Placement Experience File and QTS Training and Development File
NB: The Placement Experience File and QTS Training and Development File are a requirement at any phase of training to meet the expectations of the placement and the ITE Curriculum. The file MUST be of a professional standard and meet all the requirements of the programme.Although student teacher files are working documents, they must also be of a professional standard and will be scrutinised by General Mentors and Lead Mentors (Liaison Tutors). They must be kept up to date and available at all times and will be part of the overall assessment of successfully achieving the ITE Curriculum and used at the end of the programme as evidence towards achieving the Teachers' Standards and the recommendation for QTS. They will be retained until the end of the course and may be examined by External Examiners for the course and Ofsted inspectors.
The Placement Experience File
The Placement Experience File needs to be organised and available for scrutiny. Student teachers are advised to keep all contents electronically, so they can be easily accessed by their General Mentor and Lead Mentor (Liaison Tutor). They must be available and kept securely, so LJMU’s OneDrive provision is recommended, so that all those involved in training are able to evaluate and monitor their quality.
The Placement Experience File should include, as a minimum:
- Timetable and Training Programme offered by the placement school
Planned events and activities. - Teaching and Learning Record
By class/group, schemes of work, units and subsequent lesson plans, resources, evaluation of lessons, action planning. - Records of pupil progress and attainment
Records of attendance, marks, grades, formative achievement and targets, samples of pupils’ work and marking for the classes and pupils taught. The information must be anonymised by the student teacher before sharing the file with their Lead Mentor (Liaison Tutor). - Whole School/Extra Curricular Activities
These can be subject specific or whole school activities (school trips, clubs, sporting activities, drama and music activities).
QTS Training and Development File
The QTS Training and Development File is an essential record of the training received in school, evidencing progress towards achieving LJMU’s ITE Curriculum and at the end of the programme meeting the Teachers' Standards and being recommended for Qualified Teacher Status. This file is thus the key mechanism for the Partnership to ensure and verify that each student teacher may be recommended for QTS at the end of their programme and will form part of the final assessment (triangulation).
The QTS Training and Development File along with the Placement Experience File(s) must be always available in school (the QTS Training and Development file is a One Drive folder and it is advisable that Placement Experience files are stored electronically too). Links should be shared with Lead Mentors (Liaison Tutors) and General Mentors.
Failure to maintain either file to an appropriate standard can result in failing to meet the Teachers' Standards for Professional Conduct.
QTS Training and Development File
This houses a record of the progress of a student teacher and the training and feedback which they have received during their programme. It MUST be organised and regularly updated. LJMU and expert colleagues in school have access to this file and will check it regularly. Student teachers must share a link with all relevant staff.
As a student of LJMU, all student teachers are entitled to download a full version of Office 365 from the LJMU website. OneDrive comes with this software. OneDrive is a cloud based storage providing access to files from any internet connected device. OneDrive provides 1TB (1000GB) of FREE storage for ALL LJMU students.
If a student teacher chooses to store their folders electronically in another way e.g. Google Drive, they must ensure it is 'backed up', cannot be lost if equipment fails and can easily be shared with their General Mentor and Lead Mentor (Liaison Tutor).
All student teachers should create a folder on their OneDrive called – 'QTS Training and Development File', which should then have 9 sub-folders as detailed below.
All student teachers need to systematically and regularly save appropriate documents in the right place. It is a student teachers’ responsibility to maintain their QTS Training and Development File.
The file and its sub folders must be organised and labelled as follows:
|
Title |
What you save in it. |
|---|---|
|
Sub-folder 1: |
Typed up records of weekly meetings with their General Mentor saved in DATE order. These should start from the first or second week in school. |
|
Sub-folder 2: |
Stored copies of any Lesson Analysis Forms (LAFs) of their own teaching completed electronically by General Mentor / PM or other expert colleagues in DATE order. These won’t generally start until Phase 2 (unless the student teacher is a School Led Salaried or UG Primary student teacher). Some General Mentors prefer to hand write observations on printed forms. These can be photographed or downloaded to a PDF scanner app to take a record of them e.g. Genius Scan and then uploaded to this on-line electronic folder. Observation records from General Mentors/expert colleagues should cover a range of key stages (and in primary a range of curriculum subjects, including Foundation Subjects). |
|
Sub-folder 3: |
Copies of all Interim and Final Review Forms for each Phase (or Term for Salaried). These forms are completed by the General Mentor electronically to Abyasa. The student teacher can download PDF copies of their Phase Review Forms. This PDF copies need to be stored in this folder. Failure to do so can result in a delay to the end of the programme. Submission dates for these are on the website, Section B, for each programme. |
|
Sub-folder 4: Sub-folder 4: |
Documents relating to each of your ITAPs should be saved in this folder, e.g., lesson plans, completed booklets, mentor observations, etc. Further information about the specific focus of your ITAPs is in Section B of the website. An appropriately completed LJMU ITT Tracker including (by the end of Phase 3) completed audit pages of where the evidence to support your progress can be found. Please download a copy of the LJMU ITT Tracker from Section C of the website. The LJMU ITT Tracker documents the evidence showing your progress towards meeting the Teachers’ Standards. There is a short reflection for you to complete about your progress at the end of each Phase. |
|
Sub-folder 5: |
Any relevant Subject Knowledge Audits, Improvement and Development plans and evidence of addressing subject knowledge targets with which the student teacher is required to engage with during the programme. Programme leaders and subject leaders will guide student teachers about this section, but it is a place to capture work which has developed personalised Subject Knowledge. If student teachers have hand written notes etc., then they can photograph them/use a scanner app and upload them to this section. |
|
Sub-folder 6: |
Notes from school-based training activities and from any Professional Development Activities (if appropriate). This includes notes from student teachers' own observations of expert colleagues in school. If student teachers have hand written notes etc., then they can photograph them/use a scanner app and upload them to this section. Student teachers should not type notes up for the sake of it. |
|
Sub-folder 7: |
Records of Personal Tutor meetings. Programme leaders will guide student teachers about this section. |
|
Sub-folder 8: |
Records of transfer information completed and shared between placements. Appropriate documents will be shared with student teachers for this section by Programme Leaders. |
|
Sub-folder 9: |
This section will include relevant notes from Lead Mentor (Liaison Tutor) meetings, including comments on the progress of this file in relation to LJMU’s ITE Curriculum. |
Criteria for the Placement Experience and QTS Training and Development Files
The Placement Experience file and QTS Training and Development file are:
- a requirement for meeting the placement expectations at any Phase of Training;
- professional working documents to support teaching, learning and assessment;
They must be:
- available at all times in school for all tutors and General Mentors to view;
- kept up to date and reviewed by General Mentors, Professional Mentors and Lead Mentors (Liaison Tutors);
- well organised into sections;
- available at university debriefing and review sessions.
Completing and reviewing the contents will help the student teacher to:
- think critically and reflectively about teaching, learning and assessment practice;
- reflect on whole school issues;
- consider how well they are meeting LJMU's ITE Curriculum.
Other Documentation (Section E)
Professional Development Activities (PDAs). These are school-based tasks related to the focus of each Phase of Training. Where PDAs are compulsory within a particular Phase of Training this will be indicated by the Programme team and may form part of the weekly meeting discussion. PDAs may also be used to personalise the learning of individual student teachers, to develop areas that need to be improved to ensure they fully achieve the ITE Curriculum.