Primary Science
Primary Science Enhancement Award for early career teachers.
The Primary Science Enhancement Award (PSEA) scheme supports recently qualified primary teachers to increase their competence and confidence to teach and lead primary science; it gives access to mentoring and professional development from expert primary science practitioners and supports early career teachers to review, evaluate and reflect upon their teaching, building a portfolio of lesson ideas, teaching techniques and evidence of good classroom practice.
The PSEA has been developed by the Primary Science Teaching Trust and is now available to early career primary teachers who work at an Ogden partnership school or are part of the Ogden Teacher Network. It has been designed for teachers who successfully and actively engage in reflective practice and development in primary science beyond the statutory content of their ECT phase.
Eligibility
You must be:
- a primary teacher in the first 5 years of your career, and
- teaching in a school that is part of an Ogden School Partnership OR part of the Ogden Teacher Network.
To complete the award participants must complete a portfolio of evidence including a personal action plan and a series of compulsory and optional activities. These include:
Compulsory activities
- Choose an article from the Association for Science Education publication Primary Science and apply the strategy or approach described with a group/class of children. Reflect on the outcomes, with reference to the article.
- Choose one of the selected PSTT free resources and try it with a group/class of children. Reflect on the learning outcomes and in particular on the questioning you used.
- Interview a science subject leader who has recently completed PSQM to find out how they identified the priorities for their school and the steps they undertook to address these.
Optional activities – at least three to be chosen from the following:
- Development of subject knowledge in one or more relevant areas
- Observation of a science specialist teaching a science lesson
- Delivery of an extra-curricular activity, eg. after school science club, family science event
- Presentation at a network meeting, conference or other science education event
- Trial of a Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) focused assessment task
- Writing of an article for publication – blog or journal
- Trial of an Explorify activity with a group/class of children
- Critical review of a lesson plan/activity from a science scheme of work (free or commercial)
- Engagement in other pedagogical development or action research activity – to be agreed with tutor