There are four key strands which structure your learning and professional experience at university and in school:
Professional Standards and Practice
In this strand, we support you in understanding what it means to be a teacher. You will develop a deep knowledge and understanding of the statutory frameworks that teachers work within, which includes the Teachers' Standards that all teachers work towards, current Ofsted and Department for Education guidance, and best practice in meeting your legal and ethical obligations in key areas such as safeguarding, child protection and special educational needs.
Curriculum Knowledge and Pedagogy
Teachers need to be confident in working with all aspects of Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum. We will support you in building a strong knowledge base, particularly in the core subjects of English and Maths, and guide you in developing further subject knowledge independently.
We understand that we can't teach you the whole curriculum – and no teacher ever knows the full curriculum! Our focus is on preparing you with the understanding of how to develop your knowledge to teach a broad and balanced curriculum, and provide you with an understanding of subject and age-specific pedagogy which will equip you with the skills to plan, teach and assess across the curriculum confidently.
Theory into Practice
Teaching, and working with young children, is a complex profession. As teachers, we are surrounded by 'top tips' and 'quick fixes'. Sometimes the choice and advice given can seem bewildering. An important aspect of training to teach is developing your understanding of why we work in certain ways.
Why do we choose different assessment types? Why do we ask different types of questions? Why do we group children in different ways? Understanding the theory behind what works helps you to reflect professionally on these types of questions and sets you up to be confident in your own practice and decision making.
Teaching in the Primary School
You can't become a primary teacher without experiencing the classroom. In each year of the programme you will spend a substantial block of time working alongside excellent practitioners in our partnership of Early Years and Primary settings.
We support you to build your skills gradually: from working with individual children at the start of your training, to planning and teaching sequences of lessons, to taking on the role as class teacher in your final placement. Along the way you are always supported by a school mentor.
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At Leeds Trinity we aim to provide an excellent student experience and a personal approach to helping students achieve their academic and professional potential. We have a strong tradition of supporting student employability, with relevant skills embedded in the curriculum and professional work placements included in all our undergraduate programmes.
The key themes of our strategy are student confidence, professionalism and social responsibility. To help students achieve their potential we emphasise learning as a collaborative process, with a range of student-led and directed activities. This approach ensures that students fully engage in shaping their own learning, developing their critical thinking and reflective skills so that they can identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and use the extensive learning support system we offer to shape their own development. Our full Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy can be accessed
here.
Modules on this programme are delivered through a combination of lectures and small group tutorials/seminars. In primary education we are aware that students learn best when able to draw on their own and others' experiences and ideas, so we include opportunities within teaching sessions for group work and discussion. We have excellent teaching facilities which include resources and ICT that would be found in schools so that there is opportunity to practise new skills with tutor support.
On this programme students undertake periods of school based training in each year. In order to meet the Teachers' Standards (2012) students will be assessed in each placement and will receive detailed formative feedback and target setting with school and college staff. Over the programme of the 3-year programme students will spend 24 weeks on school based training in two partnership schools. Leeds Trinity has been graded as outstanding in partnership and has a strong relationship with over 300 schools across the region.
In addition to these 24 weeks, students have a 2-week alternative professional work placement which can be in a setting other than a mainstream primary school such as a special school; hospital school; school abroad; museum education centre; children's centre.
We are aware that many students want to teach in Catholic schools, so we also offer the Catholic Certificate in Religious Studies as an addition to the core programmes. Students can also request to have a placement in a Catholic school, which we aim to accommodate. Our history as a provider of teachers for Catholic schools goes back over 40 years and we are proud of our relationship with the diocesan schools from Leeds and surrounding areas.
You will have the opportunity throughout the programme to engage in extra-curricular activities and volunteering related to teaching. The department arranges occasional seminars and presentations from outside agencies which enhance student awareness, for example in 2012 we presented an evening related to Regio Emilia from teachers who had adapted the approach for their own classrooms. Other activities have included a forest school club; music sessions; trips to cemeteries and archaeological sites – all of which enhance the student experience and relate well to teaching.
We make extensive use of Moodle, Leeds Trinity's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), to support class sessions, and of e-resources to enable 24/7 access to learning materials from off-campus.
Assessment
A variety of assessment methods are used, matched to the learning outcomes for the programme, to enable students to demonstrate the full range of knowledge and skills that they have developed. There is some scope for students to be involved in negotiating and evaluating some assessment.
Assessments tailored to this programme include formative assessments where you will be provided opportunities to develop new skills and receive feedback from tutors prior to completing the final assessment for the module. These will include presentations, group tasks, reports and audits. Assessments will use a variety of media and can include practical as well as purely academic elements.
On this programme there are some assessments which are marked on a pass/fail basis rather than graded. Please note that these assessments are excluded from the calculations made to produce the figures published in the Key Information Set (KIS) for this programme/subject.
The Primary Education programmes have been carefully designed to ensure that you receive the opportunity to be assessed in all skills that you will require as a professional teacher, so you do not get a choice about the style of assessment. However, there are opportunities as the programme progresses to develop areas of interest either in essays or for research.
In addition to each of your module assessments you will take a programme level assessment in each of the first and second year of your programme. This is designed to assess your understanding of everything you have been taught and to help you to understand how different elements of your degree fit together to make a coherent programme.
You will be given weekly directed activities to complete in each module. These will contribute marks towards the final module assessment and reward engagement with the content of the module. They will also help you to check your understanding of what has been taught. Some of these activities may include further reading or preparation tasks for seminars. Some of the tasks will be completed online and may include quizzes which provide you with instant feedback on your understanding of the module content. In some modules lecturers may place some of the taught content on videos which you may be required to watch prior to attending a class. This will free up time for you to work on meaningful projects in class.
On this programme there are some assessments which are marked on a pass/fail basis rather than graded. Please note that these assessments are excluded from the calculations made to produce the figures published in the Key Information Set (KIS) for this programme/subject.
