Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
FAQs
FAQs
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. 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.
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. To 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 AA Route Planner for car travel and Travel Line Journey Planner for public transport. Please ensure that your address is correct and up to date, particularly if you are on a three-year course and change address each academic year.
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.
Yes, however, 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.
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 AA Route Planner for car travel and Travel Line Journey Planner for public transport. Please ensure that your address is correct and up to date, particularly if you are on a three-year course and change address each academic year. 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
The Professional Placement Team is responsible for finding all teaching placements and matching students to suitable schools within the Partnership based on a careful consideration of the needs of each student in collaboration with course teams. Students are not permitted to source their own teaching placements.
Content
To help meet the needs of local, regional or national employers, such as Multi Academy Trusts and recruitment agencies, and to meet the needs of the wider educational community, we do not exclude settings/schools/colleges in areas of challenging socio-economic circumstances and those judged as requires improvement. We work with the widest possible variety of schools in order to ensure that our students have access to the richest possible training experiences. Students may be placed in special schools or pupil referral units (PRUs) where appropriate for the profile of the student and in line with the ITE framework. We will ensure in such cases that students are afforded the opportunity during their course to demonstrate all the Teachers’ Standards across the full age and ability range. We will similarly also carefully consider on a case-by-case basis placing students in schools with serious weaknesses or in special measures where we are confident the students concerned are not likely to be disadvantaged, and to this end we will keep such placements under continuous review.
Find out everything you can about your chosen school. You will be taking on a big responsibility as a student teacher so it is helpful to know as much as you can about the school you will be working in.
We recommend doing as much research as possible, here are some things you could do to get prepared:
- Get in touch with the school to introduce yourself once your placement is confirmed. Ask about things like the dress code or what you need to bring along for your first day.
- Arrange a visit with the school to get to know some of the teaching staff and the environment you will be working in.
- Find out about policies and procedures, it might be helpful to request some information about safeguarding in the school.
- Learn about the children you’ll be teaching. Speak to the school to find out what age range you will be teaching and what stage they are at. It can also be helpful to know if there are any children in your class with special educational needs or a disability.
A normal school day runs from around 08:30 to 3:30 but can vary depending on your school. We’d recommend that you aim to get into work for around 08:00 so you have plenty of time to get your classroom organised and set up for the day ahead. You might find that you’re required to stay late from time to time to help with a parents’ evening or after school clubs. Our students really enjoy getting involved with extracurricular activities and your school will usually encourage it.
You will build your teaching up during the first few weeks on placement to the following percentages:
Undergraduate
| Placement type | Phase 1 (Single placement) |
Phase 1 (Paired placement) |
Phase 2 (Single placement) |
Phase 3 (Single placement) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teaching | 50% | 30% | 60% | 80% |
| Helping in the role of a Teaching Assistant | 20% | 40% | 15% | 5% |
| Observing expert colleagues teaching | 20% | 20% | 15% | 5% |
| Marking and preparation | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
Postgraduate
| Phase | Phase 1 | Phase 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching | 60% | 80% |
| Helping in the role of a Teaching Assistant | 15% | 5% |
| Observing expert colleagues teaching | 15% | 5% |
| Marking and preparation | 10% | 10% |
Your Mentor will carry out a weekly recorded observation and provide you with feedback. Roughly halfway through the placement, you will have a Progress Review visit from your Link Tutor to discuss your progress with your Mentor and you. At the end of your placement, your Mentor will assess you against expected progress statements, and in your final placement against the Teachers' Standards. The university Link Tutor will moderate these assessments.
Your Mentor and other colleagues at the school will be there to supervise and support you when you need it but as your skills grow there will be times you go solo. This will all depend on your progress and how you have been observed along the way but, as you develop as a confident teacher your Mentor will use their judgement to decide how much supervision you require. You will have a 60–90-minute weekly meeting with your Mentor in which you will reflect on and discuss progress and set targets. You will continue to have regular observations and feedback throughout your placement. You will also be allocated a university Link Tutor who will make regular contact with you and be a further source of support, visit you in your school roughly halfway through placement and meet with your Mentor and you at the end of the placement to sign it off.
