Secondary

If a trainee is a cause for concern for any reason a 'Cause for Concern' document must be completed and forwarded immediately to the Course Leader at the University (see guidance below).

If necessary, a Progress Review Committee Meeting will be convened to discuss the progress of that trainee. The Progress Review Committee has the authority to immediately suspend any trainee from the course pending further information.

What is a "Cause for Concern?"

There might be occasions in school when the performance of a Trainee Teacher is such that additional action is required beyond the normal systems of support and assessment. It is crucial that if this is the case it is documented and a cause for concern document is generated.

A CfC Report Form should be initiated in cases of:

• Lack of Progress - A Trainee Teacher is considered to be failing or in danger of failing to meet the required standards for the course. Such cases may be resolvable if action is taken early enough.

• Lack of Professionalism - For example: punctuality, dress, lack of self-critical awareness, inability or unwillingness to accept professional criticism, difficult relationships with staff, and so on.

• Professional misconduct - The Trainee Teacher is considered to be behaving in a way in which is professionally unacceptable.

It is far better to report a cause for concern which then disappears than to wait for a week or so hoping for an improvement which does not materialise. In such cases it may be too late to make an effective intervention. A report form will allow for appropriate supportive action to be set in place.

Assessment of a trainee's progress is carried out at the end of each phase by the subject/professional mentor and will be used as the starting point for discussions by the university tutor at the trainee's professional interview. Assessment is formative in nature until the very end of the course where a trainee must have met all of the Teachers' Standards to be awarded QTS.

End of Phase 1 School-based Assessment

At the end of Phase 1 the subject/professional mentor must complete Part One of the document below:

End of Phase 1 School-based Assessment Document

At this stage in the course the focus should be on what the trainee knows, understands, and is able to do in the context of the ITT curriculum that they have experienced so far. There is no grading of trainees at any stage of the course. We are also not using the Teachers' Standards to assess trainees at this early point in their development. This assessment is being used to capture the trainee's strengths at this stage in the course as well as to set clear targets for their ongoing development in the next phase. You will need to use the ITT Curriculum Assessment Framework to guide your comments. 

End of Phase 2 School-based Assessment

End of Phase 2 School-based Assessment Document

End of Phase 3 School-based Assessment

End of Phase 3 School-based Assessment document

There is only one formal lesson observation form that is used throughout the course. 

Please click the link below to access this document:

Formal Lesson Observation Form - Secondary ITT

To help expert colleagues understand and unpick the CCF themes, we have produced a useful summary document, cross-referenced to key theorists and sources, which you can access from the link below:

The ITT Core Content Framework - summary and key research document

Guidance Notes for Completion of Formal Lesson Observation Forms 

1. The Trainee Teacher will require 1 formal lesson observation per week. In Phase 1 all trainees should aim to have at least 1 form completed before the October half term and then one a week afterwards. In Phase 2 trainees should have 1 form completed by the end of January and then one per week after that throughout the rest of Phase 2. In Phase 3 trainees should have a minimum of 6 forms completed. Lesson observations are not  graded. 

2. The named Subject Mentor is responsible for the completion of the Lesson Observation forms, except where they have arranged for another member of the department to observe a lesson.

3. The Subject Mentor must ensure that all other members of the department working with Trainee Teachers know how the forms should be completed to provide appropriate evidence.

4. Trainee Teachers should always complete the headings sections on the front page for the observer and set the focus for the observation where indicated. The agreed focus for the lesson should stem from the mentor record/discussions with the Subject Mentor prior to the formal observation taking place.

5. The aim of the observation is to try and provide detailed and focused feedback on the agreed focus areas, avoiding cognitive overload or too many targets for the trainee to focus on. There is space on the back of the form for any general points to note during the observation, but these should be kept to a minimum.

6. If the observer is not the Subject Mentor, the observation should be briefly discussed and targets agreed. The Subject Mentor is responsible for coordinating the target setting and ensuring that targets set by observers are progressive.

7. Some of these observation forms will be used as a basis for the Professional Interviews during the year. They are important documents and form part of the formal assessment process. They should be made available to the Trainee Teachers as soon as possible after the observed lesson if they are to contribute to formative development. They are also required by OFSTED as part of the assessment and grading of ITT programmes.

8. Formal observations should be followed up by verbal feedback as soon as possible after the observation. There is advice and guidance on how to give effective feedback to trainees on this website.

Please note that Early Career Teachers (ECTs) may not formally observe and assess trainee teachers.

