Here go the trainees..

As they enter their final term, trainees need to be brave... and departments need to encourage them!

I previously wrote a blog called Here Come the Trainees where I talked about how departments should support trainees and discussed the idea that even though these are adults, they are still learners.

The pressure of being in a new environment, learning what schools are about, what teaching is about, what the relationships required are, there is still a lot of learning going on.

However, as we enter the summer term, and many trainees from different SCITTs and universities move into their final placement, I think this is an absolutely key opportunity…. one that can be incredibly powerful but is often just left to wither away.

What do I mean by this?

From my experience of working in teacher training over the last seven years, this is a term where trainees continue to hone their skills. They become more confident, more comfortable, more consistent….

But do they take the opportunity to step outside of their comfort blanket?

Yes, they will be practising their “I do, we do, you do.”
Yes, they will be practising cold calling and the other direct instruction strategies that are clearly important.

But not every lesson should be the same and whilst these “standard” lessons are what they practise regularly (and you may say rightly so), can they (please) be a bit more experimental in that final term?

For me, this final term is the last chance for those trainees to have an experienced teacher with them in the room at all times. Opportunity after opportunity to try things, take risks and be supported through it. It is a safe space.

So what might that look like?

A maths lesson that starts with a problem, not an explanation.
A science lesson that explores enquiry in a different way.
A language lesson that brings the content to life rather than simply rehearsing it.

Not every lesson…. but some.

The point is not what they do.
The point is that they feel able to try.

And this is where the role of the mentor / learning coach is crucial.

I would not want this final term to become, “Good, you are in the classroom now, off you go.”

This is a real opportunity to be brave.

Because they are lucky to be in a classroom with an experienced teacher alongside them. That does not happen in the same way once they qualify.

So if not now, when?

As an additional aside, but still very relevant, this might also be the point where coaches engage more closely with providers. Are you aware of what the trainee has been taught on their course? Are there things they have seen or learned that you have not yet seen in practice? Is there something new there, for both of you?

Because providers do not want trainees just to come into schools and learn what the school does. We want it to be a two-way thing. We want schools to be learning from trainees as well, learning from what providers are trying to develop.

And I hope that is the case more widely as well. This is not about replacing direct instruction. It is too important for that! But it is not the only form of instruction and if all trainees experience is one way of teaching, then we have missed something.

This final term matters! It should not just be about getting through lessons, building consistency, and ticking boxes.

It should be about trying something a little different.
About stepping outside of the familiar.
About taking a risk, with support there in the room…. because this is the last time they will have that.

In that final term, we do not just want trainees practising teaching, we want them practising bravery, so they, and the schools, leave the year having learned something new.