DES Circular 3/84 (1984)

This circular contains the conclusions of the Secretary of State for Education and Science and the Secretary of State for Wales regarding the machinery for approving teacher training courses, and sets out the criteria to be applied.

The text of DES Circular 3/84 was prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 12 March 2026.

Department of Education and Science
London: 1984
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Joint Circular from the

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, ELIZABETH HOUSE, YORK ROAD, LONDON SE1 7PH and

WELSH OFFICE, CATHAYS PARK, CARDIFF

INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING: APPROVAL OF COURSES

1. In the White Paper "Teaching Quality" (1) the Secretaries of State proposed the establishment of criteria against which initial training courses would in future be assessed as a precondition of approval, and said that they would initiate a review of all existing approved courses once the criteria were published. The purpose of this circular is to announce the conclusions of the Secretaries of State concerning the machinery for course approval, and to set out in an annex the criteria to be applied.

2. As the White Paper explained, the approval by the Secretaries of State of initial teacher training courses is distinct from the validation of courses for academic purposes. It is for the validating body to judge the academic merit of a course and to determine whether a student successfully completing it should be awarded a first degree or other qualification; it is for the Secretary of State for Education and Science, in accordance with the Education (Teachers) Regulations and in consultation with the Secretary of State for Wales as appropriate, to say whether the course is suitable for the professional preparation of teachers and hence the conferment of qualified teacher status. The two functions are clearly interrelated and cannot be carried out in isolation from each other. Nevertheless they exist for different purposes and in the Government's view the sources of advice to the Secretaries of State on professional approval should be separate from the validation function.

(1) Cmnd 8836, March 1983

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AN ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR THE ACCREDITATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION COURSES

3. The Secretaries of State accept the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the Supply and Education of Teachers (ACSET) that, in order to obtain consistency in the assessment of courses, a single council should be established to advise on the approval of teacher education courses both in the universities and in the public sector. They have therefore decided to establish a Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education with the following terms of reference:

"to advise the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales on the approval of initial teacher training courses in England and Wales."

5. The membership of the Council will be drawn mainly from practising school teachers, teacher trainers and elected members and officers of local education authorities, with the aim of giving the Secretaries of State the benefit of the advice of experienced professionals with a broad knowledge of the best practice in teacher education. It will also be desirable to facilitate links through the membership with the other main bodies concerned with the location, scale and quality of teacher education. Appointments will be made by the Secretaries of State on a personal basis: they have already invited relevant professional organisations and other interested bodies to suggest names of people whom they would wish to see considered for appointment.

6. HM Inspectors will visit teacher training institutions in the public sector and, by invitation, university departments of education. The findings of these visits will be reported to the Secretaries of State, who will make them available to the Council, and the reports on public sector institutions will be published, in accordance with current practice. In addition, HMI knowledge of teacher training institutions will be available to the Council through its HMI assessors. None of this should discourage institutions from continuing to consult HMI on a less formal basis when developing course proposals.

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OPERATION OF THE COUNCIL

7. It will be for the Council itself to determine its timetable and working methods and to indicate to institutions the form in which submissions should be made. In doing so it will need to have regard both to the requirement for adequate information on which to base a recommendation to the Secretaries of State, and to the desirability of avoiding duplication of the requirements made by validating and funding bodies and of keeping the burden on institutions as light as possible. The Secretaries of State will expect the Council to work within the framework set out in the following paragraphs.

8. A course will be considered for approval only if it has the support of a local committee on which the training institution, the local education authorities in the area, local practising school teachers and individuals from outside the education service are all represented. Details of the constitution and membership of such committees will be for local determination but each institution will need to satisfy the Council that suitable arrangements have been made for a body of this kind to meet regularly. The committees should be encouraged to discuss all aspects of initial teacher training and should play a particularly important role in promoting links between training institutions, schools and the community. It is not intended that they should act in any way as sub committees of the Council, which will deal direct with the institutions on course approval matters.

9. The Secretaries of State will also expect the Council, in offering its advice, to draw on all relevant information, including submissions made by individual institutions, evidence based on any visits made by members of the Council or any working parties it might establish for the purpose, and in all cases the findings of HMI visits.

