Any primary heads out there

[larry5]

My dd would like to be a primary teacher (Juniors) and is taking her GCSEs this year. She has chosen Maths, Chemistry, French and Music for her A levels (she is expected to do well in all of those at GCSE) and then go onto university. What she would like to know is whether she would be better off doing a degree in a subject and then PGCE or would she be better doing a B.Ed.

Hope someone can help.

as a parent I would strongly encourage a degree first then pgce

My mum's just retired as a primary head teacher. She did a B.Ed. Not sure she would advise anybody to go into teaching though . It will take a year longer if your dd does the pgce won't it? My dd's friend is just doing her probation year in primary education and she wen't the B.Ed route too. We are in Scotland, so not sure if the system is exactly the same where you are.

I think the best advice would be to contact the teaching helpline - will see f I can find the number. hang on

TDA website is www.tda.gov.uk or you can speak to somone on 0845 6000 991

degree in a subject she is interested in and then a PGCE if she still wishes to be a teacher

if she does a Maths or French degree she would be highly sought after as a teacher in either primary or secondary

but keep your options as open as possible

Thanks for the help. Dd has asked her form tutor to get her an appointment with the careers adviser at school and I have marked the tda website so that dd can read it.

My mum is a primary head - I did a degree and PGCE. I don't think it makes any difference. Do you still get funding for the PGCE? Homerton (cambridge) and exeter are 2 of the best places to train.

Persoanlly I chose a degreee and PGCE because ((a) I would have something to fall back on if I hated teaching and (b) I was interested in learning abou t my subject.]#

I think that if she is definitely sure she wants to teach then B.Ed is a much better option. Or, do as I did and do a 4 year option BA(Hons) with QTS - qualified teacher status. I know Bishop Grosseteste College in Lincoln do this option. You get teaching experience every year for four years, as well as much more time to learn about how children learn, studying variety of subjects etc, as well as studying at your own level (I did music). I feel sure this definitely stood me in better stead when I first started teaching. You get funding for the final year whether you take the four year route or the PGCE route and it takes as long to train. Hope this helps/

degree first (only a parent by the way). for the simple reason that if she doesn't like teaching/teaching doesn't like her/she changes her mind for whatever reason a degree in a good subject will take her many more places than a B.Ed will.

hardly anyone i know "uses" their degree day to day in their jobanyway, it generally just shows you have the aptitude and ability to study at that level.

not sure how a B.Ed is thought of, but a degree in teaching is probably just as useful, if not more so, than a degree in English, Geography, Biology etc.

?

Not sure if it is still the case, but your degree used to have to be relevant to the curriculum for primary too. I only just scraped in with my MFL degree: Of course, I am in demand for my language skills now!!
For the same reasons as the others, I think that degree plus PGCE is the best option. I would also urge her to get some experience in other employment areas, rather than go straight into education. Many Heads favour candidates with 'life experience' outside of education: Most of the teachers on our staff have had jobs in other fields before coming into teaching. Appreciate this is not always possible/practical, however. I wish your daughter the best of luck in pursuing her dream: Teaching really is the best job in the world IMHO.

sarahbearhall, thats exactly what I did and where I did it. Because my degree is in English but has QTS attached, I have an English degree but also did a four year teaching course. I suppose if I wanted to, I could do some other English degree type job, but I love the job I have! I work with people who trained through various routes and you would never know who trained how. It used to be said that you were more likely to get a job with a BEd but that is no longer the case and PGCE, foundation degree, BA QTS all have equal standing. I always say that I learned everything about teaching once I was a teacher and that I didn't really learn anything very useful at college! I trained a long time ago though, so I presume things have changed!

parent and teacher......I would recommend doing a degree first in a subject she is interested in then a PGCE. ALmost all the primary teachers I know did it this way. It seems more common these days (in this area at least).

Plus it allows for flexibility should she change her mind

Thanks for all the advice. Given us things to think about.