Planning

How we expect students to plan whilst on placement

Planning is an essential part of student teacher learning whilst on placement and we expect our student teachers to develop this aspect of their practice throughout their course. Planning is not only an essential component of teaching, but also prominent in the Teachers’ Standards and core content framework. Helping with planning is a key way in which school-based Mentor can support a student teacher: a lesson plan is a means of joint communication between school-based Mentor and student as well as a scheme for teaching.

The Leeds Beckett University Approach to Student Teacher Planning

Planning is a skill which all student teachers need to acquire and the writing and sharing of lesson plans with school-based Mentors is an important way of developing that skill, as well as providing a channel of effective communication between student, school-based Mentor and university Lead Mentor. Lesson plans also provide good evidence of student progress and support students in reflecting and evaluating their teaching. We are also conscious of the need for students to learn to manage their workload during their course and to help with this, we have developed the following advice for how our students should plan.

General planning principles

• We expect school-based Mentor to give regular detailed feedback on students' lesson planning and for students to be encouraged to reflect critically on their planning.
• All lesson plans should be given to school-based Mentor at least 48 working hours before the lesson (or as agreed), i.e., we do not (and students should not) expect school-based Mentor to be working over weekends.
• Sometimes the norm in a school is that planning is based around schemes of work where, for example, planning has to fit to a weekly schedule. Where this happens, we expect students to work within the school framework, but we ask that school-based Mentor understand that students need to learn to plan independently and make planning their own. Less experienced students will often find more detailed planning easier to work from at the start of their course and we encourage students to make use of the detailed Leeds Beckett planning formats where school-based Mentor feel this is appropriate.
• For all students on all courses all lessons need planning on the Leeds Beckett full lesson plan found on PebblePad. PowerPoints, presentations and or slides alone do not constitute a lesson plan.
• Final phase students can use the Leeds Beckett full lesson plan, however, if their planning and teaching is going well, and through a conversation with their school-based Mentor and university Lead Mentor, students may choose to use either:
  • A simpler Leeds Beckett proforma (available on PebblePad)
  • The school’s own pre-existing lesson plans, as long as they annotate/adapt them to make them their own.
• Students on all phases of placement are expected to produce a Leeds Beckett full lesson plan for each lesson where they are formally observed (i.e., their one weekly observation and their observation during the Progress Review visit).
• If a student or school-based Mentor is concerned about any aspect of planning, they should contact the university Lead Mentor who will be able to advise.