Congratulations on being offered a place on the York St John Partnership Secondary PGCE programme.
The following information has been provided to ensure you are ready to begin your career in teaching and prepare you for the professional and academic expectations of your PGCE. Please do make sure you check this blog regularly and work through all of the information and tasks provided for you as this will ensure you are able to make a positive start to you training programme.
As you prepare to start your PGCE, please do make sure that you have met all of the conditions attached to your offer by the stipulated deadline.
This will include:
- DBS documentation
- GCSE confirmation or equivalency tests
- Degree confirmation
During the Induction Day event on Saturday 15th June there will be time for your ID checks to be done.
If you are unable to attend the Induction day other dates to bring in your ID are available:
| Date | Room | Time |
| Wed 15th May | DG/014 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Tues 28th May | DG/014 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Wed 12th June | DG/120 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Wed 26th June | DG/103 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Wed 10th July | DG/120 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Wed 24th July | DG/120 | 1.00-3.00 |
| Thurs 8th Aug | DG/103 | 1.00-3.00 |
If you have any questions relation to your conditions, please do contact our admissions department at pgce@yorksj.ac.uk
Induction tasks to complete
Between now and the start of the course on Monday 2nd September you have 6 tasks to complete. More information about these tasks will be shared on the Induction Day in June. However, some of you may wish to begin these task earlier. The information below will take you through the 6 tasks. Here is a summary of the tasks you will need to complete –
Professionalism in Teaching – work through the power point and make notes
Professional Competency Test – complete the online literacy and numeracy test
Critical Thinking and Reading – work through the narrated power point and complete the tasks
Formative Written Task – Read the article and critically reflect on this. Written submission 750 words
Curriculum Vitae – complete following the template
Subject Knowledge Audit – complete prior to the course for your subject area
Remember to save your work for the tasks in your own area/laptop ready to be uploaded during your first week. All tasks need to be complete by Friday 6th September.
Induction Day – Saturday 15th June
You are invited to attend our PGCE secondary Induction Day event on Saturday 15th June 9-2pm on campus where you will have the opportunity to meet others on the course and attend a number of supportive workshops to help you prepare for the year ahead. Presentations used on the day will appear here to following week. Please ensure you are able to attend this event.
Bursary Information
If you are planning to apply for a Bursary for 2024-2025 more information will be released at the Induction Day and a form will be given to you.
The Bursary is available for the following subjects:
- Art and Design
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Computing
- Design and Technology
- English
- Geography
- Languages
- Mathematics
- Music
- Physics
- Religious Education
Calendar
The following calendar (draft only) show the days when your university training will take place. Please note that these are just your YSJ training days and not those provided by your alliance. Your alliances will run their own programme usually on a Wednesday morning before the University session in the afternoon. University sessions will begin at 1pm and finish at 4.30pm.
Professionalism In Teaching
Professionalism is a fundamental aspect of the role of all teachers. Each and every one of us must uphold the highest standards and demonstrate the core values of acceptance, respect and kindness at all times.
Part Two of the Teachers’ Standards outlines expectations, and you will be assessed against these expectations throughout your programme. These professional expectations focus on how you communicate with other, present yourself in a professional capacity and how you adhere to school values and policy.
The transition to a professional programme can be a challenge for some student teachers, but to support you, the following PowerPoint outlines expectations as well as giving you a range of case studies for you to consider. Please access the PowerPoint from the link below and make notes/reflections on the scenarios given to you. Further reading is also offered for those who wish to read more around the focus of professionalism.
Professionalism for Secondary trainees.pptx
Professional competency Audit
The professional competency audit has been devised to allow you to demonstrate the required knowledge and skills in essential literacy and numeracy that have been identified by the DfE. All teachers are required to be effective communicators and to be able to interpret data and, therefore, you need to demonstrate a minimum level to be awarded Qualified Teacher Status.
