The School Curriculum Ten Years Hence - UCET: Universities ...

The Revision to the DfEE Circular 4/98, Framework for
Development, recognises the increasing importance of dealing with
social inclusion issues within initial teacher education and training.
Ministers have recently agreed that TTA should produce guidance on
social inclusion issues. They have also highlighted the need for
trainee teachers to have training on how to manage difficult
situations which lead to children failing. It is equally important for
initial teacher trainers to have access to such professional
development opportunities to maintain skills and credibility.
The extent to which learning experiences respond to the needs of
the wider community.
The extent to which learning experiences tackle social disadvantage
and ensure equality of access and opportunity for all learners.
As you know, the basis for all of Estyn’s work is inspection. We have
recently gone out to consultation on a revised inspection
framework. This framework is intended to be used in the inspection
of initial teacher education and training and for school inspection.
Within the framework, we reflect the importance across all phases
for providers to make sure that the learning experiences they offer
respond to the needs of the wider community and the workplace.
Part of this is inspectors making judgements as to how well the
provider tackles social disadvantage and ensures that there is
equality of access and opportunity for all learners.
To summarise: We would expect that as part of their initial teacher
training, trainees need to be:
• aware of flexible ways of teaching and learning within the
curricula available to young people
• introduced to strategies that will help them to challenge
disaffection
• encouraged to reflect critically on their teaching and what pupils
are learning and achieving
• skilled in teaching basic and key skills and PSE
• provided with the opportunity to link their college based sessions
that deal with social inclusion issues with real experiences out in
schools
It is therefore essential that newly qualified teachers are well
prepared in their initial training to deal confidently with the issues of
disaffection as they arise. Young teachers are, after all closer to the
thinking and influences on many of the young people they will
teach. It is equally important that all adults working with
disengaged youngsters have access to on-going training. The
organisation of joint training for teachers, youth workers and, for