Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Placing students in schools
Placement Readiness Criteria
The indicators of progress outlined below are used to determine whether a student is deemed ‘ready’ to start their placement.
For undergraduate student, a placement readiness check is built into the School Placement (SP) module. This is an assessment point led by the Personal Tutor to determine if a student is ready to start their placement. For postgraduate students, placement readiness is considered by everyone on the course team. In both circumstances, placement readiness considers the following:
- Wellbeing – If a student is struggling with their wellbeing it is important that they let their personal tutor know so that they can ensure they are being fully supported. This would not prevent someone from being deemed not ready to start placement, but students may have mitigating factors as to why they cannot start their placement which need to be taken into account. These students will be considered at Placement Mitigation and Concerns Panels.
- Attendance – As a student on a professionally orientated course your attendance in taught sessions is a required part of your preparation for teaching. As most of such sessions are practical based or involve working collaboratively with other students, it is not possible to make up missed work through reading or by copying notes as might be the case for courses which are more conventionally academic and do not have a placement requirement. Attendance at all taught module sessions is compulsory and will be closely monitored. If you are unavoidably absent you must inform your module tutor on the day of absence and ensure that you engage with session materials available in My Beckett. If your absence becomes a cause for concern the University Attendance and Engagement Policy will be followed, initially through contact by your Personal Tutor or Level Leader. Serious concerns with your attendance can lead to you not being placed in school and being required to undertake a placement resit if your PREP targets have been successfully met. On UG, students will be allowed to attend their Holistic Placement irrespective of their attendance, but any students of concern will have it flagged to them by their Personal Tutor that failure to improve will result in them not being able to start Phase 1.
- Assignment outcomes – any non-submissions will be viewed as a concern unless a student has applied for mitigation or flagged any issues to their course team. Failure to submit assignments could result in a student not starting a placement.
- Wider Engagement in the Course – issues may be flagged from the wider course team regarding issues over engagement/professionalism on the course. This may result in the need for an intervention from the Personal Tutor and possibly the initiation of a PREP.
Timings for triggering this process:
Any students are at risk of not going out on placement must work with their Personal Tutor to complete a PREP prior to starting their placement. Personal Tutors must notify the placement team of any students who are being placed on a PREP as well as the outcome of this. The latest date that this process can be triggered for students is four weeks before starting their placement. The latest a Personal Tutor can notify the Placement Team that the student is not going out on placement is two weeks before the first day of the placement. Students who do not meet the terms of their PREP will be informed that they will not be starting their placement and the implications of this. The Placements Team will notify the placement school if they have been allocated a student who is no longer able to complete a placement with them.
The Partnership Team are responsible for the recruitment of ITE placements. The matching of students to placement offers is an academic decision undertaken in collaboration with the Partnership Team and all details will be relayed via InPlace. We take great care to match students to host schools in order that the training we deliver is compliant with QTS criteria and gives students the opportunity to experience different settings and meet the requirements for QTS.
Matching placements requires considerable commitment in terms of time, effort and motivation. We choose each placement school based on a consideration of students’ individual needs to give students the broadest possible experience of a range of good schools during their studies. Among the factors we consider are:
- the travel time to the placement
- the type of school (urban, rural etc.)
- the key stage of the placement
- any subject specialism at the school
- the expertise of Mentors at the school.
Transport to and from the school can be very difficult to arrange and often involves setting off at 6am and returning home after 6pm. It is expected that students will have to comply with the transport policy arrangements and the decisions of the Partnership Team.
Types of placements
Primary undergraduate students may be placed in pairs in their Holistic, Phase 1 or Phase 2 placements or placed as individual students in separate classes. Increasingly in initial teacher education (ITE), collaborative teaching is being recognised as a valuable means of professional development at all stages from student teacher to highly experienced/senior member of staff. It is widely recognised that people will be working together and supporting each other to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Team teaching, Mentoring, peer coaching, joint planning, mutual observation and feedback are increasingly becoming a normal part of school life. The university recognises the benefits of such collaborative approaches by incorporating opportunities to undertake group or paired placements where appropriate.
