Induction - Initial Teacher Education at York St John University

Congratulations on being offered a place on our PGCE primary university-centred programme.

Key Programme Dates

Induction Day: Saturday 15th June 2024

First day of the programme: Monday 2nd September 2024

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 the PGCE.

Please make sure you work through all the information and tasks provided for you as this will ensure you are able to make a positive start to your training programme.

York St John University

As you prepare to start your PGCE, please 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

If you have any questions in relation to your conditions, please do contact our admissions department at pgce@yorksj.ac.uk

Please also note that our admission team will be available on our face-to-face induction day on Saturday 15th June. There will be more information about the university induction day to follow; for now, save the date in your diary.

Course Calendar 2024-25

This calendar indicates your placement dates for 2024-25. When not in school, you will be on campus for your university-based training, including during some of the school half-term holidays. A more detailed timetable will be shared with you on the first day of the course.

The Importance of Reading for Pleasure

Reading is a fundamental skill that unlocks learning across the whole curriculum. As primary school teachers, it is essential that we promote the joy of reading, as research shows that those children who choose to read develop academically and socially. Therefore, you must become a role model for the children in your class and promote the value of reading across the whole curriculum. To support you with this, we have provided you with the following list of recommended texts. Please select the age range that you will be teaching and spend some time over the summer enjoying examples of children’s literature. There is no need to buy these texts but I would recommend visiting your local library and accessing the children’s section. Happy reading!

100 best books

There is no deadline for this task – start building your knowledge of children’s literature now and continue throughout your course (and career!)

Developing your General Knowledge

As a primary school teacher, you are required to teach the full range of National Curriculum subjects and areas of the EYFS Framework, and although we acknowledge that each teacher will have curriculum strengths, all teachers need to develop a secure grounding across all subjects. To support you with your broader curriculum knowledge, we request that you spend some time reflecting on those areas where your general knowledge is weak and begin to gain experience.

To facilitate this, you should visit local museums, art galleries and places of worship as these are rich sources of curriculum knowledge.

The following is a useful website to locate museums and galleries in your area.

https://www.great-days-out.co.uk/museums-galleries/yorkshire-and-the-humber/

Subject Knowledge audits

The following audits have been written to ensure you are aware of the level of subject knowledge required to be a primary school teacher. The audits are a formative tool and enable you to reflect and identify areas of personal need. The audits cover key aspects of the English, mathematics and science curriculum content and to ensure you are prepared to teach these, revision in weaker areas will be needed during the summer.

Please access the audits via the links contained within the following word documents. Once completed, record you scores on the same tracking document and record any revision work you have done as preparation for your start in September. Please note that these audits will be repeated before you begin your final placement to demonstrate progress. You should be prepared to show your subject knowledge audit scores with your alliance in September as areas of development will inform your early targets. Please also save your completed subject knowledge trackers electronically because you will need to upload these onto your electronic portfolio (Pebblepad) at a later date.

Suggested reading and resources have been provided to support your revision and again these can be found in the documents below. These should be a starting point and not a definitive list. Please be as proactive as you can be and use the time over the summer to revise and build confidence in areas where develop is needed.

We would suggest that you complete the audits before your face-to-face induction day (Saturday 15^th June) as we will be holding subject knowledge taster events on this day and you can select the most appropriate workshops that will support areas of development