(Y1) Personal and Professional

Development 1 – Understanding

the Role of the Teacher 50 50

Understanding the Early Years Foundation Stage : Curriculum and Pedagogy

40 60

Multi-Agency Practice for Children 100 Developing an Understanding of Development 2 : Teaching in the Broader Context

40 / 60 Inclusive Practice 2 : Meeting the

needs of EAL Leaners / Behaviour Management

50 50

Developing Subject Knowledge and

Understanding of the Core Subjects 50 Pass

/ Fail 50

Developing as a Subject Specialist 100

MIS 100

Professional Practice 2 Pass

/Fail

Pass / fail

How is feedback from students gathered and used in course design/

enhancement?

As this is a small cohort of the students, the course leader and module staff quickly get to know the individual students. This enables the informal identification and addressing of issues very early, usually before they become serious concerns. Feedback is also gathered from students through: Focus Group meetings; Course Enhancement meetings;

Annual Review meeting; module evaluations; Graduating Trainee Survey; Newly Qualified Teacher Survey.

These all feed into the annual review and a course action plan is produced every year.

An example of how this has impacted on the course in previous years was the creation of the Inclusive Practice 2 module in the previous periodic review of the course, which was based on feedback from existing students and NQTs that they felt there needed to be a more specific focus on supporting children with English as an additional language and also more input on behaviour management.

How is feedback about the course given to students?

The feedback is given to the students verbally by the course leader, and through the course STARs.

Indicators of Quality and Standards Rationale for Change

We are reviewing all our Undergraduate courses, drawing on past and current successes, to ensure that all courses are:

• Focused on student and employer needs and demands

• Supported by consistently good teaching

• Designed to offer all students work related learning and participation in volunteering and/or international exchange.

• Integrated with technology

• Underpinned by effective resources, both physical and virtual

We are listening to students, employers and professional bodies. We are simplifying the course structures, clarifying course content, ensuring summative assessment is balanced and timely and reviewing all course titles.

Refocusing of the Undergraduate curriculum will ensure that our graduates are distinguished by three overarching features:

• Enterprising

• Digitally Literate

• Global Outlooks

As a result of Refocusing the Undergraduate Curriculum we will:

• Improve student progression, achievement and employability

• Enhance the market attractiveness of our Undergraduate portfolio

National Student Survey:

Because there are only a small number of students graduating each year, and due to several students transferring from existing Leeds Metropolitan University courses, the number of students eligible for completing the National Student Survey is below the individual course reporting level each year.

Teaching Quality Information

The statistics indicate that the course is producing quality newly qualified teachers who are highly valued by employers.

Due to effective teaching in 2013

33% of the students were awarded a first class honours degree 61% a 2.1 honours degree

6% a 2.2 honours degree.

The students complete the internal graduating survey at the end of their course, which is based on the national NQT survey. Within this survey, for the last three years 100% of the students rated the quality of their training to be good or very good; and in 2013 56%

rated their training very good and 44% good.

The students are very successful in achieving employment in teaching. By the end of May 2014, which is when the final placement ends, 12 out of the 18 students have secured employment, the majority at their first interview. Two students have been

offered NQT posts in their placement schools, and two other students have been asked if they will work until July with their placement classes.

Module Evaluation

The quality of the course was confirmed by OFSTED in June 2011 who rated provision as ‘Good’ in all areas. Quality is also monitored and assessed through:

 Two External Examiners who look at assessments and observe students teaching in schools (please refer to CAT-58 for further details)

 Analysis of data from NQT survey and graduating trainee survey in Annual review.

 Student and STAR input through Course Enhancement meetings. These are used to address short term issues relating to practicalities of course delivery as well as longer term development issues.

 Standardisation and moderation in assessment. All assessed tasks are assessed against clear criteria, which demonstrate how the assessed learning outcomes are exemplified within each marking band. This ensures a consistent approach to marking. In addition, all module assessments require a sample to be second marked

External Examiner Reports

The external examiners report on the three ECE QTS courses within one report. The external examiner reports were very positive. Pat Beckley identified that there were strong theoretical, pedagogical and practice links throughout the course. She felt the collaboration and sharing of ideas between the staff involved across all three

programmes, the sharing of relevant innovations and a desire to review and make appropriate adjustments to the course has led to the strength and high quality of the courses. Anne Swift identified that the courses all prepare the students well for their first teaching posts. She felt that “They have to work hard, organise their time well and self-evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses – which all demonstrate the skills they will need throughout their careers.” She also recognised that “In a period of rapid

change and shifts in government policy the students are well served in that the tutors are experts in their field and able to respond quickly by changing the course or module

content.” There were no key action points relating to this particular course in either report.