Attendance
Full attendance at the placement school is expected from students. We understand that there will be occasions when students cannot attend because they are unwell or because they have a professional commitment such as a job interview. If a student is unable to go into the placement setting on a day that they are scheduled to attend, this procedure must be followed:
- Contact the Placement School as soon as possible by telephone and follow the school’s staff absence reporting procedures. It is helpful if an indication as to the length of absence can be given.
- Contact the Partnership Team on 0113 812 1761 or carnegie.partnerships@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
- Contact the university Lead Mentor.
On each subsequent day that the student remains unable to attend the placement, advise the Placement School, the Partnership Team and the university Lead Mentor as early as possible that day.
Should the absence extend for more than five working days a medical certificate is required. A copy of the certificate must be sent to the Partnership Team. The Partnership Team will then liaise with the school on behalf of the student until they are ready to return.
If you are off work for more than seven working days, depending on the nature of your illness, you may need a fit note (or Statement of Fitness for Work) from a healthcare professional. Fit notes are sometimes referred to as medical statements or doctor's notes.
Schools are usually understanding about allowing students time off for job interviews at other schools. In each case, students should engage in a professional and courteous discussion with their school-based Mentor and others at their host school. Your absence as a student can have consequences for the school who will need to make arrangements to cover lessons so the earlier you can let the school know about an absence the better.
Note, it is not reasonable to expect a school to allow time off for visits to schools a student is thinking of applying to, as this could run into many days off placement. In these cases, you should be able to gather enough information from a school’s website, and/or via a telephone conversation with a senior leader at the school.
If you know you will require an absence for a particular reason (for example, funeral, hospital appointment), you must:
- Complete a leave of absence form which can be obtained from the Placements Team to have this absence authorised by Level Leads. This form must be submitted at least five working days before the first day of absence.
- Get approval for this absence from your placement school via a discussion with your school-based Mentor (and if appropriate, the Headteacher). They need to consider whether this absence will impact you making expected progress or meeting the Teachers’ Standards.
As the placement dates are known from the start of each year, there are certain absences that will not be approved nor authorised, for example:
- Driving tests or holidays booked after the course has started
- Routine doctor or dentist appointments unless an emergency
In line with Department for Education requirements, all student attendance must be rigorously recorded and monitored.
In cases of extensive absence (five days or more), the university Lead Mentor and school-based Mentor may instigate a support plan.
Absence for Religious Observance
- Students have a responsibility to notify the Placements Team of any date on which their religion requires them to be absent from their school placement. Students must complete a leave of absence form which can be obtained from the Placements Team to have this absence approved or not.
- Students must make such requests well in advance of the actual date.
- The university will give appropriate and sympathetic consideration to requests for leave from students specifically wishing to participate in their religious festivals and observance. Such requests should not be unreasonably refused and will be accommodated where it is practical to do so.
- As with all requests for authorised absence, those for religious reasons will be considered based on:
- The degree of impact on learning, progress and the placement school;
- Whether additional learning exists which will enable the student to catch up on missed opportunities;
- The proposed period of absence
- With regards to prayer:
- Where prayer periods span a range of times, a student should arrange to pray when they are not expected to be in the classroom.
- If there is one set time for prayer, a student should discuss this with their Mentor at the start of their placement to determine if their teaching timetable can accommodate this.
- If needed, a student should inquire with their Mentor whether there is a private space or room in school that they might be able to use for prayer.
Attending School Residential Trips
It may be that during placement, you are invited to take part in a school residential trip, for example, a sports/ski trip, fieldtrip, retreat or subject related trip. These trips can broaden your experience as a student teacher and help to develop relationships with colleagues and pupils, however, this will likely mean time away from teaching practice on your placement. If you wish to attend a school residential trip:
- You must discuss this trip with your Lead Mentor.
- You must be making expected progress in all Core Areas or Teachers’ Standards.
