Professional development for Initial Teacher Education Coordinators and Mentors

The University of Northampton's School of Education provides training for teachers who work with and assess students.

Mentor training

Training for mentors can take place on an individual or whole school basis. Any training that takes place in school time at the University will merit supply cover costs.

The training helps mentors develop an understanding of:

• Current professional standards and requirements
• Structure of University Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes
• University documentation
• The methods of observing students teaching
• Ways of providing oral and written feedback
• Procedures for setting targets for students
• Ways of assessing students' subject knowledge and teaching competence

Initial Teacher Education (ITE) co-ordinators

Annual update meetings for ITE co-ordinators are also arranged at regional training centres.

Objectives of ITE meetings:

• To familiarise co-ordinators with national and local ITE initiatives
• To feed back external examiners' comments and data emerging from Training and Development Agency (TDA) performance profiles and the Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) survey
• To ensure that co-ordinators can relay this information back to teachers in their school

Further training and professional development

The University of Northampton also provides specific training sessions for ITE co-ordinators and mentors.

Training areas include:

• Subject knowledge updates
• Discussions of particular curriculum initiatives
• Engaging in small scale research groups
• Consistency of assessment

Professional development opportunities for ITE co-ordinators and mentors at The University of Northampton include a free 'mentoring' module which can be taken to MA level. Professional development modules are offered at a discounted rate to partnership schools.

Partnership Steering Group

The Partnership Steering Group is responsible for monitoring and updating the training programmes. The group consists of academic and support staff from the University and ITE co-ordinators from Partner schools in different regions.

Evaluations

All school placements are evaluated by the student, the mentor and the moderating tutor. The information gained from the School Experience Evaluation forms (SEV) are used for Quality Assurance (QA) purposes only.

Evaluations also take place at the end of all mentor and ITE training sessions to collect opinions about the course content and feedback on training requirements. 

For more information, please call the Partnership Team on 01604 8922473 or contact Sarah Miller.