Trainees will have a booklet for informal lesson observations. When a trainee is teaching their full teaching load for that Phase they should have 3 informal lesson observations completed each week. These observations can be done by the mentor or any other member of staff working with the trainee.

Please download the Informal Lesson Observations Booklet here.

Informal Lesson Observations

Rationale

There are a number of aims for the informal lesson observation booklet.

1. The school and the trainee can map the progress of the trainee.

2. To ensure that positives as well as areas for development are highlighted.

3. To ensure that the trainee is not getting mixed messages in their feedback

4. To focus areas of development into smaller manageable targets with specific strategies to move the trainee forward in the classroom.

5. To give the subject mentor an overview of the advice and feedback that teachers are giving the trainees.

So that:

1. This will then enable the mentor, during their weekly meetings with trainees, to ensure appropriate, focused and manageable target setting is taking place.

2. The mentor can then liaise prudently with supporting teachers to ensure that all teachers working with the trainee are clear on the overall targets the trainee is trying to develop at any one time.

Consequently:

1. All teachers working with  the trainees should use this format when feeding back to trainees.

2. The expectation is that when the trainee is approaching their full teaching load for the phase there are 3 informal observations recorded each week.

Click here for the suggested professional studies planning document: Professional Studies Planning Document

The document above outlines a suggested professional studies programme for school-based training that will provide the best alignment with the university-led ITT curriculum. It is intended to show progression and ensures the ITT Core Content Framework is being embedded. This is a core programme and, whilst it goes beyond the Core Content requirements, schools should continue to offer trainees any additional training/experiences that they feel will support their professional development. 

Wherever possible, all school-based training sessions should draw their learning objectives from the relevant language of the ITT Core Content Framework, and include reference to the key research cited within this. School-based training should contextualise and extend the university-based training by showing trainees how those theories and approaches are applied in practice in a real school setting. 

On the trainee’s mentor record, the ‘learn how to…’ activities are broken down week by week to provide a sequenced and coherent learning experience that complements the university and school-led training programmes. It is worth highlighting that this is the start of a 3 year training programme, which leads into the ECT years aligned with the Early Career Framework.

Broad training rationale

The course is divided into 3 phases and, broadly speaking, we expect to see trainees progress in the following way:

• PHASE 1 There is an explicit focus on developing strong subject knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and lesson planning skills to ensure high quality teaching in Phase 1. A key focus in this phase is also behaviour management. Trainees will begin to be involved in pupil assessment and will start to adapt their teaching to meet different needs. 

• PHASE 2 As lesson planning and behaviour management becomes more secure, trainees should be adapting their teaching effectively in a range of ways to meet the broad needs of learners. Trainees will start to refine more complex teaching skills such as developing questioning and using pupil data for more targeted interventions.

• PHASE 3 Trainees will now be sharply focused on pupil progress over time and deploy a range of summative and formative assessment strategies effectively. Planning will take account of assessment outcomes and individual needs, informed by strong subject and pedagogical knowledge at this stage.

This is a key document that will be kept as a Google Doc and shared with the subject mentor and course leader. It must be updated weekly by the trainee during, or shortly after, the mentor meeting and its completion will be monitored.

For each week a range of mentoring discussions, lesson observations, and other activities are specified. What is expected in relation to each activity is explained in the mentoring record. It is expected that most activities will take place in the weeks specified, although there is flexibility with some elements depending on your school’s calendar. All of these mentoring activities must be completed by the end of the course to ensure full coverage of the 'learn how to...' statements in the core content framework. 

You can download a 2022 mentoring record here: 2022 Mentoring Record

To help with target setting we have produced a useful summary of the ITT Core Content, broken down into the key themes. You can download a copy here: ITT Core Content - Summary and Key Research Document

The following extract from 'How to be a Brilliant Mentor', edited by Trevor Wright, shows how big targets can be broken down into simple strategies or steps to achieve them:

Setting specific targets - extract from 'How to be a Brilliant Mentor'.

Download the mentor profile form. Please let the Course Leader for your subject have an updated copy as soon as possible. 

To keep our mentors up to date with course developments we issue 2 newsletters each year, one in the Autumn term and one in the Spring term. 

Recent newsletters:

2022/2023 Secondary ITT calendar

2022/2023 Secondary School Direct calendar

The national standards for school based ITT Mentors

You can download the subject handbooks below. These will show you what trainees are covering in their central university training and when they are covering it. We are always keen for mentors to contribute to University training so do contact the relevant Course Leader if you would like to be involved.

Updates to handbooks will be added shortly.