Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Lee Jerome, Anglia Ruskin University and Jill Martin, Anglo European School
Goals
After you have read and thought about this unit, we hope that you will:

Have a detailed understanding of some of the main issues in liaising with schools to provide a coherent PGCE training experience

Develop your understanding of how citizenship might differ from other subjects in quality assurance requirements

Identify some ideas for developing your partnership with schools to enhance your citizenship
PGCE
Two Key Challenges
(1) Citizenship partnerships are different from traditional PGCEs
All PGCE secondary courses are required to divide trainee teachers’ time between school and higher education institutions (HEI) in line with the standards for Qualifying to Teach (currently 24 weeks in school on a 36 week course). Therefore partnership is one of the central tenets underpinning any PGCE course organised through a HEI. For anyone new to initial teacher education (ITE) the nature of that partnership will always be a challenge, because the responsibilities and accountability are unevenly distributed throughout the partnership. In citizenship the challenge is compounded because the expertise is also unevenly distributed throughout the partnership. Whereas one can generally assume that a history or science mentor in a secondary school is confident in their subject, this is not always the case for citizenship mentors, who may be all too aware of their weaknesses and development needs, as well as the strengths they bring to the role. Of course this is changing as the subject becomes embedded in schools, but the variation between schools is still likely to be significant.
(2) Timetables
Of continuing significance also are the issues thrown up by the variability in timetabling of citizenship in schools. This means that even in schools with well informed citizenship coordinators, good citizenship programmes and positive mentors willing to work with a citizenship trainee teacher, there may still be actually few opportunities to teach citizenship lessons. Take for example the school where tutors are committed to maintaining responsibility for PSHE and where citizenship is integrated within that programme. Whilst it may be well taught, and have achieved a respectable status with staff and students, if the tutor lesson occurs throughout the school at the same time on the same day of the week, this presents a severe restriction on the experience a trainee will gain. Similarly, another successful school may put citizenship on a carousel with other PSHE topics. Here, there may be relatively few citizenship options being taught during the period of placement, which may make it difficult to work with what appears to be an eminently suitable partner school in terms of quality and enthusiasm.
These two key issues are unlikely to weigh so heavily with most other PGCE tutors and so citizenship HEI tutors are likely to be much more actively involved in making critical decisions about suitable placements and, crucially, balancing out the experiences across the two school

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others placements. In considering the implications of these two challenges, the pack focuses on the following themes:

Selecting schools
In this first section we consider some of the criteria and processes used by experienced HEI tutors to identify appropriate schools.

Mentor training
In this section we consider the role of the HEI tutor in raising the mentoring capacity of schools, and developing a shared understanding and commitment to the philosophy of the
PGCE course.

The role of partner schools
In this section we consider some of the ways in which schools and HEIs are developing the concept of partnership to mean more than simply schools hosting placements.

Quality assurance
In many ways, this is a theme that runs through the other three issues, as well as forming a section in its own right. In the light of the OfSTED inspection framework, all HEI tutors will be aware of the significance of quality assurance on all PGCE programmes, to safeguard the
HEI’s Management and Quality Assurance grade. But for citizenship tutors a rigorous system of quality assurance is important because of the number of variables that contribute to a good school experience for trainee teachers.
Where possible we have illustrated our general discussion of these four areas with examples that have been developed around the country by HEI tutors. We have also identified some questions you may like to consider as you read through each section. These are suggested to help you identify areas where you may need to review or revise procedures.

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Activities
(1) Selecting schools
Citizenship tutors may have to take a more active part than other PGCE tutors in recruiting and selecting schools. In addition to normal placement procedures, the citizenship tutor may want to collect more detailed information
– from trainees during and after school experiences, and from mentors about the school’s provision, staffing and plans. The following list identifies some questions that you may want to build into evaluations and correspondence with schools, so that you can ensure you are selecting, reselecting or deselecting appropriate schools:

How many citizenship lessons are taught each week (or timetable cycle) and when? i.e. are there opportunities to teach citizenship throughout the week or are they concentrated in specific periods? Linked to this, are there significant days or weeks during the year when citizenship events are planned?

What model of curriculum provision has the school adopted? How has it blended crosscurricular, discrete, PSHCE, specialist team, tutor delivery, special events in its programme overall?

Does the school identify cross-curricular opportunities to develop citizenship clearly enough to form the basis of a timetable for trainees? If trainees are given teaching experience in other areas (e.g. history, geography, RE, PSHE etc) how does the mentor monitor their progress across these subjects?

How many citizenship specialist teachers are there in the school?

Is there a citizenship coordinator, how long have they been in post, what other responsibilities do they have?

Is there a citizenship department? Budget? Resource bank? Planning area?

