School of Education & Professional Development: Dean: Jeff Battersby

							                                                Faculty of Education, Health & Welfare
                                                                    Dean: Dr Ian Luke
                                               From: Initial Teacher Training - Primary
                                             Tel: 01752 636767 Fax: 01752 636867
                                                     Email: gnevisky@marjon.ac.uk


April 2011

Dear Student,

Should you be accepted on our Bachelor of Education Course, I am sure your time
with us will be both challenging and rewarding. Our students come from across the
country bringing with them a variety of talents and experiences. To ensure some
common experience for the early part of your course, we request that you arrange to
spend five days in any pre-school setting that is working to the “Early Years
Foundation Stage” (DfEE, 2008) and is under the management of a qualified
teacher, prior to officially starting the course. This should take place in July or early
September 2010.

You will need to go to the following link:
http://www.marjon.ac.uk/courses/applying/informationfornewstudents/pre-
coursetasks/ in order to access and print off the following:

    a letter of introduction for you to present to the Headteacher of the setting in
     which you will carry out the initial school experience;
    a form for the setting to record your attendance;
    a first year School Experience Placement form. It is essential that you
     complete and return to School Placements Co-ordinator (Primary) The Initial
     Teacher Training Office, University College Plymouth St Mark and St John as
     soon as possible, but not later than Wednesday 25th August 2010;
    a booklet which gives details of tasks you should be engaged in whilst in
     school and suggestions for records.

   Please share this Initial School Experience booklet with whoever will be
   facilitating your visit i.e. Headteacher, teacher tutor, class teacher, nursery
   teacher and ask for their guidance on when it would be most appropriate to
   complete the tasks. Whilst it is important that you attempt to complete all the
   tasks, we acknowledge that you are a guest in the school/setting and as such
   should place as little burden on the school/setting as possible.


   As a trainee teacher you should spend some time at the end of each day
   reflecting upon what you have learned and then record your thoughts. At the end
   of the week review your file and make a short statement about this placement,
   your expectations, surprises, pleasures, learning and questions. The information
   and observations you make during this placement will be extremely helpful in

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developing your understanding still further, and will relate to the work you
undertake in your first modules of the course.

In addition to this, you will also need to access and print off the English Audit
Workbook and the Mathematics guidance for pre-course study which are also
available on the website as given above. We suggest that you make a start with
both of these tasks although you may not finish either of them before you start
the course. These tasks will help you to prepare fro the course

We hope you enjoy the pre-course experience and we look forward to seeing you
in September.

Yours sincerely,




Gilly Robbins
B.Ed. Primary Programme Leader




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