School Experience

The school-based provision is designed to meet DfES requirements as defined in Qualifying to teach, 2/02. During the two-week pre-course experience the emphasis is on the observation of good teachers at work with guided activities to assist trainees in their task. Once on the course trainees will be allocated two main placements, one in Key Stage 1 and the other in Key Stage 2. The first placement starts with trainees observing and then gradually moving into taking parts of whole class lessons. During the first term, trainees are in school for at least a day a week and this is then followed in the second term by a six week block placement where the trainee teaches in the core subjects. On the second school placement, in a different Key Stage, the emphasis is on substantial and sustained class teaching across the whole range of National Curriculum subjects, and with responsibility for the assessment of pupils of different abilities. This second practice lasts for nine weeks. A total of 20 weeks is spent in schools over the three terms. Please see Overview of Course Time Allocation, for more detail.