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In the context of renewed interest in teachers' identities as writers and the writers as artist-educators, this paper reports upon the findings of "Teachers as Writers" (2015-2017). A collaborative partnership between two universities and a creative writing foundation, the study sought to determine the impact of writers' engagement with teachers on changing teachers' classroom practices in the teaching of writing and, as a consequence, in improving outcomes for students. The project afforded opportunities for writers and teachers to work together as learners in order to improve student outcomes. The study involved two complementary datasets: a qualitative dataset of observations, interviews, audio-capture (of workshops, tutorials and co-mentoring reflections) and audio-diaries from 16 teachers; and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving 32 primary and secondary classes. The findings reveal that the teachers' identities and assurance as writers shifted significantly. The Arvon experience also led to pedagogic shifts which the students reported impacted positively upon their motivation, confidence and sense of ownership and skills as writers. However, these salient dispositional shifts did not impact upon the young people's attainment. The professional writers gained new understandings which substantially altered their conceptions of writers' potential contribution in schools.

The project reported in this paper addresses the issue of trainee teacher learning with regard to special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during the school placement element of one-year postgraduate teacher training programmes in England. Through a focus on the university/school partnership, school organisational and classroom pedagogic processes, the project aimed to improve knowledge and understanding about teacher education relevant to the special educational needs and inclusive education fields. Specifically, the project examined and compared the school-based learning and outcomes of postgraduate teacher trainees in primary and secondary programmes that used different approaches to preparing teachers for the special needs aspects of their future teaching. Three kinds of school-based approaches are examined: one that involved a practical teaching task; a second which involved a pupil-focused task (but not practical teaching); and a third where there was no specific pupil-focused SEND task other than class teaching practice. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables, and 1 note.)

This paper discusses issues arising from a national development and evaluation project, which (1) surveyed national primary and secondary postgraduate certificate programmes (PGCE) about how they prepare trainees to teach pupils with special educational needs; and (2) conducted a trial of a practical teaching task for preparing primary and secondary teacher trainees to teach pupils with special educational needs. The survey involved 42% of all top-rated PGCE providers, whereas the trial involved six primary and five secondary PGCE programmes involving 550 trainees overall. Selected findings are reported from the survey, which are relevant to the need for a supervised school-based teaching task. The evaluation highlighted problems about task preparation, communications, timing, task design, trainee support, use of resources and reporting. Despite these issues, the trial was judged to be successful as almost most participants were positive about the task and its impact. Recommendations for adapting and implementing the task made to the funding agency are outlined; recommendations have been adopted in the national dissemination of the task to all initial 1-year training providers. The evaluation of the trial is discussed in terms of three key aspects: (1) the challenge for initial teacher training to prepare all teachers to teach pupils with special educational needs; (2) the critical role of partnership between universities and practice schools in initial training; and (3) the potential of ideas and practices about personalisation for including concepts about special educational needs pedagogy into wider pedagogic models. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)

The aims of this study were to examine the extent and nature of educational psychologist (EP) work related to children in care in five local authority educational psychology services in the south-west region. The study involved an initial internet-based questionnaire for the 107 EPs in these services (86% response rate), followed up by in-depth semi-structured interviews with four EPs in each service. This paper reports some of the findings from this study that show the range of EP work and their roles in regard to children in care. It also examines the kinds of issues and tensions experienced by EPs in their multi-agency work with regards to children in care. The paper concludes with a brief summary of relevant recommendations arising from the findings. (Contains 6 tables.)