Does the school offer sufficient opportunities for the trainee to engage with the standards related to assessment? For example, is there a key stage 3 assessment policy? Is there a short course GCSE or alternative accreditation programme at key stage 4?

Does the school have a clear commitment to developing the skills of participation and responsible action? As a minimum, is the mentor willing to facilitate the trainee’s involvement in such activities?
 What are the main strengths of the school’s citizenship provision?
Sending out a questionnaire containing all these questions is unlikely to endear you to your mentors. Instead it is better to plan your data collection over the year and through a variety of techniques, so it does not become cumbersome or onerous. Possible strategies include:

Have a tick list or record sheet prepared for your tutor visit to the school so you remember to ask relevant questions of the mentor and record their responses for your partnership files.
This will enable you to probe in more detail about the opportunities in the school and plans for the future.

You may also want to provide an additional brief checklist for your partnership office to send out with mailings to schools. This is useful for double-checking information that is likely to change, such as timetabling, dates for special events etc.

Conducting citizenship focused evaluations with trainees at the end of the school experience, in addition to any generic evaluations they may complete.

You could also talk to your external examiner and negotiate a focus on particular issues in any given year. This is particularly useful where the external examiner meets the trainees, or a group of them, to discuss elements of the PGCE.
Because most citizenship PGCE courses are fairly small, it is tempting to hold this information in one’s head. Obviously this does not help new staff who replace us when we move on, so it is

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others also worth maintaining a brief record of particularly good schools, and schools where you may have concerns. This will be invaluable to new staff, but also acts as a reminder to you so you can monitor the quality of placements over time and ensure suitably contrasting placements for trainees over the year.
Questions to think about

What records do you have about the citizenship provision in partner schools?

How do / will you update these records?

How is evaluation data used in the process of selecting schools and placing trainees?
(2) Mentor training
What kind of training should HEI tutors provide?
Generic mentor training should be provided by all HEI’s. This section focuses on the subject specific dimension which for some Citizenship mentors will be crucial as they may only have received minimal specialist training for their role. They may also find that local networking opportunities are not well developed and therefore feel particularly isolated in their role.Their participation in the ITE partnership may well be the most important way in which they network with other citizenship specialists and exchange experiences and ideas. For these schools the university tutor may develop a significant role in facilitating local developments. This also provides a good opportunity for liaising with local Advanced Skills Teachers or advisory teachers who may be approaching the same core group of teachers to achieve similar ends. It obviously helps school teachers if their local HEI and LEA can get together and plan joint events occasionally to relieve the pressure to be out of school. Feedback from experienced HEI tutors indicates that there may well be different phases in such activities: (a) initial training, and (b) advanced training.
(a) Initial training
At the start of a course, the HEI tutor may have more work to do to raise awareness of citizenship, the requirements of the course and the defining characteristics of the philosophy which underpins the PGCE programme. This is important if we want trainee teachers to encounter coherence between the HEI and the schools in the partnership. The following examples illustrate two training activities that were devised to encourage mentors to discuss the key messages of the course and develop a shared sense of standards.
Example 1: Jeremy Hayward, Institute of Education, University of London
This is especially useful for new mentors joining the partnership or for new PGCE courses as they are starting up.
The object of the activity is simply to engage mentors in discussion about what they would accept as citizenship in their school’s scheme of work. By examining different examples of
‘citizenship’ activities, mentors make and justify judgements about:

how topics link to the programmes of study,

how they are assessed,

how substantial the coverage appears to be,
 whether the examples would be good enough to feature as part of the school’s provision.
By clarifying the difference between entitlement and enrichment, and engaging explicitly with guidance about the status of the subject and the standards of curriculum provision, mentors are

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others made more aware of the fundamental issues with which PGCE courses must engage. This was the first opportunity to help mentors develop a sense of the key messages being developed through the course.
The resources for this workshop are at the end of this pack ( Mentor training activity 1 ). It is also useful as an activity for the trainee teachers on the PGCE.
Example 2: Lee Jerome, Anglia Ruskin University
We developed a variation of Jeremy’s activity to prompt discussion about the ways in which history and citizenship are linked in our combined PGCE programme.
The first assignment of the course requires trainees to plan a joint citizenship and history scheme of work and whilst mentors were approving the plans for structure and history coverage, we found ourselves subsequently failing some of the work, generally for not making explicit and substantial connections between the two subjects. This created the interesting problem that we were being seen to undermine the judgement of the mentors, and the conflicting judgements caused confusion for the trainees.
We planned a workshop for one of our mentor meetings to address the issue and spent some time discussing the role of the assignment in the course and the assessment criteria we applied.
The workshop was so useful that we later incorporated it into the PGCE. Now we are more likely to have feedback from trainees that their mentor has vetoed a suggestion because it would not meet the criteria for the course and, more importantly, because it does not adequately address the citizenship dimension.
The resources for this workshop are at the end of this pack ( Mentor training activity 2 ) and the
PowerPoint that accompanies it is available on the Citized website, in the history and citizenship conference report in the cross-curricula section.
These basic training activities should help to achieve a measure of consensus and common understanding about the requirements and standards of the course.
(b) Advanced training
As mentors become more confident, issues might arise that reflect this growing confidence in the subject. Thus, mentor training can focus on how the quality of citizenship provision in partner schools can be improved. Facilitating Citizenship based professional development workshops and combining mentor training with INSET for mentors is seen as a useful model.
Example 1: Jeremy Hayward, Institute of Education, University of London
Jeremy Hayward’s pattern of training workshops has changed over the past three years as he has worked with familiar schools year on year. Now a typical agenda for the day includes:

