Professional Experience (School of Education)Pre-Service Teacher HandbookPre-Placement Checklist

Pre-Placement Checklist

You must complete the tasks below before your placement can commence.

The checklist below outlines the mandatory requirements you must complete before commencing your professional experience placement. Some requirements relate to child safety checks and training, while others provide the Placement team with the information needed to arrange a suitable placement for you.

You are not permitted to organise your own placement.

Please complete all checklist items as soon as possible to avoid delays to your placement.

 

 

This is a university-wide agreement that is required for all placements. The Student Placement Deed outlines the agreement between you, La Trobe University, and your placement educational setting so that you are aware of your roles, what to expect, how we share information, and your responsibilities while on placement. Learn how to complete the Student Placement Deed.

The Working with Children Check (WWCC) helps protect children from physical and sexual harm. It does this by screening people’s criminal records and professional conduct and preventing those who pose an unjustifiable risk to children from working with or caring for them. As a provider of initial teacher education programs, La Trobe University must ensure all PSTs have a valid WWCC prior to commencing professional experience. It is recommended that you apply early as processing times can take more than 8 weeks.

Links to the WWCC providers are listed below. For more information about the WWCC, see the LMS Professional Experience Hub.

You must list La Trobe University Placements as an employer in the ‘Where you work or volunteer’ section of your WWCC account. Add the following details:

  • Organisation name: La Trobe University Placements
  • Address:1 Kingsbury Drive, Bundoora 3083 VIC
  • Phone: 0394796211 (no spaces)
  • Email: PlaceReady@latrobe.edu.au

Once you have your WWCC, please enter your WWCC reference number in InPlace or, for non-Victorian WWCCs, upload a copy of the card into InPlace.

 

STATE CHILD SAFETY TRAINING REQUIREMENT
New South Wales primary and secondary placements in government schools   Find information about all training in the NSW Pre-Service Teachers’ Hub. You will first need to register for a placement in a NSW government school to obtain a staff login,  then complete the following:

  • Child Protection Awareness Training  
  • Aboriginal Cultural Education – Let’s take the first step together  
  • Anti-racism policy  
  • Code of ethics and conduct  
  • ASCIA Anaphylaxis e-training course  

 Once you have completed the training, you will need to submit the signed Pre-Service Teacher Acknowledgement to InPlace. You will also need to provide it along with certificates of completion for your training to your placement school prior to or on the first day of your placement. 
All other primary and secondary placements Child Safety and Wellbeing training module in the LMS. 

STATE CHILD SAFETY TRAINING REQUIREMENT
Victoria   National child safety training, which is made up of two courses:

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 1: Understanding Child Safety

AND

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 2: Understanding and Addressing Child Abuse and Neglect

PLUS

PLUS
Australian Capital Territory National child safety training, which is made up of two courses:

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 1: Understanding Child Safety

AND

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 2: Understanding and Addressing Child Abuse and Neglect

PLUS

PLUS

 
All other states and territories  National child safety training, which is made up of two courses:

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 1: Understanding Child Safety

AND

  • Foundations of Child Safety Course 2: Understanding and Addressing Child Abuse and Neglect

PLUS

Check the placement dates for your placement subject (available on the home page of this guide) and add the dates to your calendar. You must make yourself fully available for these dates. Placement blocks can only be varied in exceptional circumstances. To learn about acceptable reasons for placement variation, see the Help for PSTs section.

Do you have access to a car during your designated placement dates? Update this information in InPlace.

If there are special considerations (accessibility, cultural, medical or Learning Access Plan) which may affect your placement, please outline in InPlace.

The Placements team will consider this information during placement sourcing. Note, this is not a guarantee your placement will be sourced to accommodate any considerations noted.

Learning Access Plan information must be provided to the Placement Coordinator. If you have a LAP that requires an adjustment to your placement, inform Placement Partnering and Operations via the Work Based Learning Placement Student Enquiry Form. You will receive a reply advising how to email your LAP to the Coordinator of Placement Partnering and Operations. It is important that you provide your LAP as soon as you enrol in a subject that has placement as a hurdle so that there is time to identify what reasonable adjustments are necessary. Please note that the University will not provide any information about your LAP to schools or mentors without your prior written approval.

We will use your term address as the location from which we source your placement. The travel time to your placement will be no more than 75 minutes one way. This applies to both travel by car and public transport. You can update your address in  Student OnLine.

In case of an accident or emergency, please update emergency contact details in Student OnLine.

If your emergency contact is not your next of kin, please provide your next of kin’s address under addresses in your personal details.

Please ensure your mobile phone number is correct in Student OnLine.

Placements are based on your subject method/s. If you change your subject method at any point, you must inform Placement Operations and Partnering as this will affect your placement. Update methods in Student OnLine.

Do you or a family member work at a school or educational setting or do you have family members attending any schools or educational settings? We do not place pre-service teachers in schools or educational settings where there may be a conflict of interest. If this applies to you, please add this into InPlace under the Details tab.

Do you have any pre-existing contacts within an educational setting that you have not already told us about? A pre-existing contact is someone you already know, with whom you have discussed a placement opportunity and who may accept a placement request from La Trobe University on your behalf. If yes, please add this into InPlace under the Details tab providing the school’s name, your contacts name and your existing relationship to them (friend, family, previous teacher, workplace supervisor). Though this contact may be a preference for you, we cannot guarantee you will be placed there. Please note that while you may have informal conversations with pre-existing contacts, you are not permitted to arrange your own placement.

If you are currently employed under PTT or Conditional Accreditation, please provide the following details in InPlace:

  •  the name of the school where you are employed
  • if you would like to complete your placement with your current employer.

The placement team will contact the school to request your placement. Note: Placement with your current employer is subject to approval by the school principal and is not guaranteed.

This is your acknowledgement that you have completed all the pre-placement tasks. Complete it in InPlace.

Questions

If you have any further questions, please see the the LMS Frequently Asked Placement Questions. If you need further advice, please reach out to the Placement team via the Placement Enquiry Form.

Next step

Now that you have completed the Pre-Placement Checklist, you can move on to organising a pre-placement visit to your placement location.