Mentoring PGCE student

[y0rkier0se]

I’m after some advice. I’m mentoring a PGCE student at the moment who’s currently on second placement with us. I’m an inexperienced mentor - I was an NQT 2 years ago. She came as a 3 across the board but if I’m honest, some areas are probably 4s. I really want to support her and get her to where she should be, and she says she’s had a bad experience in her first school, but she’s just so slack. She is constantly late sending her planning (think 11pm) when we’ve already agreed to 7pm deadlines, meaning I don’t have time to give feedback allowing her to improve it. She is working as a waitress some evenings & weekends as she says she can’t live on student loans, so I feel sorry for her for that, but ultimately does she need to prioritise teaching? She is only planning one core subject at the moment and everything is late and not great to be honest. When I broach it with her, she makes all the right noises and agrees that she needs to be sending planning on time, but then doesn’t change. I’ve thought about contacting her uni and mentioning that the work on the side seems to be causing a time management issue. WWYD?

I feel your pain. When is she next getting observed by uni? If it's not too far away leave discussing it with them it til then. However, if its not for a while I do think you need to raise with her tutor. It would be helpful for her to get the support she needs. I think the issues need to be addressed in mentor meetings and targets set.

Sorry I've just re-read and seen you have addressed this with her. I think be more formal. Next mentor meeting set target that planning has to be 24 hours (or 12 or whatever) before the lesson. This can be measured the week after.
I think the time management issue definitely needs to be raised with uni. I know she has her reasons but that's kind of irrelevant. The problem with this is it can mask other issues - e.g. is the poor lesson down to time management or other issues, would she still have a problem with say differentiation if she's had time to act on feedback etc etc
Its likely she's paying for this course and she's definitely not giving herself the best opportunity either.
Are the students suffering? They have to be the focus here, trainee or not. If that is the case then intervention needed. Good luck. Been there and got the t-shirt!

The best help you can give her IMO is to face up to the realities of teaching now. Too many trainees get given an easy ride, pass and then come a cropper as NQTs because they've had too little challenge as students and then have far too much to learn while also coping with their own class for the first time. The uni need to know and they should help you tackle it.

The other thing you can do to support yourself is to talk to someone more experienced, or in the SLT.

Can I just say as a recently qualified teacher, it is incredibly frustrating to send someone lesson plans before teaching.

I never did and was never asked of this on my training year (4 years ago), although other trainees on my course were. I would never have agreed to it either unless I kept getting R.Is. It did seem down to the mentor whether lesson plans were required beforehand. If the rest of her cohort aren’t sending theirs then I can see why she’s being a bit slack in this area.

It is very easy to critique a lesson plan and you could forever be making changes before you’ve even taught it. If allowed then the best thing to do is to judge after the lesson has been delivered. Your opinions would differ very much to another teacher reading the plans. Stop wasting her and your time. If the lesson goes awful, that’s on the student and will be reflected in the observation form. Perhaps a frank conversation needs to be had about this option?

It’s also very easy to say prioritise teaching, when training isn’t paying the bills. I feel very sorry for anyone training to be a teacher who needs to work alongside. It is a choice only in words. She must be exhausted and clearly trying to better herself. What will discussing this with her mentor do exactly? The only way this would be helpful is if you looked at a temporary reduction in teaching hours to see if her overall teaching improved. At least that way you’d know if she has the ability to teach well. If she doesn’t have much allocated teaching hours and is still not improving then maybe it just isn’t for her.

Also, the ‘isn’t great’ part. What isn’t great? The overall quality of teaching? The lesson planning? (If so what part?), differentiation? Challenge? Behaviour management?

I would also say prewarn her before you talk to her mentor. It’s an exhausting year and can feel like people are out to get you rather than help so be upfront.

The best person to talk to will be an NQT or someone recently qualified in the school. They may lack teaching years but will know better than anyone how you can help your trainee.

I am also surprised at having to send planning in advance.

Oh I'm glad Im not the only one who was thinking it was a bit to have to send all planning in advance.

I did my training/NQT year a good while ago now, but I just had to keep annotated plans in a folder so that anyone could see them when they wanted.

I thought a big part of teaching, especially at the beginning is that 'reflective practice', changing plans as you go, thinking about what you could do better next time. You can't reflect before you have taught the lesson!

I never had to send planning in advance! Who has stipulated that must happen? You, the university or the school?

I can’t imagine having an evening job whilst doing a pgce-that must be awful, but clearly she needs to earn.

I would set clear targets and liaise with the university tutor now. If she isn’t good-she needs lots of support. If she is terrible, maybe she shouldn’t pass.

My school takes PGCE students and they are required to send lesson plans in advance, it’s a university requirement not a teacher one.

Even sending a lesson plan at 7pm is taking the piss - it’s requiring you to be available late into your evening to look at it.

Looking at lesson plans before a lesson is a good thing to be doing. I’ve mentored students who wouldn’t actually properly plan a lesson otherwise, and I’ve certainly caught plenty of easily correctable mistakes that would have scuppered a lesson had the student simply ploughed ahead.

These are our classes that students are taking over. We are ultimately responsible for their outcomes.

