Review Statement 3

Thank you to everyone who has already submitted the RS3. If mentors still need to do this, the RS3 template can be downloaded from the Review Statement Templates page.

Mentors are asked to complete this and discuss the contents with their beginning teachers before submitting to partnership@soton.ac.uk on 22 April but certainly no later than 24 April. This is because the information provided will inform the discussions that take place when the tutor visits.

Please note that a review of the Tracker is required in order to complete the RS3 so that the descriptors selected accurately reflect the beginning teacher’s practice. Contents of the RS3 will inform discussions when the tutor visits.

University Tutor Visits

This week will see the start of the visits to schools by university tutors. Further guidance, including how to prepare for the visit, can be found on this page. Please do read this in advance.

Lesson Observations

As a reminder, we would like to encourage mentors to note the time of each teaching moment during the lesson observation. Recording the elapsed time in the appropriate teaching moment box on the lesson observation form helps to support a more focused reflection by drawing the beginning teacher’s attention to the precise moment that needs to be reviewed and developed. It also helps beginning teachers locate these teaching moments within the lesson recording more easily.

As beginning teachers approach the 80% teaching commitment, it is important that planning is completed on the university template, including the evaluation of the lesson, and kept in the beginning teachers OneDrive folder.

Planning

Here is the usual reminder of the importance of detailed and thorough planning that beginning teachers need to be creating at this point in the programme. More information about this can be found in the Week 3 update.

This Week

Further details of this week’s activities and responsibilities can be found in the Weekly Expectation grid on p32 of the School Placement 2 Handbook. Please note that we have amended a slight discrepancy in the percentages that beginning teachers teach. Figures cited in the ‘Beginning Teacher Experiences’ column now align with those in the ‘Beginning Teacher Planning Expectations’.

Please remember that 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 beginning teacher is progressing, they should contact the relevant tutor.

Mentors should also contact the tutor if they feel that teaching for 80% of the normal timetable from Week 7 onwards (w/b 11 May) is too much for their beginning teacher.

Weekly Themes

There are no more weekly themes in this placement. However, as these themes were designed to revisit and revise the ITaP themes, it is important that the beginning teachers continue building on there learning from them and the associated skills become further embedded in practice. By the end of the placement, all the skills of the placement/ITaP themes are second nature to the beginning teacher.

The Weekly Review

The agendas for the weekly reviews from this week follows that which is set out on p.8 of the placement handbook, which also contains further discussion points. Three targets for next week should be set accordingly.

The agenda is therefore:

1. Review pupil progress
2. Discussion the reflection on the targets beginning teachers have been working on
3. Review teaching moments 1 and 2
4. Set three targets, and their action plans, for next week
5. Discuss any findings from the PDAs completed during the week
6. 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.

Both teaching moments identified during the formal lesson observation this week can focus on any area of the beginning teacher’s practice. Selecting the right teaching moments is key to beginning teachers’ professional development. Guidance for mentors on how to identify ‘rich and deep’ moments can be found here. Guidance on how to discuss them can be found here.

For beginning teachers, guidance on how to reflect on them can be found here.

Reminders

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

• Formal lesson observations: must be video recorded on the university iPads. Further details can be found on this page.
• Delayed Debrief: A reminder for mentors that there is no longer a formal approach. Further details are in this post.
• PDAs: Beginning teachers should continue with these activities found in the PDJ.
• Please could all mentors and beginning teachers ensure they have read and are familiar with the contents of the Primary Entitlement Document. Thank you.
• Beginning teachers should begin completing the appropriate Professional Development Activities (PDAs) found in the Professional Development Journal (PDJ).