General mentor development workshop

Update on new developments from OfSTED, QCA, DfES, TDA, new resources etc.
Lunch break

Subject knowledge workshops
This provides a clear INSET element for citizenship specialists in the afternoon, and ultimately helps to raise the expertise in the training school, and therefore improves the quality of the placement. The afternoon workshops are also offered to other schools at a fee, so partnership schools feel they gain additional training, and an additional benefit, from their membership of the partnership.

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Example 2: Sandie Llewellin, University of Bristol
The University organises an annual conference, which involves local authority advisors, school mentors, ASTs and other local groups with an interest in citizenship education. Mentor training is combined with an agenda including subject training workshops and opportunities for devising and disseminating strategic developments for the subject as a whole.
How can mentor training be accredited?
Many HEIs will operate some form of certification and accreditation programme for mentors.
Often this involves a mentor collecting evidence of their work to gain a formal certificate, which simply confirms that they have undertaken this role effectively. Some mentors will also move on to complete a more formal portfolio or assignment and gain credits towards an MA. It is useful to make sure that you, as the HEI tutor, are aware of such systems so you can suggest appropriate routes for mentors and plan training to support them.
Example: Stephen Fairbrass, Bradford College
One of Bradford’s training days for citizenship mentors was run by the university tutor and a local AST. Those teachers who attended received a delegates’ pack which included information on a variety of routes to certification and accreditation at M level. These include Mentoring in
Schools (up to 20 credit points), which is free to mentors in the partnership. Citizenship mentors may also study for two additional courses, The Politics and Practice of Citizenship Education in
England, and Citizenship the Global Dimension.
These are complemented by the mentors’ training day agenda, which featured workshops on Labour Behind the Labels, demonstrating how the global dimension can be developed through links between business studies and citizenship education.
In addition, several PGCE providers have been involved in the DfES funded pilot for certificated citizenship CPD. For some partner schools this has served as a useful mechanism for mentors to gain certification for their work, and help them become better citizenship trainers in the long run. Such courses also double up as recruitment opportunities, as some local schools will attend CPD training, but may not have taken citizenship trainees in the past.
Questions to think about

What kinds of issues have you considered in recent mentor meetings and how do these compare to other PGCE courses in your institution?

Having reviewed recent mentor training agendas, are there any other issues (especially citizenship specific issues) that you feel you need to addre ss in this year’s mentor training?

What would you / your trainee teachers like schools to do differently or more consistently? How have you planned to tackle this in mentor training?

Are there local partners with whom you could work to plan mentor training workshops?

Are you clear about opportunities for your mentors to achieve certification and accreditation?

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
(3)The role of partner schools
The previous section assumed a deficit model to some extent, addressing as it did the needs of mentors for further training. But it is equally important to recognise the expertise that exists in schools and think creatively about how best to use this across the partnership.
Using partner school expertise in the course
Developing links with one or two schools who may be able to host part of the training in their schools can be worthwhile. Some HEIs take their citizenship trainees to a local school specifically to examine particular issues. Examples of such activities include:

Spending a day in a well-equipped local school learning to use interactive white boards, observe experienced teachers using the technology and devise activities themselves.

Taking the whole group to a partner school to undertake observations in small groups. This is a particularly useful activity as most trainees will have only observed lessons on their own.
This activity enables them to discuss their notes, consider different interpretations of events, and reflect more deeply on the lesson. It also means the whole group can then discuss subject specific issues that arise from their observations, as well as general issues about how to get the most out of doing observations, and how to use elements of the Standards and the assessment criteria for the course.

Visits to schools also make it easier to meet students. Trainees on one course have an opportunity to talk to students about the ethos of the school they are visiting and the opportunities for active citizenship.
Using partner school expertise across the partnership
A common approach in which ment ors’ expertise is often used is in relation to mentor training:

Mentors may be willing to lead a workshop for other mentors on aspects of their work or recent experiences with particular trainees. In some cases they may have experience of dealing successfully with weak trainees, or may have come up with a creative training programme for a very good trainee, to keep them making progress rather than resting on their laurels.

