Student Teachers
"Every great journey has a story, you may be in ours. If your destination is greatness then we will be in yours."
The School of Education is strongly committed to partnership-led teacher education. The Partnership shares a vision and commitment built on values of mutual respect to support the development of high quality teachers. We recognise that the quality of our students gaining Qualified Teacher Status is dependent on the valuable work carried out in schools and ensuring a collaborative approach is maintained at every stage of the management and delivery process.
School Partnership Involvement Case Study 2022 - Grove Street Primary
Context
We have strong partnerships with our Partnership and leading schools - we work closely with expert teachers to ensure that we ‘discuss and analyse with expert colleagues’ (CCF) how to support the trainees with teaching English/phonics/Maths, as well as mentoring trainees.
Intent
There are set criteria for lead schools, which we use as a way of ensuring that our English partnership is robust. This includes being in active Partnership with Liverpool Hope University; showing evidence of good/outstanding teaching and pupil progress in aspects of English; contribution to local and school CPD community; able to evidence innovative practices and/or a whole-school approach to teaching, learning and assessment of English (see Grove Street pen portrait document).
Implementation
Lead English school
The English lead from Grove Street attends Lead Schools meetings, where we meet termly to share good practice, discuss new initiatives and whole school events. We have been able to offer opportunities to our lead English schools, for instance ‘an audience with Frank Cottrell Boyce’ (author in residence and Professor of Reading at Hope – see separate impact study) and ‘An Audience with Ofsted’ with HMIs Kirsty Godfrey and Phil Minns delivering lectures on Reading Deep Dives and the EY Framework respectively; the English lead attended both these sessions. In Lead English school meetings, areas for development are identified for the trainees in partnership schools, which then informs our workshops and interventions. Students have also visited Grove Street to observe English and phonics lessons, as part of their Focus Weeks. Additionally, the English lead and UKS2 lead presented to year 3 English ESA students about the ‘Accelerated Reader’ programme.
The Head of English at Hope has spent time at Grove Street observing Fluency Friday, as well as looking at the English scheme ‘Pathways to Write’ and observing English and phonics lessons in her role as PPT. As Head of English, she has also been involved in learning walks looking at guided reading in year 3 and 4, and then doing demonstration lessons in guided reading and reciprocal reading (UKS2), with follow up coaching sessions.
Although Grove Street were originally invited to be a lead English school, the school’s involvement with Hope has diversified and they have played a key role in both mentoring and subject teams:
Lead Maths School
KS1 and KS2 Maths subject leaders have more recently also developed links with Liverpool Hope Maths team (see feedback below for impact).
Lead Mentor
The PLC has assiduously fulfilled this role for four years, working closely with the PLC and supporting mentors within school to build an expert mentoring team (all staff have mentored at least one student most years). Having worked closely with Liverpool Hope over a period of several years, observing and supporting numerous students each year, the PLC at Grove Street was recommended by the PPT to be a lead mentor, which involves working with key members of staff at Hope University as part of a working party to create and evaluate key documents. Key documents created by the English lead at Liverpool Hope University, such as the subject-specific phonics observation form, and more recently, the English subject-specific observation form have been trialled with students at Grove Street. Furthermore, the PPT and PLC observed an English lesson with a Hope student and filmed the feedback session as an exemplar for mentors and PLCs as part of the PLC training. An exemplar lesson observation and exemplar weekly review meeting were written by the PPT to be used alongside the recording for mentor training and the Partnership hub. Alongside the PPT, Grove Street has hosted two external examiner visits, which has involved the external examiners doing joint observations and talking to the PLC, PPT and all student teachers. The PLC was also interviewed by Ofsted about the mentor role and their experience as a Partnership school.
Early Years’ Development Group Partnership
The Headteacher at Grove Street and the Early Years’ Lead are key members of the Liverpool Hope Early Years’ Strategic Development Group. Their ideas have been sought and have contributed to the design of the BA Early Education with QTS degree and the new Communication and Language Enhanced Specialist Area of this programme.
Both the Headteacher and the Early Years’ Lead have delivered early years’ sessions to both the undergraduate and postgraduate provision. Sessions have included their experience in using the Leuven, ECERS and SSTEW scales in their school and how Communication and Language is promoted and tracked through the early years’ provision at Grove Street.
The school has also hosted second year Early Education trainees on their Enabling Environments enhancement placement. The trainees have collaborated with staff at the school through supportive professional relationships, to plan and enhance an aspect of the Reception outdoor area.
QA role
Due to the success of the Lead Mentor role, the PLC was further recommended as a QA associate tutor, which involves visits to partner schools where mentor feedback is observed, evaluated and then fed back to the university. Feedback will be provided to the school and ways forward suggested linked to current research led practice.
Mock interviews
The Headteacher at Grove Street has worked with PGCE students doing mock interviews as part of their IPD sessions for the last four years, both face to face and via Zoom.