- Your Professional/Associate Mentor and Lead Mentor must not have any concerns about the impact of your attendance on this trip.
- The trip must not impact on your Progress Review or Final Review.
- The trip must not impact on any university work deadlines.
- If it is agreed that you can attend the trip, you must inform the Placements Team.
It is very important that if it is agreed that you can attend the trip you must remain committed to it. The school will be relying on you as a staff member on this trip, you will be contributing to the correct staff:pupil ratio and if you change your mind, you could jeopardise whether the trip can take place.
Travel policy
School placements are an integral part of our ITE courses, and the nature of our Partnership means that students may be expected to travel considerable distances to attend placements.
We expect students to meet their own travel costs (students do get a higher grant from Student Finance England to support training to become a teacher). Students who choose to use taxis / private hire vehicles do so at their own expense. Financial help (such as the Hardship Fund) may be available for certain students, though it is likely students will still have to make some contribution to travel costs.
Our Partnership is spread across a wide geographical area to ensure that we have a variety of settings to support student needs, but the core areas are Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale.
Students are expected to fully engage in all school activities and schools may have an expectation for students to be in attendance from 8am to 4.30pm or later.
The university considers journey times of up to 90 minutes each way, to and from placement, to be acceptable as a standard commute. We do not take into consideration traffic. On average, most journeys by public transport or car will take one hour.
For calculating approximate journey times, the Placement Office use the term time address of the student found on InPlace or provided on your student profile prior to you joining the university and refer to Google Maps for both car travel and for public transport. Please ensure that your address is correct and up to date, particularly if you are on a three-year course and could change address each academic year.
All students using their own vehicle must ensure that their motor insurance covers them for travel to and from their placement or activity of the placement, as the insurer may not deem this to be Social, Domestic and Pleasure cover (SD&P). The University does not hold this cover or accept any responsibility or liability for damage caused to your or third-party vehicles and property. We support ride sharing students as a means of controlling costs and the environmental impact of student travel. We do recommend that where students share cars, they should make a clear agreement prior to the start of the sharing including about dividing up the costs of fuel.
Adverse weather
- All schools should have a policy in place for actions to be taken when there are adverse weather conditions that may affect their opening. Students should always follow the school procedures that are in place. Please check with your placement school what their adverse weather policy is at the beginning of the placement and make sure you make a record of this.
- Schools should ensure that students are aware of the school/local authority policy and how they will communicate with them if the school is closed. Many schools have arrangements with local radio stations and have texting/answerphone/website facilities to communicate with staff/students/parents.
- If a student is unsure whether their placement school is opening, they need to make contact with the school or Professional/Associate Mentor as soon as possible. If the placement school does close, the student will also need to inform the Partnership Team on Carnegie.partnerships@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or call 0113 812 1761. They will need to inform their University Lead Mentor as well. This needs to be done before 9am.
- It would be reasonable to expect that if the school is closed, students will use this time to undertake appropriate work-related activities. Students would need to make contact with the school-based Mentor/ class teacher to ask what work you can do.
- If the school is open as usual, students should make all reasonable efforts to get into work. This means assessing the availability of public transport or, if they normally drive to work and are unable to do so, considering the feasibility of walking to work if they live relatively close and are fit and able to do so. If a student is going to be late to placement due to the weather conditions, they will need to keep the school updated regularly.
Exceptional circumstances (bus or train strike)
- Please speak to your Placement School about the situation you are in to ask their advice and see if there is any way that they can help you commute to placement during the strike. There is a chance that one of the school staff members who drives may live in a similar area to you and be able to drive you all or part of the journey.
- Contact the Partnership Team on Carnegie.partnerships@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or 0113 812 1761 and your university Lead Mentor as soon as you know there is going to be an issue and let us know. We will look at various options internally to see if we can help and feed these back to you as soon as possible.
- If you have absolutely no way of getting into school students will use this time to undertake appropriate work-related activities in line with instructions from your Placement School or school-based Mentor.