In addition to the mentor of course, the trainees themselves can be useful in mentor training workshops and mentors often appreciate the chance to hear from trainees, with their mentors, about aspects of the training that went well, or not so well.
 Another way in which mentors’ expertise can be valued is to offer them the chance to undertake school visits on your behalf. HEI tutors can struggle to find time to visit all their trainees and HEIs sometimes have budgets for visiting lecturers to undertake the visits on behalf of the tutor. Some of this budget can be used to release mentors from teaching for half a day to undertake a moderation visit in another local school. Such opportunities are often valued by both schools as it creates another opportunity for mentors to meet and moderate their judgements. It also creates an opportunity for citizenship teachers to visit each other and discuss their work.
Working in partnership locally
In many areas the HEI tutor and partnership schools are also active in the local networks for citizenship education. In some areas the Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) is developing local accords, and local networks of schools. These networks organise meetings and conferences to share local experiences and expertise, to benefit from outside speakers and agencies and to develop meaningful links with ACT staff. ACT contact details are listed towards the end of this booklet and as a new tutor it will be worth contacting ACT to enquire about local networks you could join.

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Local networks also offer HEI tutors the chance to extend the partnership approach to running the PGCE by linking with other organisations, as these examples demonstrate.
Example 1: Sandie Llewellin, University of Bristol
(a) The university tutor has established a partnership group with local authority advisors. This provides a forum for people to share experiences, evaluate placements and participate in development projects. For example, one local authority shared their assessment model with others in the group and this was then cascaded through the PGCE course to trainees and through them on to school mentors. This group also contributes to the annual partnership citizenship conference organised by the university.
(b) Autumn term mentor meetings also involve local authority advisors and trainees. A typical day starts with an update / briefing on an aspect of citizenship nationally, and then delegates discuss the implications for their own practice and local provision. This is followed by a task which enables trainees to work with their mentors
– at the last meeting everyone discussed the admissions procedures for the PGCE course and reviewed the interview questions. The rest of the day provides an opportunity for mentors to meet together to address their specific development needs. In this way the simple mentor meeting is replaced by a partnership event in which relationships are established, discussions benefit from a wider range of perspectives, and local authority advisors get to know the course better and meet local teachers.
Incidentally, it is of course extremely valuable for the partnership when teachers and tutors can work together in the selection of candidates. It is quite difficult to involve teachers at every stage
(it is hard, for example, to distribute GTTR papers to teachers so that joint decisions can be made about who to call to interview). But it is not difficult to invite teachers to take part in the face-to-face selection event (and this process can mean more than simply inviting teacher to ask a few questions in a traditional closed interview).
Example 2: Lee Jerome, Anglia Ruskin University
The university tutor teamed up with the local advisory teacher in Essex to publicise a conference on active citizenship. The trainee teachers on the PGCE were invited too, so they benefited directly from the day. Partner schools were able to come along to the training, and other schools were recruited to the event through the local authority network. This provided an opportunity to recruit additional schools to the partnership, as well as disseminate the work of the Active Citizenship in Schools (ACiS) project.
For details of the ACiS project see Stenton, S. (2004) Community Action and Young Person Led Participation, in B.
Linsley and E. Rayment (Eds.) Beyond the Classroom: Exploring Active Citizenship in 11-16 Education. London:
New Politics Network
Incidentally, it is of course extremely valuable for the partnership when teachers and tutors can work together in the selection of candidates. It is quite difficult to involve teachers at every stage
(it is hard, for example, to distribute GTTR papers to teachers so that joint decisions can be made about who to call to interview). But it is not difficult to invite teachers to take part in the face-to-face selection event (and this process can mean more than simply inviting teacher to ask a few questions in a traditional closed interview).
Questions to think about

Do you have key partner schools that make additional contributions to your course?

What areas of the taught element of the course would you like to develop and improve? Could you achieve this through partnership working?

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others

Do you invite individual mentors to contribute to teaching on the course?

Are mentors involved in the facilitation and delivery of mentor training? If not, should they be?

