University College Plymouth St Mark & St John

Literacy Assessment

All applicants will be asked to take a literacy ‘test’ at interview.  This is in order to assess their command of written Standard English and reading.  Command of spoken Standard English is assessed during the interview.

For the literacy assessment at interview:

• Applicants are asked to read a short article from a national newspaper on an educational topic and respond to this in writing
• Applicants are given a pupil’s written response and asked to identify any errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar

Professional Attributes
This includes high expectations and commitment to realising and raising pupil potential; professional behaviour; facility for collaboration, reflection and innovation.

Professional Knowledge and Understanding
This includes subject knowledge as defined with your degree/academic qualification, but also the curriculum context of the subject – i.e. what and how it is taught in schools.

Professional skills in relation to teaching and learning
This includes your reflections from your own observation/experience of teaching/learning.  All applicants are expected to have had some experience/observation in a secondary school.

You will be assessed upon the following elements:

Subject knowledge per se - The essential knowledge and understanding needed in order to teach a subject effectively
Pedagogy: subject theory and practice - An understanding of the teaching skills and strategies needed to teach all pupils effectively
Pupils' development - An understanding of how learning is linked to pupils' development and their social, religious, etnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and contexts
Attitudes - Positive attitudes to pupils' learning that underpin subject knowledge, skills and understanding
(For more information, go to www.tda.gov.uk )

Recommended preparation for interview

In order to prepare for the interview, all applicants for mathematics are asked to:

1. Familiarise themselves with the National Curriculum for KS3/KS4 Mathematics on www.nc.uk.net/ and consider their priorities in preparing to teach mathematics at KS3/KS4
2. Visit http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/secondary/mathematics  and read about the teaching approaches recommended for teaching mathematics in the National Strategy

From this preparation, applicants are asked to talk about two or three areas regarding teaching and learning in mathematics which they think are of special interest.