Teaching Practice Office

crazykidd

As a student teacher here in UL i cannot understand how the university puts up with such a poor service.....numerous students did not receive schools for tp,some were told they had but on contacting the schools in quesstion they found out that they had actually been refused but told otherwise by the tp office...others put in knew requests to the tp office but to find that the office had not contacted any of the schools listed the following week and with teaching ractice coming up in 4-5 weeks time...its a wonder why these people get paid at all....

Catch15

I've had my own problem with them before, which resulted in me being placed 200 miles from home. Luckily, this was in Co. Clare so I just stayed in Limerick, however, this obviously made my cost of living massive as I couldn't take on a part time job. I went as far as to contact the schools I put on the form originally, and two of them said they had heard nothing from UL! Unfortunately, I'd accepted the school in Clare at this stage but I don't regret going there one bit.

Most of the dealings of that office go through one man, so he's basically responsible for 250/300 students each semester. There's definitely a way to improve it but as with most things of this nature in UL, it probably won't change until someone makes a stand against it.

SarahBeep!

I still havn't got a school. Making a formal complaint when I go back.

Catch15

Don't leave it too late, I know someone who had to repeat the year because they only got placed the first week of TP, ie too late!

daithi_lacha

I've heard a lot of horror stories but I got placed in a school in the town I wanted, and any time I've had to call in to deal with them they couldn't have been more helpful.... It's all well and good pointing out the handful of horror stories, but I know plenty of people, including myself who have nothing but positive to say about that office!

SarahBeep!

Catch15 wrote: »

Don't leave it too late, I know someone who had to repeat the year because they only got placed the first week of TP, ie too late!

I'm working on finding my own, calling in EVERY favour I'm ever owed. I asked the TP office and Roland what would happen if I didint get placement and the lying b*stard said it had never happened that someone didn't get placed.

It's the same sh*t every year like.

Catch15

SarahBeep! wrote: »

I'm working on finding my own, calling in EVERY favour I'm ever owed. I asked the TP office and Roland what would happen if I didint get placement and the lying b*stard said it had never happened that someone didn't get placed.

It's the same sh*t every year like.

Keep on truckin'...

Technically, Roland didn't lie as that lad got placed. But, seeing as it was well away from his home place, he had to start that day and he had nothing prepared, it was decided he'd repeat. But f*** that for a bag of spiders!

SarahBeep!

Catch15 wrote: »

Keep on truckin'...

Technically, Roland didn't lie as that lad got placed. But, seeing as it was well away from his home place, he had to start that day and he had nothing prepared, it was decided he'd repeat. But f*** that for a bag of spiders!

They seem to be forgetting people have lives. They don't give a flying **** about people's circumstances like.

daithi_lacha

Again, I'll defend them - I've had nothing but positive dealings with them, as have many people I know.... They've been most accommodating and understanding and extremely helpful.... Maybe it's your blunt public approach to it that's getting you the treatment you're talking about? Because I've found them nothing but fantastic, as have many other people I know!

FerrisBueller

No Daithi I highly doubt that that's it. Count yourself lucky that you have a positive opinion of them. It depends which person you go through, there is a certain someone in there who must really hate their job the treatment they give people, up there with a certain someone in the Co-Op Office for social skills and work ethic.

I know of a few people in my class not getting schools and this person saying it was their own fault, how? Because this person didn't do their job?? Another ridiculous story is girl with a child's TP school couldn't take her the second semester, the TP person gave out to the girl for not telling him (she told him as soon as she found out) and said she could be placed in Donegal, the other side of the country and when she kept trying to say "I can't go there, I have a child" he would cut across her and wouldn't let her explain herself.

Maybe it's this person's blunt public approach that's getting the TP Office a reputation the majority of people in this thread are talking about???

canned_ulkc

Meeeeeeoooowwwwwwwww, boards.ie lives up to it's reputation to polarise again!

One positive experience does not a service make; one negative experience doesn't make it a bago****e.

My experience = good.
Others on my course = had to get own school and one was even told they couldn't go to a school his own brother had done TP in just 2 years before. This is not anecdotal, it's fact.

Ginge Young

Couldn't agree more with Tony.

My own personal experience with them for my 2 placements was positive. My first one, I got the school I wanted, my second I didn't but they worked pretty well to get a school where I wanted.

A lot of it depends on the individual staff in their also. Some are more helpful than others, but coincidentally people I found very helpful I have heard horror stories about.