T level in education and childcare

Im thinking of taking this course in college, I would like to know what subjects are covered and I'd also like to know what other students experience of this course were. Thank you.

Hi there, sorry for the late reply, I'm not sure if you started this course or not.
I finished the T Level this May and I got into the University of Birmingham because I want to become an Educational Psychologist. The course is quite well structured and you cover a lot like child development from conception, to safeguarding and the various laws that influence policies in schools and nurseries, different theories about how children learn and why they behave the way they do and also partnership working between schools, parents and other agencies like social workers, speech and language therapists etc. The exams and observations were stressful but for me, it felt really rewarding when I finished and now I'm looking forward to uni.
If you have anymore questions, please feel free to ask me!

What degree are you doing ?

Hi there, sorry for the late reply, I'm not sure if you started this course or not.
I finished the T Level this May and I got into the University of Birmingham because I want to become an Educational Psychologist. The course is quite well structured and you cover a lot like child development from conception, to safeguarding and the various laws that influence policies in schools and nurseries, different theories about how children learn and why they behave the way they do and also partnership working between schools, parents and other agencies like social workers, speech and language therapists etc. The exams and observations were stressful but for me, it felt really rewarding when I finished and now I'm looking forward to uni.
If you have anymore questions, please feel free to ask me!

Hi, hope you're well,
I did it 2 years ago so my memory might be a bit foggy, but I remember there were 5 parts to it and my college did it over 5 days. It's around 12 hours long and a week before the actual ESP, you'll be given a little snippet of the project brief so you can start to brain storm ideas of what you can initially identify what the child may need support in and what kind of activities you could do to help the child. You're allowed 4 pages of notes, cheat sheets basically, which have to be checked by your tutor and I think there is a certain font and size you must use. You can write anything down on there but my advice would be to write down relevant theorists and also quotes from Development Matters, which you'll need for the activity plan.
Activity 1 - you read the project brief which gives you an overview of the child, their likes and dislikes and also where their skills haven't fully developed. For example, when I did it, our child was called Noah and he was an only child and his father was immunocompromised so during the pandemic, he stayed at home with his parents, so didn't interact with other children. This meant he had attachment issues when his mother dropped him off and he wouldn't play with other children.
You have to write an intervention plan, identifying what the child is struggling on and link it to the area of development, personal, social and emotional development or speech and language, etc. Then you come up with a short activity to help the child make progress and why it would help them. This is around 3 hours long and is done under exam conditions.
Activity 2 - this is where you create an activity plan for the child. So you zoom into one of their issues and create an activity to help them develop what you've zoomed in on. Remember to be as detailed as possible and link to theorists for higher marks. This is around 3 hours long and is also done under exam conditions.
Activity 3 - your class will be split into groups and you'll get a copy of everyone in your group's activity plans. You'll have time to fill out a form where you provide feedback on everyone's activity plan: what you think they did well on, what they could improve on and a question you would like them to respond to, could be something like 'why would you have 3 children in this activity instead of 6?' etc, just something to help justify their activities more. You'll have time to discuss with each other and they'll do the same for you. You'll have a second form to fill out which is where you write down the feedback that the others have given you. This is around an hour long and isn't done under exam conditions.
After this, you'll have an hour under exam conditions where you MUST use a different colour and add the feedback you were given to your activity plan and you can also add anything else you want to add.
Activity 4 - here, you create a presentation summarising the needs of the child, what you identified in your intervention plan, what your activity is and how it will help the child, links to theorists, what feedback you received and also what you think the strengths and weaknesses of your activity is. You have around 2 hours to do this under exam conditions.
You then present this to your tutors and they will ask you 3 questions, which you must answer and relate to your work. When I did it in college, we presented in person and it was audio recorded, however, when my brother did it last year, he had to present it on Teams and it was video recorded. The recording is for moderation purposes.
Activity 5 - this is the last task and is a reflection booklet. You have 2 hours under exam conditions to reflect on the employer set project, talk about what you identified and reflect on your activity. What do you think you did well on and what could you have improved. If you did it again, what would you do differently and why?
In my college, we did each 1 activity a day over 5 days, when my brother did it last year, he did activity 1 and 2 on the same day and the other 3 activities over 3 days. So please bear in mind every college may do it differently and also because I did it 2 years ago, I might not remember it exactly, apologies in advance. I'm aware the specification for the T Level has changed recently, so it might affect the ESP, but I'm not sure, your tutors should be aware of any changes
My apologies for this being so long, I hope this helps and please don't hesitate if you need any clarification or have more questions! x

thank you so much this is so helpful!!! when u do the activities under exam conditions are you in like a hall with other people kind of like GCSEs or is it private

Hi, I'm so glad this helped! When under exam conditions, I was in a computer room with the people in my class, there were only 8 of us so it was easy to separate us. The WiFi was also turned off so we can't access the internet to cheat. If your class has more people, you'll probably be split over a few classrooms, but of course every college is different, so it may be done differently x

thank you soooo much honestly this has helped me sm 🙏🙏 sorry for being so specific it’s just I can’t stand being in big exam halls with loads of people for ages it sends my anxiety through the roof but that’s good to know that they split you off is it all done on computer then?

Hey, it's okay, you're welcome! I'm glad to be of help! Yes, for me it was all done on computer apart from activity 3, the one where you give each other feedback. That's done on paper, but you'll be given the forms, so no need to worry about any headings or anything like that. The second part of activity 3, where you add on the feedback to your activity plan, will be done on computer.