PGCE Primary Education with QTS | The University of Sunderland

The Qualification Assurance Agency (QAA) in the UK requires all universities to undertake a rigorous approval process for their programmes. This involves scrutiny by other academics and stakeholders from outside the institution who will only allow a programme to be offered if they are satisfied with the rigour of the academic standards and the organisation to support it. Annually, a report is written on this programme to monitor its quality and part of that process is a commentary by an External Examiner whose role it is to assure the University that the programme is comparable to other similar programmes, that it meets its stated aims and is maintaining quality standards. This programme has consistently exceeded these requirements. Initial Teacher Training at the University of Sunderland is also inspected by Ofsted. The current grading of provision at the University of Sunderland is ‘good’.

Yes, the PGCE Primary Education awards Qualified Teacher Status upon completion of the course.

Yes, you will receive a DfE number. If you want to teach in the UK, you will require a DfE number and QTS.

Yes, but we cannot guarantee that any particular school will accept it. We do, however, have good evidence that they will.

The PGCE Primary Education with QTS is a blended learning programme and, as a prospective trainee on the course, it’s a requirement for completion of the practical element that you find a school willing to host you throughout. The school will need to be clearly informed about the arrangements they will need to put in place for the teaching practice element. We’re not able to help with finding placements for trainees but are willing to provide information and talk to interested schools about the course and its requirements.

Your mentor needs to be someone who holds QTS and has experience of teaching and schools, but not necessarily of mentoring. The mentor is expected to have completed a teacher training programme themselves and have at least one year of post-qualification experience. If they’ve already mentored other trainees elsewhere in the world, that would be an advantage, but support and guidance is provided for them.

The requirements of a mentor include:

Carrying out regular observations, getting to know the trainee’s circumstances and concerns etc.
Providing friendly professional support and helping with any problems raised by the trainee
Introducing the trainee to key staff in the school so that they can benefit from help from a range of colleagues
Offering guidance with the preparation of lessons and teaching materials
Observing the trainee’s teaching (once per week) and providing constructive feedback
Meeting formally with the trainee (once per week) to discuss progress and set targets
Discussing the trainee’s progress with other staff and providing feedback where necessary
Discussing, and if practicable, sharing teaching materials with the trainee
Discussing construction of assessment strategies and lesson evaluations with the trainee
Listening actively, asking open and appropriate questions
Making suggestions without being prescriptive
Preparing interim and final reports on the trainee’s teaching
Assisting in the evaluation of the trainee’s evidence portfolio against the teaching standards

Mentoring would normally cover approximately 1.5 hours per week. The University makes a payment to the school for hosting the placement. The host school is expected to make a payment to the alternate setting out of this in Year 2 of the course.

This PGCE focuses on the primary age phase and within the modules, there is the opportunity to explore and develop themes that relate to age, phase, and subject. Your PGCE will be based on the phase that you’re working in while training and your academic assignments will most likely focus on that phase. Therefore, by the end of the course, you’ll be able to demonstrate a good understanding of that age group or phase.

Some schools may be willing to accept that you have good subject knowledge from your first degree and that the PGCE has given you grounding in the aspects of teaching and, therefore, be willing to employ you outside the age phase in which you trained. We cannot, however, comment on how likely it is that this would happen. You should be able to show competence to teach in the phase you were in during training from the standards you achieved and the work you submitted, and you should consider the position carefully if you’re hoping to teach outside this in the future.

This is a postgraduate course, so the entry requirements include holding a bachelor’s degree with honours. In certain circumstances (at our discretion), we can accept other qualifications if their content and specific background is of an equivalent or corresponding level. This is not automatic, and we look closely at your qualifications and make judgements on individual cases.

The course starts in September and is studied part-time over two years.

Those who wish to take part in our graduation ceremony are welcome to do so. For the September intake, this is held in Sunderland around the second week of July each year, after the main course is completed. If you complete at a different time, you can still attend graduation.

We require proof of English language proficiency from all students. If your degree was studied in the medium of instruction of English, you may be exempt from providing the proof of English requirement (degrees from any UK university are exempt). Please check if your degree certificate has this stated on it, or the transcript. If not, ask your university to provide a note on headed paper, which clearly states the degree and medium of instruction.

If you cannot provide this, you may have to undertake the academic IELTS test to prove that you are ready to study at postgraduate level in the medium of instruction of English. A minimum IELTS band score of 6.5, with 6.5 in writing and no less than 6 in Reading and Speaking and Listening is required.

You may be able to claim student finance to cover the course fees. Please contact our Student Financial Guidance team for further details.

We'll consider your application as soon as possible, but it will be subject to certain checks first. In some cases, we may also need you to confirm school placements or provide some outstanding documentation. Once your application has been reviewed, you’ll be invited to an interview and subsequently informed if you’ve been successful in securing a conditional offer. Once you’ve met all the conditions of your offer, you’ll then be sent an unconditional offer. You can be accepted onto the course without a school and mentor, though you will have to secure these before you can enrol fully.

The way the placements are structured will depend on which country in the UK you’re undertaking the placement. Northern Ireland based students follow a slightly different placement structure and most days in school need to be carried out in England. Please ask for further details if this applies to you.

Year 1 placement (original setting):

70 days
To be completed by the end of semester three (approximately April) of Year 1
Consists of 35 non-assessed focus days, 30 assessed days and five enhancement days in one school
The 35 non-assessed focus days can be completed on a flexible basis in agreement with the school. They can be full-time or part-time and there’s no requirement that these days are consecutive.
The 30 assessed days must be full-time and completed over six consecutive weeks (unless there’s a school holiday scheduled). The expectation is that you’ll build up to teaching the whole class for 50% of a full-time teacher’s timetable.
The five enhancement days can be completed on a flexible basis in agreement with the school. They can be full-time or part-time and there’s no requirement that these days are consecutive. They need to be completed ‘out of phase’.

Year 2 placements (subject to review following DfE guidance):

65 days
To be completed by the end of semester three (approximately April) of Year 2
Consists of two placements, one in an alternate setting (i.e., a different school) and one in the original school used in Year 1
The alternate setting placement consists of five non-assessed focus days and 20 assessed days. The five non-assessed focus days can be completed on a flexible basis in agreement with the school. They can be full-time or part-time and there’s no requirement that these days are consecutive. The 20 assessed days must be full-time and completed over four consecutive weeks) unless there’s a school holiday scheduled). You’ll be expected to teach 50% of the timetable.
The original setting placement consists of ten non-assessed focus days and 30 assessed days. The ten non-assessed focus days can be completed on a flexible basis, as above. The 30 assessed days must be full-time and completed over six consecutive weeks (unless there’s a school holiday scheduled). The expectation is that you’ll build up to teaching the whole class for 75% of a full-time teacher’s timetable.
The five enhancement days can be completed on a flexible basis in agreement with the school. They can be full-time or part-time and there’s no requirement that these days are consecutive. They need to be completed ‘out of phase’.