CRITERIA FOR THE APPROVAL OF COURSES

10. The Secretaries of State will look to the Council for advice on whether a course conforms to the criteria set out in the annex to this circular, which are based on the requirements published in the White Paper "Teaching Quality" and the recommendations made by ACSET. These criteria will be subject to review from time to time, for example in the light of decisions following from any recommendations which ACSET may make concerning the provision of professional training in second teaching subjects for secondary teachers.

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11. The Secretaries of State consider that PGCE courses of less than 36 weeks will be incapable of meeting the criteria. Institutions offering such courses will be expected to extend them to a minimum of 36 weeks as soon as is practicable. If a PGCE course is of less than 36 weeks duration when first examined by the Council, a recommendation for approval may be made subject to the course being re-examined as a 36 week course within a specified timescale. If the Council's recommendation is accepted, approval will normally be given on a temporary basis.

THE QUALIFICATION OF TEACHERS

12. A course approved under the criteria will prepare teachers to work with pupils within a specific age range and, in the case of secondary courses, to teach one or two specific subjects. As now, those who successfully complete courses of initial teacher training will receive formal letters notifying them that they have been recognised by the Secretary of State as qualified school teachers. These letters will specifically draw attention in future to the phase and subjects for which the course of initial training was intended and for which it was approved, and should act as a guide to employers and schools in improving the match between the formal qualifications of teachers and the teaching programmes assigned to them in schools. Teachers will not however be formally limited to teaching the age range and subjects indicated on their letters.

13. The annex to this circular makes it clear that in no case should a qualification carrying qualified teacher status be awarded to a student whose practical classroom work is unsatisfactory, and that institutions will be expected to seek to identify early in the course students who are satisfactory academically but unsuited to teaching, to allow for the possibility of transfer to another course. If a student reaches the end of a three or four year course and demonstrates academic but not professional competence, it is to be hoped that the validating body will be prepared to award an alternative form of qualification which does not carry qualified teacher status.

INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS

14. The Council will be expected to announce at an early stage its programme for reviewing existing courses of initial teacher training, allowing time for institutions to complete their own internal review to the satisfaction of their local committees. In the meantime, new or amended courses may be due to begin admissions, and others may be due for review

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by their validating body: in these cases, the institutions concerned should continue to submit a course description to the DES in the normal way, giving an adequate period of notice before admissions are due to begin. If the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of State for Wales as appropriate, is satisfied with the general balance and content of the course he will normally give temporary approval, pending the more detailed examination to be undertaken by the advisory Council.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

15. To the extent that the policies set out in this Circular may require local authorities to incur some relatively small additional expenditure in future years, in particular on the release of school teachers and teacher trainers, the Secretaries of State will expect this to be contained within the provision for those years, including the cost of employing teachers. It will be for local authorities to decide where any necessary savings should be made, after taking into account the Government's policies for education set out in the recent Public Expenditure White Paper Cmnd 9143.

DJS HANCOCK

RH JONES

To: Local Education Authorities. All institutions which provide courses of Initial Training for Teaching; Universities concerned with the validation of courses of teacher education and training; Council for National Academic Awards.

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ANNEX

CRITERIA FOR THE APPROVAL OF COURSES

1. In assessing existing courses of initial teacher training and considering new ones for approval, the Secretaries of State will look to the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education for advice on whether a course conforms to the criteria set out below. These are based on the requirements laid down in the White Paper "Teaching Quality" (Cmnd 8836) and take fully into account the advice given by the Advisory Committee on the Supply and Education of Teachers on the form which criteria might take.

2. No course will be considered for approval unless it has the support of a local committee on which the providing institution, local education authorities in the area, practising school teachers and members of the community outside the education service are represented. This local committee should meet on a regular basis to discuss matters concerning the planning, operation and review of initial teacher training courses and should have a leading role in promoting links between the institutions, the schools and the community.