Research and Scholarly Activity

The course remains contemporary and relevant due to staff being involved in a range of activities such as working in Early Years settings, undertaking external examining posts;

undertaking research; writing academic books and book chapters; having research papers accepted for publication and conference presentations. More details of these activities can be found in staff CVs.

The expertise of tutors is very well respected in the field, and students benefit from their subject knowledge, research experiences and professional experience. Many members of the tutor team have published textbooks and journal articles, and these are used in the module teaching. All tutors have been teachers in schools and early childhood settings and they draw on their expertise, knowledge in their teaching and learning activities provided. Tutors are members of a range of specialist organisations – TACTYC;

NALDIC; BERA : EECERA are liaise with other tutors and teachers in the UK and internationally.

All tutors have been teachers in schools and early childhood settings and they draw on their expertise, knowledge in their teaching and learning activities provided.

Some of the tutors are members of specialist organisations such as – TACTYC, BERA and EECERA and liaise with other tutors and teachers in the UK and internationally.

Many of the staff are external examiners for a range of ITT courses throughout the UK and several staff have taught on ITT courses at other HE institutions and they therefore are able to draw on examples of good practice and integrate these in to the course design and delivery.

Staff Development

Staff maintain their personal and professional development in many ways including through the University’s internal PDR process. This enables them to identify

development needs and subsequently attend relevant training and conferences

across the university and beyond (see below). In addition to this staff maintain links with professional bodies and attend training and conferences to enable them to maintain a current view of the changes in Early Years and education in general.

Examples of recent training experiences have enabled staff to further their knowledge of: dyslexia; SEN; forest schools and outdoor learning; and systematic synthetic phonics.

Resources

The library on Headingley campus has a breadth of learning resources for students on Early Childhood Education courses. These not only include theoretical texts knowledge and research in the field, professional texts on teaching activities and experiences and key early childhood education academic journals online and paper, but also a school practice library that has a range of story and information books, teaching materials and practical resources for all primary and early years curriculum areas. The library has areas for individual study and collaborative learning and students can borrow laptops, video and digital recorders and use photocopying services. Students can read excellent examples of alumni Major Independent studies in the field to gain an

understanding of good academic work at level 6. Discover is the Library search engine providing fast, easy access to many Library resources in a single search and students are directed towards the following - ChildData; National Children's Bureau; PsycINFO: Social Care Online. The library information resources include books and e-books; journals and e-journals; newspapers and news items;

information databases; websites; document summary service; reference collections and statistics. The library provides information on Childhood and Child Welfare; Social Policy; Families; Child Poverty; Child Development and Learning; Play; Special Needs; Government Information; Current Research. The Skills for Learning website and workshops supports students’ research skills.

There are a wide range of subject specific electronic journals available, which are accessible on and off campus, including British Educational Research Journal, Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early

Years, An International Journal of Research and Development, Education 3-13, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, International Journal of Early Years Education, International Journal of Play.

The current ‘Libraries and Learning Innovation Service Statement’ contains more details of the range of resources, learning environments, technologies, and help and support available

The School Partnership is obviously the key resource for this course as the students experience at least one placement per year in a school/early years setting in the partnership. Each student has several teaching practice placements across the early years foundation stage, key stage 1 and 2 and these will be in nurseries, children’s centres, infant and primary schools in varied catchment areas, possibly rural as well as urban and suburban.

All first year students have to attend the course residential in semester one, which is designed to develop team work and communication skills, as well as developing an understanding of how to use the outdoor learning environment. Members of staff accompany the students to form relationships, induct students into the course ideology and ethos, develop the expectations for outstanding early years teachers (working with children aged 3 – 7 years) and involve the students in a range of exciting and appropriate educational activities relevant for their own development and for future teaching of children. Students and staff participate in the outdoor activities organised by Carnegie Great Outdoors. Students also undertake outdoor practical experiences at Headingley Campus in the Landscape and Resource Centre.