A guide to completing the Flexible Route profile

There are seven key elements to completing the Flexible Route profile. Read the instructions below for advice on how to complete each of these key elements during your probation.

Initial professional development action plan (IPDAP)

Use the initial professional development action plan (IPDAP) to identify your initial focus for professional development in the first stages of your probation period.

If you completed your Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Scotland, the IPDAP will be populated using the agreed targets and actions from your ITE profile.

You must add a minimum of 1 target or action for each of the three areas of the Standard for Full Registration. Once you have done so, the status of your record will change to ‘Minimum requirements met’.

Record of teaching service

Complete a record of teaching service for each period you work in a school. Each record should contain the following information.

• Local Authority
• School
• For secondary provisionally registered teachers: if the teaching service was completed in the subject you are registering in or not.
• Dates. Dates can be entered in three formats:
  • Date range. You should select this to enter a full-time, continuous period of service over a few days, weeks or months. Holiday periods should not be included.
  • Multiple dates. Use this to easily record multiple supply dates. Avoid adding one or two days, we suggest using this to add X or more at a time.
  • Month. Use this to add a calendar month or service.

Supporter meetings

Have focused discussions with your supporter. Concentrate on targets and actions you identified in your IPDAP.

Make a new record for each meeting you have with your supporter. Add meetings as they take place. Your supporter does not have to sign off these meetings.

Observations

You are required to complete a minimum of 9 observations of your teaching practice during your probation. Observations should be completed by your supporter or headteacher.

You should identify and agree on a clear and limited focus for the lesson to be observed. Agree this with your supporter at a supporter meeting.

The focus of your lesson must be linked to the targets and actions from your IPDAP.

Make a new record for each observed lesson. Include comments made by your observer.

Professional Learning record

Add your Professional Learning experiences to your Professional Learning record.

You must add a minimum of 9 entries. You must include at least 1 entry in each of the 3 areas of the Standard for Full Registration.

• Identify the main focus of the PL. You should only assign two focus codes to each experience.
• Add a brief explanation of the experience and its impact
• You can use the PL record as a framework. It allows you to see if you are achieving a broad coverage of learning across the areas of the Standard for Full Registration

Key strengths and areas for development

Your supporter will complete this section of your profile.

Supporters can begin to complete this area as soon as you have discussed your targets in the IPDAP. You should identify areas for your professional development action plan.

There should be a clear connection between each stage of your profile.

Your supporter/headteacher must complete this section if you submit a record of teaching service of 45 days or over, and can choose to complete this section for shorter periods. If they wish to add comments, they must add these before clicking ‘sign-off’.

Each field in this section is mandatory and must be completed before sign-off.

Your headteacher will sign your profile off.

Professional development action plan (PDAP)

Use the professional development action plan (PDAP) to record development opportunities in your probation year.

You should complete this in the same way as your initial professional development action plan.

You should complete PDAP towards the end of your probation period. Discuss and agree on targets and actions with your supporter/headteacher. These actions should relate to areas of the Standard for Full Registration.

Outcomes of your Flexible Route profile

When you submit your final profile, we process it in the following way.

There are two possible outcomes:

• Recommendation for full registration
• Recommendation for removal

Recommendation for full registration

When you successfully complete your probationary period, and we receive a recommendation for full registration, we will grant you full registration.

We will send you a certificate confirming your registration in either primary or secondary and, in the case of secondary, the subject.

We will send your Certificate of Full Registration to the address we hold for you on the register. You should let us know if your postal address changes as soon as possible. If you do not, your certificate may be sent to the wrong address and a charge will apply for a replacement certificate.

Log in to MyGTCS to update your personal details.

Recommendation for removal

Recommendations for removal are made following a clear professional judgement that the provisionally registered teacher concerned has not achieved the SFR.

If we receive a recommendation that registration should be removed, we will write to ask you if you wish to challenge this recommendation for removal. A Fitness to Teach adjudicating probationary service panel will hear the case and provisionally registered teachers have the right to be present and/or be represented at this meeting.

You can appeal against the Fitness to Teach panel’s decision by writing to the Appeals Board.