Which local organisations support the citizenship PGCE? How might you involve more?
(4) Quality assurance
The examples above illustrate how we need to consider quality assurance in just about every aspect of our work. In selecting schools the quality of information is crucial, especially as we are often in a position of pursuing partner schools rather than being able to pick and choose between them. Mentor training is also a quality assurance issue to the extent to which it responds to perceived weaknesses, seeks to spread the best practice, and raises the capacity of partnership schools overall to provide high quality training. If mentor training fulfils this role, it is also important to have a plan B when mentors fail to attend mentor training. On occasion it may be inevitable that a school must be deselected from the partnership, for example where a school provides poor quality training, and yet the mentor fails to attend meetings. In most cases, the tutor can redeem the situation to some extent by using their visit to the school to discuss the issues arising, forwarding minutes or materials, and updating guidance.
In this final section we consider three other aspects of quality assurance:

Moderation of assessments

Monitoring school placements

Monitoring timetables
Moderation
One of the mos t difficult quality assurance issues to address is how to ensure mentors’ assessment is accurate and comparable across the partnership. It is frustrating to see trainees you judge to be very good constantly assessed as satisfactory, and in the case of satisfactory trainees receiving inflated grades, this can actually act as a break on further improvement, as trainees feel they are doing fine, when really they need to work harder. One of the problems is obviously that you, as HEI tutor, get to see all of your trainees teach every year, whereas mentors generally have a much smaller and more limited sample against which to develop their interpretation of the standards. Mentors also spend more time with trainees in school and the grades can get bound up with strategies for maintaining confidence and recognising effort.
The tutor visit to the school, therefore, plays a crucial role in establishing expectations and norms across the training schools. HEIs will have their own policies about school visits and we all obviously have to adhere to these, but it is also important to recognise that these visits are the main opportunity you will have to moderate assessment and engage the mentor in detailed discussion about standards. In this sense, the visit to the school is primarily a quality assurance and training exercise for the mentor. It also provides an opportunity to supervise the trainee and provide another source of advice from which they can benefit. However, if you are conscious of the QA role, invite the mentor to undertake a joint observation. This can be more helpful in the long run than doing an observation on your own.
Other moderation activities
Moderating judgements can also be tackled in mentor training, by observing filmed lessons and discussing feedback and assessment. There are sample lesson observation notes you could share with mentors in the following

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others induction packs:

Ian Davies Standards relevant to the achievement of qualified teacher status in citizenship

Ian Davies Assessment of trainees

Peter Brett Citizenship
– subject knowledge
Mentors may find it useful to simply compare a range of lesson observations and placement reports to consider:

What areas are singled out in reports?

Is there clear evidence to support overall grades?

To what extent do comments reflect the generic statements in the standards, and to what extent do comments reflect the specific nature of citizenship?
Monitoring school placements
The following checklist is one we developed for the course handbooks as a reminder to mentors and trainees that they needed to get things moving fairly quickly in the first few weeks of the school experience. The requirements could be extended and adapted to include subject specific requirements. At Anglia Ruskin, however, we highlight those aspects within the course calendar where we ask mentors to make sure that they discuss specific issues with trainees every week, to help build stronger links between the school based training and the training at the HEI. Whilst these are only advisory, and schools may have very good reasons for covering other issues, these provide a starting point for mentors and trainees to negotiate a programme that suits their needs. It also shares responsibility for monitoring the training between the HEI tutor, the mentor and the trainee.
Extract from the history with citizenship PGCE handbook, Anglia Ruskin w/c
21 Nov
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
28 Nov
Mentor session: (1) Review the trainee’s pastoral experiences to date
(2) Review the contribution the department makes to pupils’ personal
/ social development
(3) Discuss the school’s policy statement on values / ethos
Mentor session: (1) Review pupils’ books for one group the trainee has been teaching – to what extent have pupils achieved the trainee’s lesson objectives?
(2) It may be useful to discuss ‘what makes INSET successful’ to help prepare for Friday’s planning
Friday
9-12
Citizenship – social & moral responsibility
1-4 Citizenship through history and medium term planning
(preparation for essay1)
9-4 Preparing a citizenship
INSET

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Mentor’s Induction Checklist

Health & Safety Briefing. Trainee should complete Risk Assessment form.
Liaise with other members of the department to ensure they are clear about their role in relation to the trainee, especially where their lessons form part of the trainee’s timetable.
Ensure colleagues agree how to introduce the trainee to the pupils, and agree a strategy for getting them started with classes.
Share guidance from university handbook with staff members who will be supporting trainees.
Find out what school based tasks trainees have to undertake during the placement.
Draw up a detailed plan / schedule for the first few days so trainees don’t feel at a loose end. This should involve:

Introductions to key staff and all members of the department.

An orientation tour around the school / department.

Guidance on where trainees can work, e.g. do they have a desk, pigeonhole?