LINKS BETWEEN TRAINING INSTITUTIONS AND SCHOOLS

3. Institutions, in co-operation with local education authorities and their advisers, should establish links with a number and variety of schools, and courses should be developed and run in close working partnership with those schools. Experienced teachers from schools sharing responsibility with the training institutions for the planning, supervision and support of students' school experience and teaching practice should be given an influential role in the assessment of students' practical performance. They should also be involved in the training of the students within the institutions.

4. The staff of training institutions who are concerned with pedagogy should have school teaching experience. They should have enjoyed recent success as teachers of the age range to which their training courses are directed, and should maintain regular and frequent experience of classroom teaching. If some members of staff cannot satisfy this requirement, the employing institution should provide them with opportunities to demonstrate their teaching effectiveness in schools, for example by means of secondments to schools or schemes for tutor/schoolteacher exchanges.

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5. Initial teacher training courses should be so planned as to allow for a substantial element of school experience and teaching practice which, taken together, should be not less than 15 weeks in a postgraduate course, a 3 year BEd or concurrent undergraduate course, and not less than 20 weeks in a 4 year BEd. Educational and professional studies should be closely linked with each other and with a student's practical experience in schools.

6. In no case should a qualification carrying qualified teacher status be awarded to a student whose practical classroom work is unsatisfactory. The professional teaching performance of undergraduates should be judged separately from their academic performance. Institutions should seek to identify, early in the course, those students who are satisfactory academically but unsuited to teaching so as to allow for the possibility of transfer to another course.

SUBJECT STUDIES AND SUBJECT METHOD

7. The higher education and initial teacher training of all intending teachers should include the equivalent of at least two full years' course time devoted to subject studies at a level appropriate to higher education. In BEd courses for the primary years, a wide area of the curriculum might constitute the student's specialism and the time allocated to this part of the course should include the application of the subjects concerned to the learning and developmental needs of young children. In BEd courses for secondary teaching, the two years should be spent in the study of one or two subjects within the secondary curriculum as it is at present or as it may be expected to develop in the foreseeable future. In the case of entrants to PGCE courses, institutions should satisfy themselves that the level and content of candidates' initial degrees are appropriately related to the work of primary or secondary schools (whichever is relevant).

8. Courses should include adequate attention to the methodology of teaching the chosen subject specialism, or curricular area, and of relating it not only to the school curriculum as a whole, but also to the everyday life and work of the community. The approach to teaching method should differentiate according to the age group which the student intends to teach, whether primary (with special emphasis on age-ranges such as 3-8, 5-8 or 7-12 years) or secondary (11/12-18), while giving due emphasis to the differences between children in the rates at which they develop and learn. Students should experience a wide range of teaching and learning methods and be given ample opportunity to discuss and assess them. They should also acquire understanding and experience of the contribution of new

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technologies to all aspects of children's learning. In order that a satisfactory standard of subject teaching and methodology is maintained, institutions should ensure that the relevant teaching staff are themselves equipped to educate and train the entrants to an all-graduate profession, and to prepare students in their subject at a level appropriate to higher education.

9. Training courses for primary teachers should not only give attention to the methodology appropriate to the particular subject or area of the curriculum in which the student expects to make a special contribution, but should also devote a substantial amount of time to the study of teaching language and mathematics, and the understanding of their significance across the curriculum. As a minimum, about 100 hours should be devoted to each of these aspects, which may be through a combination of taught time, structured school experience, and private study. The professional studies of intending primary teachers should, moreover, prepare them for their wider role of class teacher. It follows that, particularly in the case of those intending to teach children in the early years, all relevant areas of the curriculum including religious education should be included in both the student's study and teaching practice.

EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

10. The educational and professional elements of initial training should provide students with adequate mastery of the basic professional skills, on which to build in their teaching careers. Even if these elements are not formally integrated within the structure of the course, they should be planned so as to achieve this common purpose, through the careful structuring of school experience and teaching practice, as well as through teaching and study based in the training institution. Practical experience of schools should include both intermittent and block practice, and should offer experience of observation, small group teaching and the tutoring of individuals as well as responsibility for the organisation and planning of the work of a whole class and experience of class management and control.

