York St John and Wonder Learning partnership School Centred ITE Curriculum
By choosing the Wonder Learning Partnership and York St John University as your teacher education providers you will benefit from the academic rigour of lectures and tutorials from York St John University and also have access to ambitious Wonder Curriculum, that is designed to integrate the core content of the new Initial Teacher Training Early Careers Framework (ITTECF).
The ITTECF is the teacher training curriculum that you follow during your initial teacher training as student teachers and during your two-year induction period as Early Careers Teachers. The ITTECF is broken down into eight frameworks, each of which aligns with one of the eight teaching standards as shown in the diagram above.
Over the course of the year you will engage with the Wonder and YSJ spiral curriculum that has been carefully sequenced to allow the content, skills and application of the ITTECF to be regularly revisited. By purposefully facilitating opportunities to embed previous learning, you will gradually gain a better understanding of the underlying principles of teaching, enabling you to apply this knowledge more effectively, flexibly and confidently in your teaching practice.
The YSJ and Wonder School Centred PGCE programme also facilitates four Intensive Training and Practice (ITAPs) experiences. These experiences take a more granular approach to specific areas of the ITTECF, combining academic lectures and workshops from YSJ university and Wonder, with a range of school-based tasks and conversations, culminating with a teaching opportunity and developmental feedback.
Teaching is a complex, dynamic and cumulative process; it is therefore essential that all student teachers develop a holistic understanding of the different teaching elements and embrace a culture of continuous improvement. The YSJ and Wonder curriculum provides plenty of opportunities for you to engage in all the essential fundamentals of teaching and in critical reflective practice, allowing you to develop your own enquiry questions and self-directed actions for your personal growth and development, as you progress through your course.
Intensive Training and Practice Days (ITAPs)
Put Theory into Practice
New for 2024, all student teachers will be participating in ITAPs, these are days devoted to helping student teachers to put theory into practice and will cover key “foundational areas in learning” that all student teachers should know before finishing their training year. These will focus on slightly different areas depending on whether you follow a PGCE primary or PGCE secondary, but student teachers will all do ITAPs on key areas like inclusion.
A step to a full master’s qualification
Enhancing your experience
We are passionate about providing the best course for you to fulfil your potential and our partnership offers an exceptional opportunity for your teaching development.
The PGCE involves two master level modules which represent one third of a full master qualification.
Master Modules
Module One: relates to teaching, learning and assessment.
Module Two: relates to wider professional learning.
How school placements work
This PGCE is a school-centred route and hence the majority of your time will be spent in school. For the majority of the year, you will be in your base school and will do a second school placement for 6 weeks during the Spring term before returning to your base school for the remainder of the programme.
This school experience provides structured opportunities for you to observe experienced teachers and other professionals and support you in progressively building your confidence towards independent teaching. You will be given the opportunity to participate in all aspects of school life and the wider school context. For example, you will attend school meetings, and participate in school professional development activities, that will support you in developing your knowledge and understanding of the whole school environment. We build a range of experiential and enrichment opportunities into the programme to further support your journey into the teaching profession.
You will be supported on your school placements by a mentor and other school staff, as well as university tutors, who are all committed to your education and training and work together to secure your progress and development.
Once qualified, we continue to support you as you transition from ITE into your first teaching role, and you will have a dedicated staff member for this at YSJ.
We have a strong record of employment for our PGCE with many of our student teachers being employed in partnership schools. Ofsted (2002) indicated that ‘transition into employment as an early career teacher (ECT) is particularly strong’.