Getting into Teacher Training: Passing your Skills Tests and succeeding in your application

About Bruce BondGeoff BarkerJim JohnsonMark PatmoreNina Weiss

Bruce Bond has been involved in writing editing observing reviewing and trialling the QTS Literacy Skills Tests for over 10 years. He has also been closely associated with the national development and evaluation of the Initial Teacher Training pilots in individual learning plans mentoring and teaching observation and practice. /par1/After attending Goldsmiths and Rolle College in the late 1960s he built up over 30 years of experience teaching English and literacy in the SEN primary secondary and further education sectors before becoming an educational consultant and author of literacy assessments. /par1//par1/Since 2000 other projects have included authoring and editing: Key Skills Communication assessments; Functional Skills English standards and assessments; and the university entry level assessment project in Mozambique. This involved travelling throughout the country working with teams of teachers and lecturers compiling standardised English objective tests./par1/ /par1/Bruce Bond is currently an associate member of AlphaPlus Consultancy Ltd. Jim Johnson is an Honorary Fellow of Nottingham Trent University where until his retirement he led the English team in the Department of Primary Education. Mark Patmore is a former senior lecturer in mathematical education in the School of Education at Nottingham Trent University and currently an associate lecturer at the University of Derby. He has also worked in teacher education with Bishop Grosseteste University and with training providers and provided subject knowledge courses for intending teachers of mathematics. Nina Weiss has worked in the secondary further education and university sector for over 30 years delivering teacher training programmes and teaching English language and literature courses ranging from basic skills to advanced level. Since 2008 she has also been authoring and editing the QTS Literacy Skills Tests. Nina currently teaches English and adult literacy at City and Islington College and is an external examiner for teacher training courses at the University of Greenwich and the Institute of Education London. Prior to this she was course leader for the Post-Compulsory PGCE programme at the Cass School of Education University of East London.