Headteacher/ Senior Leader (Kisharon – SEND all through school ) confirmation of suitability for AO

Notes from LSJS:

Accredited ITT providers are required to get written confirmation from the Headteacher of the applicant’s most recent employing school (or an alternative senior member of staff if needed) of the applicant’s suitability for undertaking the Assessment Only route to QTS. Some wording for this is provided overleaf but we have also added some notes below, in case helpful as clarifications.

The DfE now allow for ITT providers to use their professional judgement and expertise when choosing which phase is most appropriate for the QTS process for an applicant working in a special school. We are asked to consider the full context of the applicant’s prior and current teaching experience, including the curriculum context, the developmental stage and chronological age of their pupils and the range of subjects they teach, including whether they have a specialist subject.

If a candidate at Kisharon is teaching Primary aged pupils, they will be assessed for the Primary AO route QTS.

For candidates whose background/ “day job” is being a specialist subject primary teacher eg teaching Music, PE or Jewish Studies to primary aged pupils at Kisharon, please note that they will be assessed as regular primary teachers across the relevant curriculum subjects rather than as specialists. Typically they will therefore have arranged to get some experience first within school of teaching other primary subjects before we assess them for AO so that they feel suitably prepared, knowledgeable and confident about being seen teaching other subjects and so that they can gather evidence for their file. (For example, if we see them teach English, Maths and Science, they might show evidence from other curriculum subjects in the three internal observations that they send us before the process and/ or in their evidence file.) You are completing the letter overleaf with this in mind, answering in terms of them being a regular primary teacher after they’ve done any extra preparation needed and at the point that we begin assessing them for the AO process.

If a candidate at Kisharon is teaching Secondary aged pupils, there are two possibilities:

If the candidate teaches a main QTS secondary subject (or a small number of subjects, then typically chooses one or two subjects for their AO QTS route), teaches GCSE content to some of the older pupils, and has mainstream experience (whether they taught in a mainstream school earlier in their career or undertook/ will be undertaking a short mainstream placement prior to the AO) in a mainstream secondary school, they would be best placed to be assessed by us as a teacher of Secondary i.e. to get Secondary AO QTS 1116 in their subject(s).

The DfE acknowledge that there may be circumstances where the Primary AO route is more appropriate. This would typically be for an applicant who is teaching multiple subjects across an adapted Primarylevel curriculum, and whose mainstream experience (whether they taught in a mainstream school earlier in their career or undertook/ will be undertaking a short mainstream placement prior to the AO) was/ will be in a mainstream primary school. For such candidates, although they are teaching pupils 11-16, the candidate would likely be best placed to be assessed by us as a teacher of Primary i.e. to get Primary QTS. (Please note that this would involve us assessing them across an adapted range of primary subjects eg We might see them teach English, Maths and Science and they might show us some other subjects like D&T and Humanities via the three internal observations that they send us before the process and/or in their evidence file.)

With the above in mind, please select and complete the relevant letter below. (If you are unsure as to which route would be most appropriate, please first contact our AO Programme Manager Galia on galia.segal@lsjs.ac.uk to discuss this.)