11. Students should be prepared through their subject method work and educational studies to teach the full range of pupils whom they are likely to encounter in an ordinary school, with their diversity of ability, behaviour, social background and ethnic and cultural origins. They will need to learn how to respond flexibly to such diversity and to guard against preconceptions based on the race or sex of pupils. They should be helped to understand the different ways in which pupils develop and learn, and the factors which can affect that process, such as the quality of the exchange of language between teacher and pupil and the contribution of

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parents to their children's development. Students should learn to recognise children who are very able or gifted and appreciate how their potential can be developed; they will also need to acquire an understanding of the more common learning difficulties. This will require experience of the purpose and practice of the assessment of pupil performance and a knowledge of the appropriate levels of performance to be expected from children of differing ages, abilities and aptitudes. Students should be introduced to ways of identifying children with special educational needs, helped to appreciate what the ordinary school can and cannot do for such children and given some knowledge of the specialist help available and how it can be enlisted.

12. Courses should also pay attention to other aspects of the teacher's work, including the importance of staff collaboration in a collective professional approach to the curriculum and the pastoral and administrative responsibilities of teachers. Arrangements should be made for students to participate in extra-curricular activities. Students should be made aware of the wide range of relationships - with parents and others - which teachers can expect to develop in a diverse society, and of the role of the school within a community. They should also acquire an appreciation of the way in which the education service is structured and administered. They will also need to have a basic understanding of the type of society in which their pupils are growing up, with its cultural and racial mix, and of the relationship between the adult world and what is taught in schools, in particular, ways in which pupils can be helped to acquire an understanding of the values of a free society and its economic and other foundations. Opportunities should be provided for students to reflect on and learn from their own classroom experience, and to place their role as a teacher within the broader context of educational purposes.

SELECTION AND ADMISSION TO INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING COURSES

13. Institutions should have adequate procedures for assessing whether or not candidates display the personal and intellectual qualities suitable for teaching and show evidence of professional potential. Such procedures should in all cases involve a personal or group interview with each candidate being considered for admission, and experienced practising schoolteachers should be involved at this or some other stage of the selection process. Institutions should ensure that selection procedures at all stages provide equal opportunities for all applicants, irrespective of race or sex.

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14. In assessing the personal qualities of candidates, institutions should look in particular for a sense of responsibility, a robust but balanced outlook, awareness, sensitivity, enthusiasm and facility in communication. Previous employment or self employment, or experience of work with children or adolescents in a school, youth club or otherwise, should normally count in a candidate's favour.

15. All entrants to initial teacher training courses must have attained in mathematics and in English the standard required to achieve either a Grade C or above in the GCE 'O' level examinations or a Grade 1 in the CSE examinations. Entrants to postgraduate courses must hold a degree of a British University or the CNAA or a recognised equivalent qualification. Subject to what is said in paragraph 16 below, entrants to undergraduate courses should fulfil the normal academic requirements for admission to first degree studies. Moreover, undergraduate students intending to teach secondary pupils should normally hold an 'A' level pass (or equivalent) appropriate to the discipline(s) intended to be their main teaching subject(s). A broad base of studies at 'O' and 'A' level is particularly important for students intending to teach primary pupils.

16. Mature applicants for undergraduate courses who lack the conventional entry qualifications for first degree studies may be admitted as special entrants if they have suitable personal qualities and appropriate experience of adult and working life. The admitting institution and its validating body must however be satisfied as to the relevance of that experience, the intellectual capacity of the student to complete a degree course successfully and his or her competence in the use and understanding of mathematics and the English language. Institutions should be able to demonstrate that they have carefully considered the basis on which any special entrants are admitted, that the standards of courses will not be compromised in order to accommodate such students, and that end-of-course qualifications will be awarded only to those who have attained the professional and academic standards required of all prospective teachers. In any event, at least 75% of the students entering any one course should possess the normal qualifications for entry to a first degree course.

17. Institutions should satisfy themselves that all entrants to courses of initial teacher training are able to communicate effectively in spoken and written English and, where appropriate, in Welsh. All entrants should have a satisfactory health record.