Professional Placements
Trainees spend at least 120 days of the thirty six week course in partnership schools. Both subject studies and professional studies are designed to support the periods of professional placement, when trainees have the opportunity to work together with experienced mentors to develop their own practical teaching skills and competence. Trainees initially work together in the classroom with other trainees and their subject mentor, before gradually taking on more responsibility for planning and teaching as the year progresses.
The second term provides an extended school-based period of professional placement under the guidance and supervision of a subject mentor. Trainees are given the opportunity to develop their teaching skills in a closely monitored environment, and to gain experience of many of the important tasks and responsibilities teachers take on outside the classroom, such as pastoral care and parents' evenings.
A final period of professional placement in term 3 provides the opportunity for trainees to gain further classroom experience, to confirm that they have reached the required level in classroom skills and professional competence for the award of Qualified Teacher Status. There is also opportunity for involvement in a wider range of school activities: for instance, curriculum development and evaluation within their specialist subject(s); work experience and other activities related to careers education and economic and industrial understanding; fieldwork related to environmental education; and other similar activities which seek to extend the experience and education of pupils beyond the conventional classroom context.