We hope to send out the weekly update each Tuesday for the following week so that mentors and beginning teachers have time to digest the contents before they meet at the end of the week.

We have identified an issue with the way in which notifications are sent out and must therefore apologies for the late sending of the Week 1 update and any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you do have any questions, please feel free to contact the tutor if you have any questions.

Reminder: Updates and Notifications

When an update is posted on the partnership website, an email containing a link to it is sent to all beginning teachers and mentors. If these emails are not being received, they may have landed in the junk or spam folder, so do please check. Beginning teachers should check with their mentors that they are receiving these email notifications.

If the link in the email fails, all posts can be viewed directly on the updates page and the most recent are always listed in the footer of every page. Considering recent issues, it may be worth checking this page if you have not received a post notification by Thursday.

This Week (Week 2)

Further details of this week’s activities and responsibilities can be found in the Weekly Expectation grid on p32 of the School Placement 1 Handbook. This is provided as guidance and need not be adhered to if it is not in the interest of the beginning teacher’s learning to teach. If mentors have any concerns regarding the pace at which their trainee is progressing, they should contact the tutor having first ticked the ‘no’ box at the bottom of the weekly review page in beginning teacher’s ePortfolio or asked the beginning teacher to do so:

Adaptive Teaching (ITaP) Theme

One day this week must be devoted to beginning teachers completing focused activities as part of the ITaP theme on Adaptive Teaching. On this day, trainees should only complete the activities as the entire day is devoted to this ITaP theme. This will mean that the time beginning teachers spend teaching and on non-contact will be different this week. The percentages, as outlined on p.32 of the School Placement 1 Handbook should be of three days and not the usual four.

For more details about the Adaptive Teaching day activities, please click here.

The Weekly Review

The agenda for this week will follow that which is set out on p.8 of the placement handbook but with the addition of an extra item that focuses on the ITaP Adaptive Tgaching Day activities (see item 2, below). However, in short, the agenda is as follows:

1. Review pupil progress
2. Discuss the observations made on the Adaptive Teaching ITaP (Activity 4 on this page)
3. Discussion the reflection on the targets beginning teachers have been working on
4. Review teaching moments 1 and 2
5. Set three targets, and their action plans, for next week
6. Discuss any findings from the PDAs completed during the week
7. Plan which lessons will be taught next week and discuss any other logistics for the week ahead

Further details can also be found on the Weekly Reviews page.

Mentors will find further guidance on how to support the Weekly Review discussion on this page.

Lesson Observations

Formal lesson observations of the trainee teaching should continue and be recorded on the university iPads that all trainees have been issued with. The Guidance for Recording and Reviewing Lessons page has more details about this. The lesson observation form is available for download on the Lesson Observation Forms page. Further details can be found on p19 of the handbook.

Teaching Moment 2 that mentors identify from the formal lesson observation should focus on questioning and modelling, which is next week’s theme. The FIA that is then set, should therefore focus on this area of practice and be recorded on the Week 3 page in ePortfolio.

This week’s Teaching Moment 1, can focus on any aspect of practice.

Target Setting

Targets set at each Weekly Review should be achievable within a week. Three targets should be set each week, one of which stems from Teaching Moment 2 known as the FIA.

As mentioned in the Lesson Observation section, above, Teaching Moment 2 and next week’s FIA target (week 3) should relate to the theme of Questioning and Modelling. The other two targets can focus on any other area of practice that is appropriate.

Professional Development Activities

Beginning teachers should begin completing the appropriate Professional Development Activities (PDAs) this week (w/b 24 Nov.). For mentors’ reference, an electronic copy of the Professional Development Journal (PDJ) is available here. For continuity, the page also has a copy of the booklet containing the PDAs that beginning teachers completed during their LATiS experience so mentors can become familiar with them.

The Delayed Debrief

Mentors are reminded that there is no longer a formal approach to the delayed debrief. However, we still use the term because beginning teachers still receive a delay in receiving their mentor’s feedback following the formal lesson observation.

With the use of the video recording to reflect on the lesson, beginning teachers do not need to receive feedback immediately following the formal lesson observation and it need not be given within the usual 24-hour period.

Planning

Trainees should now plan every lesson, or part lesson they teach, using the University planning template.

Please could CMs therefore continue to take time during the weeks ahead to model the planning process to their trainees.

Reminders

Last week’s update is available to read here and the things to remember from it are:

• Details about the preparation for Reading Buddy and Maths Mate can be found on this page. Trainees should be planning the intervention work ready to start next week (w/b 01 Dec.)
• Please could mentors take time during this week to model the planning process to their beginning teachers.
• Please could all mentors and beginning teachers ensure they have read and are familiar with the contents of the Primary Entitlement Document. Thank you.