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Welcome from the Programme Director

Welcome to the Primary Postgraduate Initial Teacher Education (PG ITE) Programme. We are delighted that you will be joining us in the 2024-2025 academic year, and we very much look forward to seeing you in September. Please navigate around the site carefully to access key information. You may be interested to know that the IoE has recently had an Ofsted inspection. You can read our press release here.
Please note: This site is for those recruited directly by the University and not for those who applied through our Lead Partners. 

Scarlett Murphy

PG ITE Programme Director

Programme contacts

Scarlett Murphy, Programme Director

Georgia Aspinox, Assistant Director

Phil Smith-Stevenson, Assistant Director

Liz Henley, Placement Coordinator

Jessica Tyers, PGCE Administrator

Admissions

Placements

The survey is now live. 

Please complete as soon as possible, as fully as possible, to help Liz Henley (Placements Coordinator) to make appropriate arrangements.

If you have contacts with a school, then please let us know - Liz will follow up the information you give us and will make the final arrangements.

If there are technical issues with the survey, then please try a different browser of a different computer.

If this doesn't work then please contact Liz:

ioeschoolplacements@reading.ac.uk

Your conditional offer

In order for your conditional offer to become unconditional you must address all the aspects of your offer including:

  • Proof of qualifications
  • Fitness to Teach
  • DBS

This must be done by enrolment. Please note that we will not be able to enrol you unless all conditions have been met. 

Please look out for the emails with instructions for obtaining your Fitness to Teach and your Enhanced DBS clearance. You should have provided the ID documents for your DBS check when you came for your interview but the admissions team will contact you if anything further is needed. Please respond to any emails from the team requesting information as quickly as possible.

You will need to show the original of your qualification certificates at enrolment in September.

Meeting these conditions takes time (in our experience, they often take far longer than expected). Please DO NOT leave it until the summer.  You risk running out of time and not being able to enrol.

International students

If you are an international student, please visit our living and studying in the UK webpage for additional guidance on how we can support you in joining our programme and university.

We also recommend visiting the University’s Essentials website. There is a specifically designed section to support international students offering lots of advice and information on things like accommodation, opening up a bank account, health care, visas and even things like culture shock. 

 You can also contact the International Student Advisory team for support on visas and immigration advice. 

 

Welcome and Induction

Online enrolment

Online enrolment is the first step you need to take towards becoming a fully enrolled Reading Partnership Teacher. Please look out for the email with instructions for online enrolment which you should receive during August or when you have met all the conditions of your offer. You must complete online enrolment before coming to campus to collect your campus card.

In-person enrolment and first week

Your timetable for the first week outlines where to go on your first day on campus – Thursday 5 September 2024. Your first day will be on our Whiteknights campus and will start at 9:30am.

During the day you will have your in-person enrolment. You will need to report to the Carrington Building Helpdesk (no. 135 on map) at the times instructed.

During lunchtime you will also have the opportunity to attend the University Life fair at the Meadow Suite on the Whiteknights Campus.

Equipment for your training 

We try to keep printing for our university-based sessions to a minimum. This means that it is often useful if you can access materials electronically, either live from our VLE (Blackboard) or by downloading materials in advance and accessing them on a laptop or tablet during the session. These documents are very difficult to access effectively through a phone screen, so it is likely that you will want to be able to bring a laptop or table to sessions. Although many schools do try to support student teachers by providing laptops, they are not funded for this and are not always able to do so. 

Preparation for your ITE year 

Background Information and Key Documents

The Teacher Standards: Please download the Standards and guidance.

Please read and begin to become familiar with the terminology.

These standards apply to all teachers regardless of their career stage and define the minimum level of practice expected of teachers from the point of being awarded QTS onwards.

The Teachers' Standards on one page is a particularly useful document - please make sure you keep it handy.

Frameworks

You should access, bookmark and begin to become familiar with these frameworks.

  • Core Content Framework 
    The Initial Teacher Education (ITE) core content framework defines in detail the minimum entitlement of all student teachers. Drawing on the best available evidence, it sets out the content that ITE providers and their partnerships must draw upon when designing and delivering their ITE programmes.

    The ITE core content framework aligns with the Early Career Framework to establish an entitlement to a 3 or more year structured package of support for all new teachers at the start of their careers.
  • Early Year Framework - particularly if you are on the 3-7 pathway. 

Primary PG ITE Information Evening

The Information evening was held on Thursday 11 July. If you were not able to attend, or would like a recap, please watch the recording.

Provisional timetable for your academic year

Pre-programme course information

 The following documents contain all the information you need to get started on the programme.

• Course structure: this document gives you an overview of your training year so that you know when you will be at university, in school and on vacation. 

• Pre-programme work: this sets out everything you need to do before the programme starts to make sure you are well-prepared. Read carefully!

• Initial needs: fill this out and follow the instructions regarding who to share it with – it ensures that your mentor and tutor can tailor the programme to your starting point and needs

• Fundamental skills: (literacy and numeracy): there are no longer any requirements to pass skills tests before starting your initial teacher education journey, however you will need to demonstrate these skills by the end of the year so it is never too early to start.

 

Subject Specific Tasks

Subject and pathway-specific tasks will be available prior to the course and will be put here.

  • Science - Please can you briefly read the science national curriculum document (you only need to read the KS1 and KS2 requirements) and make a note of anything you are unclear on. We will go through this in detail on the course, but this will give you a clear indication of what you might need to ‘brush up on’ knowledge and skills wise. 
    Do not worry if it is a lot at the moment - we will be going through much of it in the course. 

  • Science - Please fill out the science pre-course questionnaire. This is used by us at the university to help structure the course, and will inform the planning of the subject knowledge development sessions. Your first session in science will build upon the answers of this questionnaire - no identifying details will be shared during the session. 
    I ask that you are as honest as possible here: if you don’t like science, that is ok. If you absolutely love it, also great. If you had a bad experience of science at primary/secondary/university, please let me know. As with any good lesson, knowing what where you are starting from is critical.

  • Mathematics - Please read and complete the maths pre-programme tasks.

Please complete the tasks as outlined and bring them to your first week with us in September.

Subject Knowledge

All student teachers need to demonstrate certain standards of subject knowledge. This requirement was introduced because there is overwhelming research evidence to show that secure subject knowledge is essential for teachers to support children’s learning. Teachers feel more confident about effectively questioning children when their own subject knowledge is good.

The Teachers’ Standards require you to have sufficient subject knowledge to challenge the most able children. Although you may not train to teach the full age range, you will be qualified to teach in any Primary school and so we aim to provide you with the confidence to teach the curriculum to Year 6 children– even for EYFS trainees. You will be fully supported, through taught sessions and individual help as required, to go beyond this level. Core subject audits will give you an indication of your strengths and areas for further work.

You should revise any areas that have become a bit “rusty” and identify any areas where you will need to spend time in private study before the programme begins. . You will be better equipped to focus on teaching skills if you ensure that you arrive having already addressed any problems with subject knowledge to the best of your ability.

There are some very useful books to revise subject knowledge.

Open online courses

Also on offer and optional to complete are open online courses. These courses are designed to help prepare you and build your confidence in teaching primary school children, explore how you can best support children’s with English as an additional language or teach about climate and sustainability. These have been designed by Institute of Education academics. 

Limited free access is available or full access to a course requires a one-off payment or subscription to Future Learn. (Once enrolled with a University of Reading email address students may be able to gain full access for free.)

  1. Supporting successful learning in primary schools
  2. Teaching climate and sustainability in primary schools: an outdoor learning approach
  3. Understanding multilingual children’s language development