Queen Margaret University School Experience Programme Handbook - BA (Hons) Education Studies Primary
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) at Queen Margaret University (QMU) School Experience Placement Handbook.
This handbook provides an overview of partnership and placement arrangements for the QMU ITE programmes, the processes and support mechanisms involved in placement provision. The Handbook isintended for ITE students, schools hosting placements and University-Based Educators. Programme and placement information in the handbook includes:
- Partnership between schools and university
- An overview of ITE programmes & placements
- Organisation of School Experience processes & procedures
- Preparing students for School Experience
- Assessment processes and paperwork
- Contact and support mechanisms
- Roles and responsibilities during School Experience
School Experience is a compulsory part of the ITE learning process giving students the opportunity to carry out a journey of personal and professional development within an educational setting. It is a series of placements in which students are educated/mentored/supported for a stipulated period of time, and where professional competence as a teacher is assessed.
School Experience enables the acquisition of new knowledge and skills as well as the application, consolidation and reflection on learning gained in the university environment. School and University- Based Educators, working in collaboration, have a crucial part to play in supporting their progress to meet the required General Teaching Council, Scotland (GTCS) Standard for Provisional Registration (SPR) by the end of their programme. The success of School Experience is highly dependent on a clear and supportive interchange between ITE students, university, local authorities and schools.
Aims
The school experience placements will provide opportunities and support students to:
- Apply theory and evidence in original and creative ways to support inclusive learning in the practice setting and develop original and creative responses to problems and issues
- Manage complex issues and make informed judgements in situations in the absence of complete or consistent data/information.
- Design, develop, implement and evaluate strategies and programmes or a series of opportunities which support all pupils to optimally participate in the curriculum and school life using a range of specialised skills, techniques, practices and/or materials that are at the forefront of, or informed by forefront developments
- Demonstrate and facilitate collaboration, discussion and debate within the group of learners to extend the individual’s and groups’ perspective. This will include exploration of the views of pupils, teachers and parents/carers and require demonstration of the facilitation of respectful exchange with less verbal / nonverbal participants.
- Communicate effectively and collaboratively in various media to a range of audiences (e.g. peers, tutors, research community, pupils, parents/carers, allied professionals)
- Engage in critical reflection to develop skills of self and peer appraisal and enable insights and application to practice
- Engage in critical reflection to develop skills of self and peer appraisal and enable insights and application to practice
Throughout the course, university inputs and school experience placements are designed progressively around the SPR which outlines what is required of all new teachers, thus providing strands for students to evaluate their developing abilities. Each school experience has a unique set of learning outcomes, which articulate with prior and future university studies and previous school experience. Learning outcomes increase in complexity as students' progress through the programme because each placement provides the building block for future ones.
Partnership between Local Authorities, Schools and University.
QMU has established partnerships with the following local authorities Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Scottish Borders and Fife. Educational representatives from these authorities have been closely involved in the design and development of the new Education programmes. From 2020-2021 QMU’s partnership with these authorities formed part of the wider Edinburgh Early Phase Partnership along with Napier University and Moray House. Whilst each university will retain its distinctive programme partnership elements, the wider partnership will enable all stakeholders to meet regularly to discuss school experience and partnership related developments including the sharing of good practice with local authority partners.
Here are some of the people involved in supporting students directly and indirectly:
Associate Head of Department |
Ensures consistency across ITE programmes and represents placement matters externally on bodies that discuss national level placement policy. |
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Programme Leader |
Leads on the overall placement provision in BA (Hons) Education Studies (Primary) programme. |
Year Tutor |
Leads on the placement associated with a particular year in your programme including being the module coordinator for the placement-focused module. |
University-Based Educator (UBE) |
An academic member of staff who acts as a contact person for a group of students, and school experience Educators throughout a school experience placement. |
Placement & Partnership Officer |
The administrator who co-ordinates all the administrative and operational aspects of school experience across specific schools, providing the Student Placement System with information about placements, communicating to students and schools and overseeing the general day to day issues arising from school experience. |
School-Based Educator (SBE) | The person facilitating students’ learning whilst they are on placement. The School-Based Educator is a class teacher jointly responsible for the assessed outcome on placement and who acts as a professional guide and mentor to students. |
Student or Student-Teacher |
The enrolled student on the ITE programme |
Pupil/s |
Young people in schools (Learners) |
Students will be supported, observed and assessed in practice by a designated School-Based Educator (a teacher/mentor) on each of their placement settings. These are experienced practitioners and normally have undertaken teaching at undergraduate degree or post-graduate level and are fully registered teachers with the GTCS. The School Based Educator will work with students to identify current strengths and aspects of their practicewhich can be built on and enhanced. They will facilitate their learning in practice. To support this process, from the start of the programme, the student and the School Based Educator will discuss and agree on the framework for their learning in practice (further details on p.17). This should include:
- Consideration of prior knowledge, experience and teaching skills
- Your negotiated arrangements for practice including their learning plan and agreement on contact with the School Based Educator
- Your expectations and the School Based Educator expectations, with identification of learning opportunities available within and out with the practice placement area
- Sign this agreement at the start of each placement and, as students' progress through the programme, any agreed amendments should also be recorded within it.
