• enable students to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal
law of England;
• encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and
to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and
working in the locality of the school and to society more widely;
• enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public
institutions and services in England;
• further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling
students to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures;
• encourage respect for other people; and
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•
encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic
processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in
England.
The list below describes the understanding and knowledge expected of pupils as a result of
schools promoting fundamental British values.
• an understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the
democratic process;
• an appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is
essential for their wellbeing and safety;
• an understanding that there is a separation of power between the executive and the
judiciary, and that while some public bodies such as the police and the army can be
held to account through Parliament, others such as the courts maintain
independence;
• an understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is
protected in law;
• an acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or
having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of
prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour; and
• an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination.
It is not necessary for schools or individuals to ‘promote’ teachings, beliefs or opinions that
conflict with their own, but nor is it acceptable for schools to promote discrimination
against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background.
Examples of actions that a school can take
The following is not designed to be exhaustive, but provides a list of different actions that
schools can take, such as:
•
•
•
•
•
include in suitable parts of the curriculum, as appropriate for the age of pupils,
material on the strengths, advantages and disadvantages of democracy, and how
democracy and the law works in Britain, in contrast to other forms of government in
other countries;
ensure that all pupils within the school have a voice that is listened to, and
demonstrate how democracy works by actively promoting democratic processes
such as a school council whose members are voted for by the pupils;
use opportunities such as general or local elections to hold mock elections to
promote fundamental British values and provide pupils with the opportunity to learn
how to argue and defend points of view;
use teaching resources from a wide variety of sources to help pupils understand a
range of faiths, and
consider the role of extra-curricular activity, including any run directly by pupils, in
promoting fundamental British values.
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Accountability
As part of a section 5 inspection, Ofsted inspectors must consider pupils’ spiritual, moral,
social and cultural (SMSC) development when forming a judgement of a school. However
this advice should not be read as guidance for inspection purposes. Ofsted publish their
inspection framework and handbook, which set out how schools are assessed in relation to
pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Schools should refer to Ofsted’s
documents to understand what inspectors look for in assessing this.
Source:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/380595/S
MSC_Guidance_Maintained_Schools.pdf
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Task 3c Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in your school
This task might provide evidence towards [parts of] Teachers’ Standards:
Part 2 of the Standards
What to do?
Read the Ofsted Guidance above and compile a summary list of the actions that a school can
take to promote fundamental British values as part of SMSC.
In discussion with your mentors provide examples of how fundamental British values are
promoted as part of SMSC in your school
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