PGCE Primary With Early Years (3-7)

Program Overview

The primary teacher education course is designed for graduates who are committed to becoming primary school teachers. It trains you to teach children in the five -to-11 age range.

As a trainee, you will learn how to teach the entire primary curriculum as well as choosing a particular route.  The Early Years route is designed for graduates who are interested in teaching children aged three to seven, but this will not restrict you to working with this age group.

East London offers multicultural, multilingual and vibrant schools in which to learn, but your training at UEL will qualify you to teach anywhere in England or Wales.

Our PGCE team is made up of experienced practitioners who have worked in a range of primary and Early Years settings across London as classroom teachers, curriculum coordinators, advisory teachers and school leaders.

At UEL you will be part of a diverse community of students. We want to bring to east London a teacher workforce that reflects the local community and, in 2013-14, 24 per cent of our Primary PGCE trainees were men.

Program Outline

You will learn how to be a primary class teacher. By the end of the year, you will understand how to teach the entire primary curriculum to a class of 30 pupils and be confident and competent in doing so.

You will leave the course with outstanding subject knowledge across the curriculum. You will have an understanding of how to plan and deliver engaging and motivating lessons and how to support your pupils' progress.

You will learn how to identify the strength and needs of your pupils and make sure that everyone in your class is included and challenged.

You will understand how to assess pupils' learning, how to spot the gaps in their learning and how to plan to fill those gaps.

Everyone on the Primary PGCE learns how to teach the whole curriculum. We will give you the confidence and skills you need to teach every subject. You will also have extra sessions that improve your practice and understanding of teaching in nursery, reception and Key Stage 1 classes.

In extra Early Years sessions, you will focus on the learning environment, observation, assessment and planning, characteristics of effective learning and working with families and carers.

You will spend most of the first five weeks at the School of Education and Communities, in our purpose-built education building. Here we will look at pedagogy (how to teach) and curriculum (what to teach).

You will develop your knowledge of all subjects and your understanding of how to support pupils' learning across the curriculum.

There are keynote lectures, with follow-up seminars in which you will discuss aspects of teaching, such as behaviour management and pupil progress, with your fellow trainees.

In addition, you will spend 12 hours over the year developing your knowledge and understanding of the Early Years.

Each session will have a specific focus and before each one there will be reading, tasks and research to complete.

There are two blocks of full-time school-based training on the course, each twelve weeks long. Your first teaching placement will usually start at the beginning of October.

Your UEL tutors will decide where you go on placement and arrange for it to be as convenient as possible for you.

You will be teaching, not helping, on the placement. You will start off working with groups of pupils, but your role is not to help the teacher - it is to support and increase the pupils' learning.

You will have a school-based mentor (a teacher employed by the school) as well as a professional tutor from UEL who will visit you during each placement. This is partly to moderate and assess the quality of your work, but also to give you support, guidance and feedback.

In principle, your two placements will be in different schools. However, schools sometimes ask for trainees to return for a second placement.

Your course will lead to the recommendation of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). You also have to complete assignments that contribute to your understanding of teaching and learning and carry academic credit, leading to the award of a PGCE.

You will complete two Level 7 (master's level) assignments. For both of these, you will need to read and understand literature about good practice and then think and write about your own practice. The 60 Level 7 credits will contribute to the PGCE award.