Course book recommendations to be a Primary school teacher

[Numberfish]

Hi, DD has had a hard run of it but is aspiring to become a primary school teacher. She’s tried attending a local college ‘Access to Primary Education’ course which is very badly run and she’s struggling to put together what she needs to cover the course curriculum.
Does anyone know what course book might be good?
I’m thinking the sort of ‘A’ Level revision guides type from CGP or the Examination Boards that give a good solid coverage of the concepts so you know you’ve got all the major points.
Any help gratefully received.

Start with reading the National Curriculum and the Teachers standards.

Thanks, I’ll pass that on. It’s weird though, they do these ‘Teaching’ Level 3 courses but there’s not the usual course textbook that all other courses have. She’d find something geared to her level of understanding much more useful than wading through all the detail. But I appreciate your help. Hope your term has started well!

You don’t ‘learn’ to be a teacher by looking at textbooks. How old is your DD?

Is this instead of her A levels? Is there a practical element in a school?

Hi she did her A levels but barely because she got brain damaged just into her GCSE year. She would normally have gone straight into the usual teacher training at Uni but she just wasn’t well enough. Her school found a college course that feeds into a Teaching foundation year so she could take it more slowly, but the college are unfortunately unhelpful and disorganised. So it’s an unusual path, with no practical element, hence the need for some well organised reference material.

i would encourage as much work experience as possible both in school and the community. Lots of free education courses on Open Learn with the Open University which are good intros to psychology, additional needs, literacy , outdoor educational etc

That’s great, thanks! I’m hoping she can manage that in the summer and going forward - for now she’s just quite behind with her Level 3 course and won’t make it without some kind of reference book to summarise the work. I’m surprised there’s nothing tbh. Was hoping some ITT or mentor had a textbook they could recommend.

for now she’s just quite behind with her Level 3 course and won’t make it without some kind of reference book to summarise the work.

I don't think you will find such a book to be honest. Teaching is huge and can't be summarised in one reference book! You will find plenty of books on behaviour, others on maths or forest schools or phonics etc.

If she is falling behind on her level 3 course, she needs to speak to her tutors there and ask for guidance for her specific course. Maybe they can give pointers or suggest specific background reading material. ITT providers will be more focused on undergraduate level study.

Yes. No book to cover primary teaching. Plenty of subject specific content and also about pedagogy of teaching but the scope of what the job entails isn’t distillable into one book. Get her to look into phonics and teaching primary maths and also some materials on pedagogy (Vygotsky et al etc) of teaching and how children learn and go from there. Also behaviour management is the largest part, arguably, of the job so some of that.

EEF, Tom Sherrington, Rosenshines principles are the ones that come to mind when I think of my teacher training, there’s another one but I can’t think of the name, I can see the front cover though! Honestly though there are so many books and online resources like PP have said, not one book could sum it all up.

Oh ok, got it, thanks! Don’t forget this is a Level 3 course and I’m sure there are fairly basic topics they cover like ‘education concepts’ or ‘assessment of learning’ to name two phrases in essays she’s supposed to write. But as I say, the college simply aren’t helping and she’s struggling to get them to give her any support. Hence why I thought a book would be so incredibly helpful. I obviously didn’t think one book would turn her into a teacher. But one book doesn’t turn you into a psychologist, or social worker, but you can buy A level revision guides for those topics! Hopefully someone has some idea as she’s running out of time! Thanks very much for your time and advice, it’s so nice after running the gauntlet of uninterested staff she’s had.

Learning Theories Simplified: ...and how to apply them to teaching https://amzn.eu/d/3XD8a60

This is a great summary of learning theory and pedagogy that I've found useful as a PGCE student.

Wishing your DD all the best.

What is the course she’s actually doing? Support in Teaching and Learning, Education and Training, or something else?

Don’t forget this is a Level 3 course

Hmmm, I guess the difficulty here is that most people have never studied teaching at an A level equivalent level, so it's not the sort of course that would have a 'revision guide'.

I did a level 3 teaching assistant course then did a foundation degree in educational studies, followed by another year for NQT status, it's a nice route to take as you work as a teaching assistant and use those skills to do degree before qualifying as a teacher, this might suit her better

Echoing @Chanonrypoint's recommendation, I was going to suggest the same book.
An awful lot of level 3 courses don't have specific revision guides, simply because not enough students take the courses for it to be cost-effective to produce such a book.

This is the one I was thinking of!