Impact
100% of PGCE students on placement at Grove Street are ‘making expected progress’. There have been no Targeted Support plans for students at Grove Street.
Feedback from PG students about the quality of mentoring and level of support:
Hope students finishing PPL January 2022:
Thanks so much for all your support during my placement. I have left Grove Street feeling so much more confident! You have the best team, everyone has been so welcoming. And I could not have asked for a better role model than Hannah, she is amazing!
I have had a great experience at Grove Street, Mrs Kingsley has been amazing and a credit to the school.
I appreciate everything each and everyone of you have done for me, and definitely made me realise I want to be a teacher.
I’ve absolutely loved my time at Grove street and I’m so grateful for the experience. Clare, Sal and Bebe have been absolutely amazing and I could not have had a better first placement! I will miss my class so much and everyone has been so welcoming since I’ve been there xx I hope my next school is as welcoming as Grove Street!
From having the opportunity to carry out my first teaching practice at Grove Street
Primary School, will be an experience I will never forget. I was so fortunate to have
been placed with my amazing mentor Sian, Sian went above and beyond her efforts
to support me in any possible way she could. Sian has played a huge part in shaping
my own teaching, from observing her high-quality practice Sian taught me valuable
teaching views I want to carry with me for the rest of my teaching career. I will
forever be so thankful to Sian and the rest of the amazing team at Grove Street for
this amazing experience.
End of placement evaluations from year 2 students:
100% of year 2 students made ‘expected progress’ on PPL 2 at Grove Street. There were no targeted support plans for year 2 students.
100% rated the following as outstanding:
- The induction into my placement was..
- The support I received with regard to lesson planning was…
- The quality of lesson observation feedback I received which then enabled me to impact on pupil progress was…
- The subject specific feedback I received that enabled me to develop my subject knowledge was…
- The support I received from my class teacher to review and set targets was…
- The communication I received from my Hope Professional Placement Tutor was…
- Overall my placement experience was…
My placement school were amazing, I cannot fault them in the slightest. They helped me with everything I needed help with which helped me improve so much within my professional development.
Not only did it change my perspective on teaching Year 6, but also it made me realise and adapt to teaching underprivileged children. It was eye-opening and extremely educational for me.
Feedback from Hope students/ECTs (2021-22):
I felt fully supported by my mentor, PLC and PPT during my PGCE at Grove Street. Mentor Meetings took place every week which ensured that my workload was manageable and my well-being was prioritised. My mentors were completely approachable if I had any queries or concerns about the placement and regularly checked-in to see how I was doing. My time at Grove Street was such an enjoyable experience due to the support I received and I am truly grateful for the opportunities I was given to enhance my teaching practice. I would not be the teacher I am today without the continued support I received at Grove Street. Due to having such a pleasurable experience, I applied for a job at Grove Street as a Year 4 teacher and this support has continued into my ECT year. (NP)
I had a lovely experience throughout my PGCE due to the support provided by my mentors, PLC and PPT. Transitioning into my second placement during such extenuating circumstances could have been a daunting experience, however, the support and reassurance received upon entering Grove Street made it a delightful encounter. Weekly mentor meetings and observations allowed for me to understand my own learning and next steps to better my practice.
As I begin my ECT journey I feel confident in my capabilities due to the tremendous support and positive feedback I have received from my ECT mentor. Although school is a high-pressure environment, I continuously feel supported and know that my mental health is a priority. Check-ins are a regular occurrence and I know that I can approach my ETC mentor with any concerns or queries. (SMc)
Feedback from PG Conference Day
Rachel planned and delivered a lecture to our PGCE students on Power Maths which focused on using schemes of work, planning for progress and modelling a lesson. This was a high quality lecture which was well received by our students. Rachel both engaged and enthused our trainees and we received great anecdotal feedback as well as some strong statistical data. I would like to thank both Rachel and Hannah (who I believe planned this day alongside Rachel) for their commitment to our students: it was very much appreciated by the Hope maths team and by our students. Please find this feedback below.
"Rachel was great, she really broke it down for us - showing us how to plan from a scheme of work."
"You could see how passionate Rachel was about Power Maths, and maths in general which made me feel excited about teaching it."
"I really enjoyed the lecture, I was a bit scared at first because she was picking us out to answer questions but it made me focus more and I was confident to answer because she had explained it so well. I would really like to be a student in her school, she seems very approachable and knowledgeable."
100% of students felt the lecture improved their confidence in teaching from a scheme.
Next Steps
The PPT/English lead plans to visit school to observe the teaching of oracy through the Voice 21 project. The English subject leader at Grove Street has also offered to deliver a lecture to students about Voice 21 and oracy next academic year.
We hope to develop lead English mentors to support with subject-specific feedback and mentoring - this is something we have discussed with English leads and they would like to be involved, working in triads with mentors from schools who need to develop the use of subject-specific feedback in English and phonics.