Details of observations and shadowing visits during the induction period.
Make sure teachers and tutors are informed in advance if a trainee will be visiting their class, to avoid the trainee feeling awkward when they turn up for lessons.
Liaise with the Professional Tutor to ensure that your departmental induction and the whole school programme complement each other.
Make sure you inform trainees about basic organisation issues in the department, for example, pupils’ access to the buildings at break time, use of toilets and break time arrangements for staff.
Be clear about the extent to which trainees can change and develop schemes of work, which lessons you expect to be delivered to the letter, and which you are happy for them to exercise flexibility over?
Clarify any preferred format for documentation, such as lesson plans and record keeping.
Be clear about your expectations regarding attendance and punctuality and agree a procedure so the trainee can get in touch if they are going to be late or absent in an emergency.
Highlight dates for meetings, INSET and other events the trainee should know about and attend.
Make sure the trainee knows about etiquette and informal rules such as parking arrangements, dress code, staff room seating and coffee kitty.
You should also establish clearly when you want lesson plans and materials shown to you for comment before the trainee intends to use them. It is not unreasonable to ask for plans a few days or a week in advance.
Timetable a regular slot for you and the trainee to meet, once a week, for at least an hour.
Assign the trainee to a tutor group and make sure you and the tutor have a system in place for communicating about the trainee’s progress / concerns.
Discuss targets from previous school experience or pre-course tasks.
In addition, one mentor has identified the following lessons learned through her school’s experience of working with citizenship trainees. This general checklist may be useful to share with new mentors to help them prepare for the arrival of a trainee:

Prepare the staff to receive a citizenship trainee – remember that trainees can be worried when they meet the staffroom cynic who questions the purpose of their subject.

Ensure the mentor is accessible and has time to meet the trainee.

Think about an appropriate curriculum experience
– how to make the most of the need to give them some teaching outside of citizenship lessons, for example PSHE or another humanities subject.

Think about relevant experience of post 16 teaching – are there specific subjects or enrichment activities that would be particularly useful?

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others

How to ensure trainees have a varied experience of active citizenship in school?
Suggestions adapted from Martin, J. (2002) ‘Celebrating the Success of the First Cohort of Trained Citizenship
Teachers: A mentor’s view of the practical aspects of this training’ Teaching Citizenship (Autumn) (45-8)
Timetables
The PGCE programme overall will generally set the average proportion of the timetable that trainees should teach during each placement. Obviously in citizenship it is more problematic to ensure that trainees have substantial experiences in both key stages 3 and 4. But it is also worth clarifying to what extent you will count other kinds of experience towards the overall timetable. If a trainee makes a regular commitment of two hours per week to facilitate an active citizenship project, say after school or during lunch, should this count towards their timetable, or is it additional? You may need to clarify the guidance in your own HEI first and then make sure that trainees and mentors are clear about the guidance.
Example timetable for a trainee teacher
Day P1 P2 P3 P4
1
2
3
4
6 th form extended studies
Y7
History
6 th form extended studies
Mentor meeting
Y8
PSE
Y7
History
Y10
Citizenship
5
6
7
Professional
Tutor meeting
Y8
PSE
Y8
History
P5
Y12
Philosophy
Y10
Citizenship
Y11
Citizenship
P6
Y8
History
P7
Y11
Citizenship
World Watch
Active Cit.
Y10
Citizenship
Y12
Philosophy
P8
Y7
History
Y7
History
World
Watch
Active Cit.
Y11
Citizenship
In this example, only 6 taught lessons, of a total of 18 lessons are citizenship. Two additional periods have been set aside for working with a group of students on an active citizenship project. However, through the 6 th Form philosophy lessons, the trainee has an opportunity to teach subjects which are related to the citizenship programmes of study. In addition, the year 8
PSE has been selected because of the topics being taught on the PSE / Citizenship carousel.
This creative use of other opportunities means that 12 of 20 timetabled periods are actually directly related to citizenship, whilst the focus on history for most of the remaining lessons has been negotiated with the trainee.
Questions to think about

How do you evaluate the course overall?

How do you moderate across, and within, the partner schools?

Do you communicate expectations clearly and involve mentors and trainees in monitoring them? What do you do when a problem emerges?

Do you provide clear guidance on hours and timetable commitments?

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Additional resources
Mentoring
There are many books and articles on mentoring and working in partnership. Some useful starting points include:
Fletcher, S. ( 2000) Mentoring in Schools: A Handbook of Good Practice London: Kogan Page
Brooks, V. and Sikes, P. (1997) The good mentor guide: initial teacher education in secondary schools Buckingham: Open University Press
Hagger, H. et al. (1995) The school mentor handbook: essential skills and strategies for working with student teachers London: Kogan Page
Watkins, C. (1993) Mentoring: resources for school-based development London: Longman
European Journal of Teacher Education
Partnership standards
In relation to the standards and inspection criteria for partnerships in ITE:
OfSTED guidance and handbooks for the inspection of partnership arrangements are available at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/howwework/index.cfm?fuseaction=howwework.inspections&id=7
The Standards for ITE partnerships include (1) trainee entry requirements, (2) training and assessment, (3) management of the partnership, and (4) quality assurance. These Standards are available at: http://www.tda.gov.uk/partners/ittstandards.aspx
Broader partnerships
The Association for Citizenship Teaching (ACT) is working in collaboration with a range of organisations around the country to establish local networks. You can read about some of these at www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk
To find out more about existing networks, or to discuss developing one in conjunction with ACT, contact:
63 Gee Street, London, EC1V 3RS
020 7566 4133 info@teachingcitizenship.org.uk

