DH decided last year he needed a career change from technical sales, and decided to teacher train. He started off strong with his teaching, getting good feedback but he said he got a weird vibe from the mentor he had. I told him to brush it off and crack on and he did.
Lots of positive feedback but a few negative comments about not submitting lesson plans 48 hours before the lesson (something he says the others weren’t being made to do). He took this on board and made sure they were in, but behind the scenes she had already complained to the uni and he ended up on a support plan. The only grievance was submitting lesson plans with 48 hours notice but she’d spun it in a way that made it look like he was totally unorganised. There was never any issue with his planning and she never changed anything and he was always ready to teach the lessons!
He completed the support plan time and passed it and went off to his second placement, which he loved and smashed! Great feedback and really positive experience.
Fast forward to after Easter, he’s back at placement 1 and although the teaching feedback was fairly positive, a few comments about ensuring there wasn’t talking while he was talking etc, things were positive.
Had a great observation with the uni course director before half term, although he’d voiced concerns to the uni about how he was struggling with the increase in teaching hours and keeping up with the planning for 48 hours before the lessons but he thought he was on the home straight with 3 weeks to go…
That’s where we were wrong. The uni lecturer booked a teams meeting with him today after school, we thought it was just as catch up following their meeting before half term where he’d said he was struggling with the workload where the teaching had increased, and he was finding the mentor not very supportive. Well the uni tells him the mentor has reported him as a cause for concern, and he’s unlikely to pass this placement, meaning that he won’t pass the course.
It’s really surprised us both and the uni aren’t being very helpful. Is there any chance at this late stage that he could change their minds? Can the uni say his obs with them were good and he passed placement 2, so they’ll pass him anyway?
His confidence has taken a huge knock and he doesn’t want to go back in on Monday, and his mental health is in the gutter. He’s passed the PGCE but won’t get QTS without passing placement.
The uni say his options are to crack on and finish the next few weeks (not sure if they were saying that he could pass but they did say there wasn’t time to do another assessment). Or take a break and try again in September in a new school to do one more half term, just to pass. He said they seemed to be pushing for the latter.
I’m obviously hearing all this from him, and he’s feeling very negative, so I don’t know if there is a chance they would still pass him.
I’m a teacher of 10 years myself but this has genuinely thrown me and I don’t have much to do with trainees or the process, so I really don’t know what I’m looking at. Please support ☹️