Lesson Planning

Trainees must plan every lesson they teach and keep a copy of the plan in their teaching file, either hard copy or electronically.

Initially, these lesson plans will be written on the university template and show sufficient detail to demonstrate that the trainee is considering such things as modelling, questioning, scaffolding and transition organisation. As well as supporting the trainees in learning to plan and think about their lessons, these plans will also help in assessing additional evidence that the Teachers’ Standards are being met at the end of the placement should this be required.

Around this point in the placement, the Weekly Expectations suggest trainees can stop using the university planning template and annotate school planning instead.

For this to happen, the following two conditions must be met:

• The following strand in the Tracker must be highlighted because it is embedded in practice: “Regularly plans effective lessons, which include explanations, modelling and scaffolding” (Fifth row of the ‘Pedagogy’ CCF area)
• The CM is confident that in planning by annotating the school’s plans, the trainee will still deliver carefully thought through lessons that will support pupil progress and that the process will benefit the progress of the trainee.

Annotations must demonstrate that the trainee has carefully considered all the necessary aspects of the lesson (such as those that can be found on the university template).

Regardless, all planning for formal lesson observations should be completed on the university template and uploaded to ePortfolio.

Review Statement 3

The deadline for submission of the RS3 was 09 May. If you haven’t already done so, please can you submit this as soon as possible as it is urgently needed. The template for it is available to download on the Review Statements pages. CMs should complete these in discussion with the trainee and then returned to the university (partnership@soton.ac.uk). Trainees should then embed a copy of the document into the Review Statement 3 page of their ePortfolios.

Video Enriched Reflection

To help assess assignment 4, which includes the submission of ePortfolio and leads to the recommendation for the award of QTS, please can we ask that trainees and CMs keep a recording of a lesson that was formally observed. This is important, so if you have any concerns, please email the professional tutor.

As a reminder, we have published a set of articles called Reflective Guidance to support trainees in writing reflectively and demonstrating they are addressing the CCF and meeting the Teachers’ Standards. They are listed on the Guidance option of the main menu at the top of the homepage. The first article is called Video Enriched Reflection.

Professional Tutor Visits

These are now underway. Further details of what to expect and how to prepare can be found on this page. Trainees must ensure their ePortfolios are up-to-date and have completed the Preparedness to Teach Survey (April) prior to the day of the visit.

On the visit, tutors may need to view a recorded lesson. Trainees and mentors are reminded to keep as many recordings as possible for the official assessment towards the end of the placement.

This Week

There is no change to the processes of last week. Trainees in Year 6 and supporting the SATs, might not be able to match the teaching expectations for this week. However, they should still have a formal lesson and complete all the details on the ‘Week 7’ page in ePortfolio.

Discussions at this week’s weekly review can focus on any element of practice for both Teaching Moments, and targets, including the FIA, for Week 8 can be on any relevant area of practice.

The Weekly Expectations are outlined in the handbook (p.34). Please do remember that these are for guidance and CMs should guide trainees through them at a pace that is appropriate for their learning.

By way of a reminder, a list of discussion points have been included in Appendix D of the handbook (p.21) to support developmental discussions between CMs and trainees. Please do use these. Appendix C (p.20) contains a lesson observation aid.

As a reminder, all formal lesson observations must be recorded on the devices provided by the university. Further details can be found in Appendix F of the handbook (p.32) and in this post under ‘Formal Lesson Observation’.

Reminders

• Weekly Reviews: Details can be found on pages 8 and 9 of the handbook and in this post.
• Update Posts: All posts can be viewed directly on the updates page.
• Target Setting: Please refer back to this post for details of the sources of targets during SP2.
• Planning: Please can we remind CMs of the need to take time and model planning with their trainees.
• Briefing Video: CMs unable to attend the briefing meeting can view it on the briefing video page.
• iPads: These should be used each week to record the formal lesson observation. More details can be found here.
• Professional Development Activities: Trainees continue to complete the PDAs. Click here for an electronic reference copy of the PDJ.
• Primary Entitlement Document: CMs and trainees should read the Primary Entitlement Document.