Upset PGCE student looking for advice

AttaGirrrrl · 01/06/2021 23:00

That’s outrageous. How could you go into a school next year with QTS but no teaching experience? Bonkers.

I’ve no experience of complaining to a university, but I expect they have a formal complaints procedure. Find it. Follow it as far as you need to.

If you’re able to extend your course and get another placement, I’d aim for that. It’s not fair for you to feel you need to give up on your career because of covid.

Musication · 02/06/2021 04:05

Wow that is terrible I'm so sorry. Unacceptable. I would escalate to the university chancellor or whoever is in charge. Or find out the complaints procedure and start there.
You should demand that they extend your PGCE by at least a term so you can do a physical placement. I think you need to get a bit cross here

CarrieBlue · 02/06/2021 08:51

Why have you not complained earlier? It seems very late in the year now to be able to salvage much. It’s utterly outrageous to award qts with no experience. If you’ve exhausted the university complaints system then I’d be speaking to Ofsted

WarriorN · 02/06/2021 11:12

Speak to ofsted

WarriorN · 02/06/2021 11:13

Sorry, speak to ofsted, do uni official complaint and then formal complaint to ofsted

Original poster

TroubledTraineeTeacher · 02/06/2021 21:18

Thanks all.

I haven't complained yet, but I have tried to. Everytime I e-mail my tutors asking how I can complain, they always phone me or try to talk to me on Teams. They ask me what the problems are, I explain what they are, and they just blame COVID or say this is what the teaching profession is like? My tutor says that there's no point complaining as I'll only make myself look naive and unprepared for the realities of being a teacher!

Also, I am generally not great at standing up for myself, hence why I am posting here anonymously :(

OP posts:

sherrystrull · 02/06/2021 21:28

You've been treated outrageously. They are also talking rubbish about what the teaching profession is like.

I did many placements during my degree and still found the nqt year a challenge.

Definitely speak to ofsted.
Good luck.

AttaGirrrrl · 05/06/2021 08:25

The university will have a formal complaints procedure. You need to follow that to the letter. If your tutors are dismissing your worries then just call the main university switchboard and ask them to direct you to the part of the website where the complaints procedure is, or to send you a copy of it.

PaulGallico · 05/06/2021 12:44

The University are not regulated by Ofsted. I am afraid Ofsted will not be interested. I think you should follow the university complaints procedure because you are dissatisfied with the PGCE. I would say that if you found difficulty in giving 1:1 support then maybe teaching isnt for you.

CarrieBlue · 05/06/2021 14:03

@PaulGallico

The University are not regulated by Ofsted. I am afraid Ofsted will not be interested. I think you should follow the university complaints procedure because you are dissatisfied with the PGCE. I would say that if you found difficulty in giving 1:1 support then maybe teaching isnt for you.

The university as a whole may not be regulated by Ofsted but ITT is. I’d say they’d be very interested at an ITT provider handing out qts to students with no teaching experience - there’s no way the trainee can meet the teaching standards with no practical experience for a start.

Of course the op should follow the procedures set in place by the university, but an escalation to Ofsted may well be the next stage.

1-2-1 teaching/tutoring is a completely different skill to teaching a large group of children and difficulty with that in totally unique circumstances that are in place at the moment is no reflection on the op’s teaching ability at all.

TortolaParadise · 05/06/2021 16:05

Ofsted!!!

PaulGallico · 05/06/2021 19:54

If the OP wants to be compensated/refund on fees then it is important to go through the university complaints procedure with some well documented evidence. Unfortunately Ofsted really are not going to be interested or likely to act on a complaint from one student or even a group of students - no disrespect to the OP but simply saying tell Ofsted is not going to help.

CarrieBlue · 05/06/2021 20:58

@PaulGallico

If the OP wants to be compensated/refund on fees then it is important to go through the university complaints procedure with some well documented evidence. Unfortunately Ofsted really are not going to be interested or likely to act on a complaint from one student or even a group of students - no disrespect to the OP but simply saying tell Ofsted is not going to help.

Ofsted are the inspection authority for ITT so a provider who is not providing training will be of interest. As I said, the university complaints procedure should be the initial port of call but I doubt Ofsted would not be interested, in the same way school inspections can be triggered by complaints.

Do you work in ITT?

Original poster

TroubledTraineeTeacher · 05/06/2021 23:23

@PaulGallico

The University are not regulated by Ofsted. I am afraid Ofsted will not be interested. I think you should follow the university complaints procedure because you are dissatisfied with the PGCE. I would say that if you found difficulty in giving 1:1 support then maybe teaching isnt for you.

I have been doing the 1-2-1 tutoring to the best of my abilities, and I think it is going well. The students seem to like me and are making good progress.

However, I have not paid £9k to tutor children. I have paid that money to learn how to be a secondary school science teacher. On my course/ placements, I have not learned the skills I need to do that job.

OP posts:

MrMucker · 06/06/2021 00:51

@TroubledTraineeTeacher

Hello,

Since Sept 2020, I have been doing a PGCE at a university in England. I'm not sure if I am allowed to name the uni?

