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Promoting Quality in Teacher Education

Note of the meeting of the UCET Management Forum held on-line at 10.00am on Tuesday 23 June 2020

Welcome, introductions and minutes of the previous meeting

Colleagues were welcomed to the final meeting of the 2019/20 academic year. The note of the meeting held on 17 March 2020 was agreed. On matters arising:

No reports of significant delays in respect of DBS processes had been reported.

Although funding for existing teaching school hubs had been confirmed for a further year, concern still remained about the impact on some ITE partnerships of the establishment of new teaching school hubs in 2021/22.

The ICET conference at Bath Spa University had been postponed until 2021. JNR had attended an ICET Board meeting the previous day.

Discussion

A range of issues was discussed, including:

An update from JNR on issues not included on the agenda, including the REF and developments in Northern Ireland and Wales.

Covid 19 related issues, including:

Relaxations made by DfE (following discussions with UCET) to the ITE criteria for both 2019/20 and 2020/21 covering, amongst other things: flexibilities on GCSE entry requirements and its implications for loan and bursary support; the two school requirement; consecutive age-phases; and assessing current students on the basis of QTS trajectories. It was also confirmed that flexibility already existed in terms of the number of days students spend in school, provided that programmes were designed to allow for the required number of days. Announcements in relation to the awarding of degrees for postgraduate students were still awaited.

Course extension funding for students who completed programmes in 2019/20 but could not, because of placement issues, be deemed to be on a QTS trajectory, and which was available in respect of: students who successfully complete their programmes in the first term of 2020/21; those who complete the first term of 2020/21 but have to go into school on an unfunded basis during the second term to demonstrate their QTS trajectory; and completing 2019/20 students who are unable to return to programmes until the second term of 2020/21.

Issues concerning school placement in 2020/21, with on-line placement opportunities and deferred placements being considered (although it was noted that large scale deferrals could lead to further difficulties later in the year).

The health and safety of student teachers, including those in vulnerable categories, both while in school, while travelling and in HEI settings. Partnership agreements might have to be checked to ensure that provider, student and school responsibilities were clear. JNR reported that UCET had asked that student teachers be granted key-worker status.

The difficult of ensuring equity for all students, although equity in terms of quality might be achievable even when equity of experience was not.

Recruitment to ITE and the results of the UCET survey on on-line recruitment activities. On current levels of application, a number of forum members reported significant increases, although some subjects were still struggling at some institutions. There was a chance that students would defer until the following academic year, although the extent of this happening would not be known until later in the summer. The possible impact on recruitment of HEI staffing decisions was also noted.

Inspection and regulatory issues, including: UCET’s call for the CCF and OfSTED inspection framework to be delayed to allow ITE partnerships to focus on more immediate priorities; and the importance of ITE providers being allowed to engage critically with the CCF. Forum members felt that it was not realistic to expect ITE providers and their partner schools to engage fully with the CCF and OfSTED at a time when they had more pressing priorities, and a UCET statement to be issued in the event of previous OfSTED and CCF timetables being adhered to was welcomed by Forum members. The impossibility of ensuring consistent grading across providers in the current circumstances was noted, as would the scope providers might have to appeal against any negative inspection judgements. The OfSTED on-line trainee and provider questionnaire was also discussed, with some forum members arguing that it would be inappropriate to process it at the current time.

The development of the new UCET strategy, building on the work of the IBTA group, which was approved by forum members

The 3-4 November on-line UCET conference, registration for which is open at: www.ucet/conference.

Items for information

The Easter UCET newsletter was noted.

Any other business

None.

Date of next meeting

1 December 2020, via Zoom.