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Mentor training activity 1
Is it citizenship?
(Thanks to Jeremy Hayward at the Institute of Education, University of London for this activity)

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Sorting sheet

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Mentor training activity 1
Citizenship through history activity
(This activity also appears in Teaching Citizenship, Autumn 2005)
Which examples would count as explicit citizenship?
Which need further development?
A – The English Civil Wars
Year 8 pupils study the causes that lead to the Civil Wars in depth. They analyse a wide variety of reasons, categorising them as:
 long and short term,
 and in terms of political, economic and religious factors.
In an extended piece of writing, pupils are encouraged to explore the inter-relationship between these factors to help them appreciate the complexity of discussing ‘causation’ in historic context. This essay is formally assessed.
The Interregnum and Restoration are dealt with in overview.
Citizenship link
During this unit pupils will understand several aspects on Citizenship including:

Trial by jury, when Charles I is tried by parliament

The nature of parliament, by analysing the debate between crown and parliament

Aspects of the economy, through discussion about taxation
B – Slavery through Time
Starting with an overview of slavery today, year 9 pupils find out about modern forms of slave labour and the international agreements that seek to outlaw slavery. Then drawing on work in year 7 (Roman slavery); year 8
(Trans-Atlantic slave trade); and year 9 (Nazi slave labour camps) pupils research forms of slavery in the past, the justifications for it and the arguments against it. The unit ends with a visit to the Anti-Slavery International website www.antislavery.org.uk and pupils research current campaigns and projects to combat slavery. Time is set aside for pupils to write letters, and participate in campaigns.
Citizenship link
Through the unit of work pupils develop an understanding of:

Rights and how they are defined and maintained in any society, including modern society

The role of the UN and international community organisations in relation to slavery

Active citizenship through opportunities for participation in current campaigns
C – Improving Working Conditions
The unit forms a depth study within a broader scheme of work on Britain 1750-1900. Year 8 pupils study the factors that led to industrialisation and urbanisation and then focus on the protests and reforms that led to the gradual improvement in working conditions during the nineteenth century. The work of government, committees of enquiry and philanthropists is studied in some detail, with a specific focus on children’s work.
Citizenship link
This unit focuses on the evolving rights of the child in the nineteenth century, and the work of parliament.
D – The Roman Empire
This is the first unit studied in year 7 and pupils are encouraged to participate in a range of active learning experiences to get them motivated for history in secondary school. There is a focus on investigative group work, internet research, role play and whole class discussions. Pupils set objectives for their own group’s work, and assess their own contribution to the group. Several lessons also focus on the different forms of government that developed within the Roman Empire.
Citizenship link

Democracy and autocracy

Skills of communication and enquiry

Skills of participation and responsible action
E – Divided Ireland
Aspects of Irish history are integrated into each unit throughout key stage 3. In the GCSE course, which is a popular option in School E, these historical foundations are built upon to investigate the enquiry question, ‘Why is it so difficult to achieve peace in Northern Ireland?’ Pupils examine a variety of interpretations of key historical events and consider the role of violence in the politics of Ireland. They then assess the various attempts to resolve the situation.
Citizenship link

Conflict and conflict resolution

Religious diversity in the UK

Investigate a topical political problem

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
F – The Holocaust
As part of the year 9 study of the Second World War, pupils undertake an in-depth study of the Holocaust.
Through an examination of the roots of anti-Semitism and the rise of the Nazis pupils understand how Jews and other minority groups suffered prejudice, discrimination, imprisonment and murder.
Citizenship link

Pupils study the denial of basic rights to Jews and others in Germany and German occupied territory

Pupils study racism and intolerance

Pupils understand how the media was used for propaganda purposes
G – The Holocaust
The year 9 unit of work has always included an in-depth study of the Holocaust. This unit has been built around examining preconceptions about ‘victims’, ‘perpetrators’ and ‘bystanders’. Through analysis of primary sources and investigation of case studies pupils explore and extend their understanding of these terms. The same terms are then used to investigate a current or recent example of genocide or persecution and to reflect on events in pupils’ lives.
Citizenship link

The whole unit is based on a framework for investigating conflict and perceptions of conflict

The unit provides opportunities to consider how the media can be used to present partial or limited interpretations about events and the people involved

