Case Study

I chose the University of Sunderland because I had heard that it had an excellent reputation and it was local to me. It also gave me the necessary timeframe to top up my foundation degree into a full degree.

Whilst enrolling on the BA (Hons) Childhood and Society Studies (Top-Up) course, I was a teaching assistant in an over-subscribed primary school in Hartlepool and I wanted to pursue a career in teaching. The course fitted perfectly with my passion of developing my subject pedagogy in Education and Curriculum.

The course lecturers were extremely supportive and were able to assist me in my development of both my knowledge and skillsets, which was going to support and benefit my career in teaching. I also enjoyed the content that was delivered and the option to choose a module that I was interested in.

I would recommend the University of Sunderland, as it is a remarkable university which is fully engaged in supporting its students, even someone like myself who hadn’t been in Higher Education before; everyone is there to help you. My personal advice would be to go and have a look, find out what courses are suitable for your career choice, speak to other students and, most importantly, speak to the lecturers. It may seem daunting at first, but I certainly had an extremely rewarding year there.

Since finishing the course, I successfully enrolled onto the PGCE School Direct salaried route into primary teaching. Knowing what I had learnt through the University of Sunderland and this course gave me the confidence to successfully pass my PGCE (which was optional on the school direct route). I am pleased to say that after my year of teacher training, I am now teaching as a reception teacher in a primary school in Sunderland, and successfully working through my NQT year.

My experience was incredible and life-changing, full of highs and lows, but well worth it."

Published 17 April 2018