Your induction timetable
First Year Students – Induction activities
About the session
Plan for the day
- 9am - 12.30pm - Welcome, induction form, timetables, modules, submissions, partnership
- 12.30pm - 2pm - Lunch and travel to the bookshop
- 2pm - 4pm Book shop visit. Address: The Alligator's Mouth, 2a Church Court, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1JL
Second Year Students – Induction activity
About the session
We'll share information about the programme, your timetable for the upcoming academic year, the diverse range of modules, information about the mix of assessments, as well as information from the partnership team regarding final placements.
We'll then provide your third ITaP focusing on questioning. Having listened to feedback from your reps the questioning ITaP has been woven into induction day. The aims of the session will be:
- To understand the theory behind questioning and how this is applied in practice
- To understand questioning as a fundamental part of formative assessment
- To explore different approaches to questioning.
University-wide induction
Your Welcome Week timetable
Try some of the welcome activities and socials on campus during 14-18 September. From fitness to freebies, they're great ways to settle into university life.
Be sure to join your Faculty induction and social activities:
Tuesday 15 September
- 1-4pm - Faculty induction: Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences (G5 and G7)
- 4-6pm - Faculty social: Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences (1850 Bar)
Wednesday 16 September
- 1:30-3pm - Faculty induction: Education (G7) and Arts (Waldegrave Drawing Room) only
- 1:30-3pm - Faculty team building activity: Business, Law and Theology only (The 1850)
- 3-4:30pm - Faculty induction: Business, Law (G7) and Theology (N44) only
- 3-4:30pm - Faculty team building activity: Education and Arts only
- 4:30-6pm - Faculty social: Faculty of Arts, Business, Law, Education and Theology (1850 Bar)
Find out why we're rated Gold in student experience (2023 Teaching Excellence Framework).
Join one of the mandatory Student Essentials sessions in Welcome Week
These are a warm welcome and introduction to different faces you’ll see at the university, plus essential info about support services, health and safety, the code of conduct, and ID cards.
Complete the two mandatory Learning Modules online
St Mary's University is committed to creating a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for everyone.
All students must complete this Harassment and Sexual Misconduct online training module on your Moodle accounts by Friday 30 October 2026 and further information can be found on the module webpage.
Please note, to access the above module you will need to Log into your University Office 365 account and set up multifactor authentication (need MFA help?), so you can log into University services. You can then use your student email address – [Your student number]@live.stmarys.ac.uk – for Office 365 and University systems.
It’s worth noting, after you enrol there’ll be a short delay until your modules appear in Moodle, our virtual learning environment.
Pre-induction tasks
Write a bio-poem
Primary Language and Literacy is one of the first modules you will study on this course. As part of ITT statutory requirements, you will need to have a secure foundation in the teaching of English. With a strong subject knowledge, you will be able to develop creative and inspiring teaching approaches in English lessons.
We are really looking forward to teaching you this semester and getting to know you better. One of the important threads running through our module is representation in children’s literature and children being able to see themselves in the books that they read. To support you and us with this we would like you to write a bio-poem about yourself. A bio-poem is a simple poem that follows a particular pattern (Ness, 2018).
Please can you follow the structure below to write your bio-poem and bring it with you to your first lecture.
- Line 1 First Name
- Line 2 Three or four adjectives that describe the person
- Line 3 Important relationship (daughter of…mother of…etc)
- Line 4 two or three things, people or ideas that the person loved
- Line 5 Three feelings the person experienced
- Line 6 Three fears the person experienced
- Line 7 accomplishments (who composed…. Who discovered….etc)
- Line 8 two or three things the person wanted to see happen or wanted t experience
- Line 9 his or her residence
- Line 10 last name
Example poem
“Abraham
Fierce unyielding brave tall
Son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, husband of Mary Lincoln
Lover of freedom, tall hats, and good speeches
Who felt patriotism for his country and who felt grief at a divided nation
Who feared what would become of a divided country, feared the south would win, feared the costs of war
Who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and who won the Civil War
Who wanted to see the nation whole again
Born in Kentucky,
Observe a Primary PE lesson
In the first semester you will develop your knowledge, understanding and confidence of how to plan, teach, adapt and assess effective, inclusive and safe physical education lessons.
We would like you to observe a primary PE lesson using the template below and bring this with you to your first lecture of the module.
Primary ITT PE Observation Sheet
PE observations are an opportunity to observe experienced teachers in order to enhance your own practice.
Download the PE Observation Sheet.
Pre-course reading materials
Meeting the Special Educational Needs of the Individual Child
I am looking forward to teaching you in September in your SEND module. This module will explore your identity as a teacher of children with SEND; SEND and inclusion pedagogies; the voice of the child and the family in decision making and the complexity of need in both SEND and mainstream settings. We will explore both settings and draw on the experiences of students in your places of work.
A SEND placement is a requirement should you opt to submit for the elective and this module will fully support your preparation for that placement.
Please read these two papers prior to the first lecture when we will discuss their content.
- A review of the evidence on the impact of inclusion on pupils with SEND1 and their mainstream peers (Gray, Norwich and Webster, 2021)
- Exploring the experiences and outcomes of children and young people receiving support for special educational needs over time in England: a qualitative study Saxton et al, 2025
Here's an additional pre-induction programme for students in the following categories. If you feel you'd benefit from additional support, you're eligible to apply to Get Set for Success:
- Students who've previously been eligible for free school meals
- First generation students (the first in family to go to university)
- Estranged students (students no longer in contact with their families)
- Care experienced students (students who have spent some time in local authority care)
- Students who are carers
- Students from Gypsy, Roma, or Traveller (GRT) backgrounds
- Students with academic qualifications other than A-levels (BTEC, diploma, etc)
- Refugees and asylum seekers
Find out more about Get Set for Success or contact getsetforsuccess@stmarys.ac.uk.