Pupils engage in small group and whole class discussion about these issues
H – Monarchy and Parliament
In the year 7 unit on Medieval Britain, pupils explore the balance of power between the monarch and nobles.
Towards the end of the year they compare the power of Henry VIII with that of Queen Anne. Pupils then study
Victoria’s reign in-depth in year 8 and discuss her relationship with the public and the government.
Citizenship link
Pupils will be able to use the information covered in this theme to understand the current constitutional role of the monarch.
I – Why have powerful people taken great care about the way they are shown in pictures?
Through an examination of portraiture in the medieval and Tudor period, year 8 pupils are given an opportunity to explore the ways in which monarchs and other powerful people used art to manage their public image. Pupils visit a portrait gallery and deconstruct compositions to identify key symbols and messages that would have been understood by viewers in the past. The ‘starter’ activity involves the class interpreting posters of Beckham and
Blair.
Citizenship link
Pupils will understand the role of the media.
J – Local Area Study
Pupils in year 9 follow up their enquiry into industrialisation with a local study examining a graveyard near the school. Pupils visit the site, collect evidence, meet representatives from a ‘heritage preservation’ group that has formed to protect the site and research a website established by the group. For their final lesson pupils split into three groups: ‘preservation group’; ‘developers’ and ‘local councillors’. The first two groups devise plans to submit to the councillors, who then hold a mock ‘planning meeting’ to decide the fate of the site.
Citizenship link
The final lesson has been developed to provide an opportunity for pupils to practice their skills of participation and responsible action. They have to try to work as a group (negotiating roles) and use their powers of persuasion
(communication and enquiry skills) to convince the councillors to support their proposals.

Tutor Induction Pack – Working effectively with others
Workshop leader’s plenary notes
(1) What criteria were people using when deciding if something was or was not citizenship?
(2) What changes would people suggest to those cards that ‘COULD BE’ citizenship?
A – The English Civil Wars

It is NOT about trial by jury – the trial of Charles I was unprecedented and not an example of the justice system in use then or today

The discussion about the nature of parliament is left in the 17 th century in this unit, it would need to be linked to current issues to be citizenship.

Economic history does not necessarily count as citizenship, besides, the study of the economy is KS4.
B – Slavery through Time
 1a, it’s the link to modern rights that makes this citizenship

1f and 1i, the role of the UN and international community organisations in relation to slavery

3b (and possibly 3c), participation in current campaigns (and reflection upon that action)
C – Improving Working Conditions
 It’s all in the past and not explicitly connected to current issues, therefore wouldn’t count as citizenship
D – The Roman Empire

Democracy and autocracy. These are Crick concepts (part of the framework in the original report and in the initial guidance from the QCA). T he PoS also mentions ‘democracy and other forms of government’ in 1d.
However as it is, this would be best be described as ‘supportive’ or ‘implicit’ citizenship because it is crucial in terms of developing a rich conceptual understanding, but NOT related to current issues / investigations.

Although both sets of skills may well be developed, they are not developed within an explicit citizenship context, therefore they don’t count. Active learning is not a substitute for active citizenship.
E – Divided Ireland
 Great links but it’s an option at KS4, therefore, unless it’s also covered elsewhere for those who do not choose history, it could not be counted as NC provision – it’s an entitlement for all.
F – The Holocaust

Pupils study the denial of basic rights to Jews and others in Germany and German occupied territory – in the past and therefore NOT in relation to current citizenship

Pupils study racism and intolerance – again ONLY in the past

Pupils understand how the media was used for propaganda purposes – same problem, only in historical context – it would perfectly possible to critique the media in historical examples but not transfer this skill to interpreting media concerning current issues in one’s life.
G – The Holocaust

1g, the groundwork is laid for doing a thorough job of analysing conflict through the historical application of the model – up until this point, the citizenship remains ‘potential’ or ‘implicit’, what we might call ‘supportive’. It is NC citizenship when USED to analyse current issues.

1h, the media element of the PoS is covered because this unit provides an opportunity for pupils to reflect on current media coverage of conflict.

2a, b and c as the small group and whole class discussion is about topical issues
H – Monarchy and Parliament

Again, a great theme for the history department to develop, but the updating bit is left to pupils. It has to be explicitly linked to the current constitution to enable pupils to really make the connection between the historical coverage and what happens today.
I – Why have powerful people taken great care about the way they are shown in pictures?
 Again, it’s an historical study and the starter just helps to draw pupils in to the historical task. It does not
‘substantially’ cover any aspect of the citizenship PoS.

This enquiry question is one of those suggested by Jerome Freeman (QCA Principal Officer for History) in an article in Teaching History, 106. It provides a readily extended enquiry, but would not cover both in this form.
J – Local Area Study

This is a summary of an article by Gary Clemitshaw from Teaching History, 106.
It is described as fulfilling the requirements of the third strand in the PoS.

Use it to introduce the Ofsted / QCA guidance on active citizenship.