I'm afraid I also agree with noble on this.
It's standard for trainees to be handing in planning in advance. Most providers I've worked with say 24-48 hours before the lesson on the understanding that some minor changes might be needed to account for previous lessons etc.
It's not just about mentors giving lots of changes, it's about getting into the habit of being prepared, keeping appropriate records and also acts as a point of discussion for mentor meetings as well as evidence for the standards.

If she's not meeting the required standards then that's even more a concern. When I've had weaker trainees and their planning has been disorganised and they've not met programme requirements they all go hand in hand.

I also think 7pm is taking the piss already too. Have a look at your ITT provider's guide and follow that. When supporting her, try to drill down into exactly what the issue is (e.g. does she actually understand what a good lesson looks like? Does she understand what progress is? Is she drowning in other work? Does she need to address some major areas?)

I would always say to a student who is a 3 that they need to be sending planning in ahead of time, if they were competent that's a different matter but this person clearly isn't. I was in a similar position a few years ago and I ended up saying to the student that if the planning wasn't in by the deadline I wouldn't allow them to teach the lesson, although this was a ball ache for me it always drove home to them the importance of planning, the effect on other members of the team and the university were told which compromised there chance of passing. It isn't possible when actually teaching not to meet planning deadlines. I also made sure all planning was in in good time and not just the might before as this was much more time on me whereas if I had all planning a week ahead i could look at it for one evening and then feedback the next day when we had our mentoring meeting. This shouldn't be a massive stress or time constraint on you

Well, if planning has to be in beforehand then yes, the night before isn't ideal. Can you have a Monday morning weekly deadline for all planning for the week. In schools I have heard of where all planning has to be handed in to the head (not where I have worked though) it was done like this I think?

Sorry to dripfeed, I didn’t explain it particularly well in my OP, the current agreement is on Monday I tell her the objectives for next week, she then has all week to plan, we review Thursday in our weekly meeting and she makes any changes, then sends me the final planning Friday, but she’s been coming to the Thursday meeting with little or no planning, so we’ve been sketching a rough plan together which I’ve then asked her to type and fill out and create resources for or directed her to them if I know they’re available and send to me by Friday evening at 7pm, but I’ve actually been receiving them around 11pm Sunday. It’s only her second week teaching but that’s been the pattern so far. Her next university observation with her link tutor is after half term, and I’m in a SATs year group so this term is to collect evidence, particularly with writing which is my biggest concern. If the lessons were good, I wouldn’t mind so much not getting the planning on time. I think you’re right EmmaLiz, time management might be causing the issues with differentiation, poor resources etc. She is entitled to 2 afternoons out per week - PPA and an additional afternoon that you’d get as an NQT, and I also give her Friday afternoon. Someone suggested a reduction in teaching time, but as it’s only her second week she is only teaching one core subject - we follow White Rose Maths Hub so much of it is pre-planned - and one topic lesson, we really can’t cut this down. She’s supposed to take on English next week too, but my concern is if she can’t cope with this, how is she going to cope when the teaching commitment increases. Having relooked at her previous placement report today, I think reading between the lines they had the same issues, so I will phone them tomorrow and see if I can speak to her previous mentor. I’ve also spoken to my head today to air my concerns.
I really like that idea preggersteach - if she doesn’t send it by the deadline, she won’t be able to teach it. Harsh but hopefully I’d only have to enforce it once or twice for her to get the message! When I trained, I treated placement as a long job interview and went in early and left later than my mentor pretty much every day - she just doesn’t seem to have that get up and go.

Thanks for the advice!

If she’s only out 3 afternoons a week, then it seems like she is in class quite a lot but not teaching?

Yes noble - in class the rest of the time working with groups, doing interventions, doing her university set etc. This is what it says to do in her university handbook so she can pick up on good practice, observe lessons (not always in my class, I send her around school to see how things are different in EYFS & KS2) etc.

University set tasks they should say

Rather than reducing teaching time, if there’s a serious issue with planning then you can reduce that support time temporarily?

All the schools I’ve worked in expect you to use your PPA time to plan with partners, so that planning is on the server and ready for Monday by Friday. I agree that you need to be clear about expectations, and that an overly sloppy attitude to being prepared doesn’t show a willingness to aim for best practise. Maybe she’s clueless, maybe she thought It’d be easier than it is.

The LOs for the week need to be given before the Monday. At least a week in advance IMO.

I suppose we could yes, maybe she could have Thursday afternoon out too. I will speak to the other school tomorrow and see what their opinion was. Our afternoon session is 2.5 hours so she gets 7.5 hours at the moment, will suggest she takes the extra 2.5 hours from another afternoon out but then MUST be bringing planning to the Thursday meeting.

That is a week in advance Cliff - she gets the objectives the Monday of the week before, we discuss the planning she’s done so far on a Thursday in our meeting after school, then she can make any changes and are finalised on the Friday, ready for the next Monday’s lessons.

Sorry yorkie I misunderstood.

You seem to be doing all the right things at the moment. The terrible truth is that not everyone is cut out for it.

She needs to learn to prioritise.

Have you tried lots of short term deadlines? So instead of all at once get her to hand in a days worth every day. So break it down into smaller chunks.

No problem

I think that may be the case MissSusan but I’m going to speak to her last placement school, then involve her link tutor, so if we can do any extra to support we do it now rather than in May when she’s nearly ready for final assessment. No I hadn’t actually - I thought I was making it easier for her by giving her the whole week to plan but I might start breaking it down - I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you!