To help you demonstrate competency in these essential areas, you should take the following audit which can be accessed via the link below, Please note that for this audit, there is a minimum pass mark that must be met to show competency. That pass mark is 70%. If you reach the required pass mark, you will not need to take the audit again. If you do not reach a pass mark of 70%, please do not worry as there will be further opportunities throughout your programme to re-sit this. Do not resit the same test, you will be sent an alternative test in September. There is no need to record this score anywhere as we will track who has passed and who needs to re-sit at a later date. However, do remember to include your full name when completing the audit. The deadline for completion of this audit is 6th September 2024.
The link for the professional competency test is here PCT TEST A – September 2024
Critical thinking and reading
Critical thinking and reading is an important skill that will support your academic writing at Masters level. Please listen to this narrated power point and complete the assigned tasks, including the Padlet activity, to support your understanding of criticality. You will need to complete this task first before the formative writing task.
Reading Critically Workshop final.pptx
Critical writing task
We would like you to complete a formative writing task so that we can provide you with clear feedback about the areas in which you need to develop or improve. You should complete this task after you have done the critical thinking and reading task above.
Please save this written task in your own area/one drive/file. In September you will be asked to upload it via Moodle by the deadline Friday 6th September, 2024
(You can only upload this task between Monday 2nd-Friday 6th September, 2024)
Title: A critical summary of the following article. Paas, F., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2020). Cognitive-Load Theory: Methods to Manage Working Memory Load in the Learning of Complex Tasks. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(4), 394–398.’
Wordcount: 750 words
Article link
- Paas, F., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2020).Cognitive-Load Theory: Methods to Manage Working Memory Load in the Learning of Complex Tasks. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(4), 394–398
- You can find the article Link to article
Font size: 12
Font: standard (e.g. Arial), double spaced
Follow Harvard Referencing guidance (https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/library/referencing/guides/)
Click on the additional guidance here
critical writing 2024 final (1) – Copy.pptx
Curriculum Vitae task
We would like you to share an up-to-date CV with us. This will be uploaded onto PebblePad in due course so that school mentors, link tutors, subject tutors and academic tutors can all access it.
Please access the following template suggestion. If you use your own format, please ensure you have covered the same information as that included in this document.
This task needs to be completed by Friday 6th September where you will be asked to upload it onto Moodle
(You can only upload this task between Monday 2nd-Friday 6th September, 2024)
Subject Knowledge Audits
The following subject knowledge audits have been written to ensure you are aware of the level of subject knowledge required to be a secondary school specialist in your subject. The audits are a formative tool and enable you to reflect and identify areas of personal need. The audits cover key aspects of your subject curriculum content and to ensure you are prepared to teach these, revision in weaker areas will be needed through out the course.
Please access the audits via the links contained below. Once completed, please save your audit and have this ready to e mail to your subject tutor in early September (details will be shared in September). Please note that these audits will be repeated in December, February and June to demonstrate progress. You should be prepared to show your subject knowledge audit scores with your mentors in September as areas of development will inform your early targets. Completed subject knowledge trackers will also be uploaded electronically onto your portfolio so that subject tutors, mentors and Alliances leads can have access, this will be done at a later date.
Disability Support and Inclusion
Our Disability Support and Inclusion Team can work with you to make adaptions to your programme to support any specific learning needs you may have. You are entitled to use these services if you have a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difficulty for which you can provide evidence.
This May include:
- Autism
- Depression and anxiety
- Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and AD(H)D
- Eating Disorders
- Epilepsy, diabetes and IBS
You should make an appointment as soon as possible to discuss what support would be helpful to you, which will be used to create a document known as a Learner Adjustment Plan (LAP). This document will be seen by your tutors, the School Admin Unit and you should share this plan with your placement school. Please not that any LAP will not automatically translate to postgraduate study. Therefore, if you have an existing LAP, a new plan will be needed to ensure you are supported at university and in school.
Once an LAP is in place adaptions can be made to academic deadlines as well as giving you access to resources that match your needs. Please note that adaptions cannot be made without an LAP being in place.
If you intend to apply for an LAP, please start the process before you begin the programme. You can find more information and book an appointment by visiting the webpage below.
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/health-and-wellbeing/disability-support/
First Day on programme
*******Monday 2nd September, 2024********
Time 9am – coffee/tea and pastries – welcome Dining hall extension
Time: 10am sessions start
Room: TBC