Anyway, the course has so far been an absolute shambles. I wasn't offered a placement in semester one, neither were most people in my subject PGCE. The uni didn't organize anything for us to do during these months; we were all just sat at home waiting for placements that never came.

In semester 2, a few more people were offered placements. I was not. By this point, about 50% of the students on my course were on placement; the rest of us weren't. Again, the uni didn't organize any tasks for us to do during this time.

In April, the uni offered us a "virtual placement", which was probably the worst experience of my life. We were told to work 1-on-1 virtually with students who were too ill to go to school. We had no support with teaching these lessons or working with these students. I had no idea what I was doing. The man running this "placement" was really shouty and rude. I felt so bad for the kids we were teaching. We were completely out of our depth and just left to get on with it.

Three weeks ago (mid-May), I was finally offered a physical placement. However, on my first day, my school made it clear that I wouldn't be working with full classes; I would only be working 1-on-1 with students that needed catch up lessons. The school claim that the uni said they could do this. The uni say that I should just complete the "placement" to get QTS in July.

The uni are telling me that as long as I complete my current placement, I will get QTS. They say that I'm not eligible for extension funding as I've had two placements.

I am so sick of this PGCE, and I want out. I am looking for other jobs outside of teaching, and so are most people on my course sadly.

My question is: am I entitled to a refund? Nobody will want to hire me with so little experience and training surely? I feel like I've wasted a year of my life to this nonsense and I just want to move on.

So sad for you that things have worked out this way. You need to do some soul searching. You are adamant in your last post that you would like a refund and want to do something else. However, as a qualified Science teacher, your original plan, you will be gold dust. It is a shortage subject, and as a new entrant to the profession, you could cherry pick from a number of employers ready to hire you. With that in mind, seriously consider where you stand here. This link is to the latest Gov update to ITT teacher standards and how they have been compromised during Covid www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt/coronavirus-covid-19-initial-teacher-training-itt Take time to read, and you see it is quite explicit that your two placements are not adequate to ensure QTS. It states that real classroom experience cannot be substituted. And it states that Any "placement" must serve to address the slightly revised framework. Your description does not match the criteria.

It is this document which you must reference if you want to hold your Uni to account, and I don't think you need to resort to the official complaints procedure yet. Your first port of call should be your faculty lead, whoever that is. Write to them and explain the above, and ask them how to go about three possible routes-1. achieving the funding outlined in the linked document 2. achieving a refund 3. accessing the complaints procedure.
Those three things. And do it all in writing, not face to face on screen, or whatever.

The problem with complaining right now is you can be outwitted very quickly when it comes to them worrying about a refund. However, if you have invested the right effort in enquiring about the right things first of all, you have more stuff to take to complaint, if it comes to that.
In the meantime, have a look at whatever documentation you hold which signs off any of the teacher standards by schools you have worked with (again, they are in that link). This document is key, because you need to demonstrate that you have not met those standards and it is not your fault.
I hope this helps. My main reason for posting is that it makes me so sad that someone who clearly wants to meet the standards feels so thwarted. Perversely, you are being handed QTS on a plate, but you are rejecting it for good reason. Something tells me because of this you would make a very good teacher!

Zig27 · 06/06/2021 21:53

I saw a few weeks ago someone on a different forum was in a similar situation to you last year due to covid and lack of placements so they were able to get a partial refund from the uni. Good luck with your complaint.

Klh2030 · 17/12/2021 11:46

Hey there looking for some advice. I am on a PGDE and I recently one day after school went to the pub with the 3 other students on placement and got quite drunk to the point where I didn't go in for placement the next day. School found out we had been at the pub and approached me to ask me if that was why I was off, as they already knew I thought no point in lying and admitted my faults. Anyway they said they will have to tell uni as it goes against the teacher standards and is unprofessional etc and now I'm worried what uni will do. I already don't get on the best with staff at my school just as I don't feel it's a particularly friendly and welcoming environment. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation?

JaffavsCookie · 17/12/2021 12:36

@Klh2030
You really think you have a comeback in any shape or form by getting so pissed you can’t turn up for work the next day, utterly, utterly unprofessional. If you are lucky you may get away with a severe reprimand.

bananabuddy3 · 17/12/2021 13:59

Ummm....at best you’ll be warned, not sure how likely that is.
Sorry but you have to treat placement as employment and as a professional adult, and that means not getting pissed on a school night.
In the real working world.
, that would likely be disciplinary action. I would brace yourself for placement failure (meaning you’ll have to redo it and will delay you qualifying) or potentially being kicked off. Ot possibly a major scolding and a poor final report from your school.
For now, work your ass off and at least try and make up for it.

CarrieBlue · 17/12/2021 19:24

Have schools broken up today? 🤔

MrsHamlet · 18/12/2021 11:03

The last trainee who skived a day at my school had his placement suspended by me. I don't care if that's unfriendly.
They're struggling to find another local placement.

bananabuddy3 · 21/12/2021 19:24

oP can I please just apologise and say my response was meant to be on a thread where someone was asking what to do about missing placement due to being too hungover - so I’m not sure how it’s ended up here! Really sorry

Any progress?