The GTCS Standards for Provisional Registration (SPR) and the Student Teacher Code provide direction for programme-related practice experience. Working together with, and being guided by, the School Based Educator, it is expected that students will take account of these outcomes and will consider ways in which they can be achieved by the end of the programme to ensure that students have met the required standards.
The Standards for Registration: Mandatory Requirements for Registration with the GTCS
“The Standard for Provisional Registration specifies what is expected of a student teacher at the end of Initial Teacher Education who is seeking provisional registration with GTC Scotland. (It also acts as one of the sets of subject benchmark statements for professional qualifications in Scotland developed by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.) Having gained the SPR, all provisionally registered teachers continue their professional learning journey by moving towards the attainment of the Standard for Full Registration. The SFR is the gateway to the profession and the benchmark of teacher competence for all teachers. It must therefore constitute standards of capability in relation to teaching (with such reasonable adjustments as may be required under Equalities Legislation) in which learners, parents, the profession itself and the wider community can have confidence.” (GTCS, 2012: 2)"
It is the SPR that applies to students at this stage and is at the core of their learning and progress. Full details of the SPR can be found on the GTCS website [ broken link ]
In addition, the GTCS have a dedicated site for students - IN2Teaching with added support and advice specifically tailored to support students through the provisional registration process and their probationary service, whether it is via the Teacher Induction Scheme or the Flexible Route. There will be 2 presentations from GTCS staff during the year – one in the Autumn and the other towards the end of the programme.
Based on the Standards, students are required to use a series of self-evaluative tools to keep a record of their teaching experience and key moments of learning that have been meaningful, detailing what went well and what can be improved. As part of this learning students ought to think about why these experiences are relevant to students as future teachers (see Weekly Evaluation Form).
Professional Development Portfolio
As part of their school experience and professional development, students will compile a Professional Development Portfolio during placements using proformas developed by the programme team. The use of theportfolios gives students opportunities to evidence and reflect on their learning in relation to the SPR when onschool experience. Students are encouraged to reflect on their practice in relation to particular strands and identify the professional actions needed to make satisfactory progress against the relevant Standard. This process prepares students for using portfolios to evidence their continuing professional development informing their completion of the Teacher Education Profile in preparation for the Induction year [ broken link ]
QMU Placement Team Contact Details
The Placement & Partnership Officer will advise all things placement related via your student email address. They can be contacted at Placement Office Email
Email Etiquette
Students ought to be judicious in the emails they send. Academic staff receive a very high volume of mail andmay be unable to respond to their email if it requests information that can be found elsewhere. Check Education Studies Primary Module areas on the Hub, and the handbooks, to see if the information is availableelsewhere first.
Staff will endeavour to respond to emails within 3 working days (i.e. not including weekends, public holidays and annual leave).
Please ensure that you use your QMU email account for any correspondence relating to your programme of study. When sending emails to academic and support staff within QMU it is good practice to adopt a professional tone and to be clear about the issue being addressed. This tone of course reflects the professional etiquette expected of teachers and is in line with the [broken link ]and the Student Teacher Code.
Your E-Mail Inbox
Students must get into the habit of clearing out their email inbox regularly. The inbox has limited capacity and if students do not regularly delete emails, especially those with large attachments, emails sent to students will not reach their inbox and students may miss important information. Alternatively, Outlook has an Archivefunction (which can be found in “Mailbox Clean-up” under the “File” tab), which allows students to hold on to their old emails in a separate folder. Please ask in the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) for help with this option. More details on staff roles and responsibilities can be found in Section 8.